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1.
Bush: "We went into Russia, we said, 'Here's some IMF money,' and it ended up in Viktor Chernomyrdin's pocket and others."

Fact: "Bush appears to have tangled up whispers about possible wrongdoing by Chernomyrdin--who co-chaired a commission with Gore on U.S.-Russian relations--with other unrelated allegations concerning the diversion of International Monetary Fund money. While there has been speculation that Chernomyrdin profited from his relationship with Gazprom, a big Russian energy concern, there have been no allegations that he stole IMF money." Washingon Post, 10/12/00

2.
Bush:"We got one [a hate crime law] in Texas, and guess what? The three men who murdered James Byrd, guess what's going to happen to them? They're going to be put to death... It's going to be hard to punish them any worse after they get put to death....We're happy with our laws on our books."

Fact: "The three were convicted under Texas' capital murder statute...The state has a hate crime statute, but it is vague." LA Times, 10/12/00. "The original Texas hate-crimes bill, signed into law by Democrat Ann Richards, boosted penalties for crimes motivated by bigotry. As Gore correctly noted, Bush maneuvered to make sure a new hate-crimes law related to the Byrd killing did not make it to his desk. The new bill would have included homosexuals among the groups covered, which would have been anathema to social conservatives in the state." Washington Post, 10/12/00

3.
Bush: "Bragged that in Texas he was signing up children for the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) as "fast as any other state."

Fact: "As governor he fought to unsuccessfully to limit access to the program. He would have limited its coverage to children with family incomes up to 150 percent of the poverty level, though federal law permitted up to 200 percent. The practical effect of Bush's efforts would have been to exclude 200,000 of the 500,000 possible enrollees." Washington Post, 1012/00

4.
Bush: "He [Gore] is for registration of guns."

Fact: "Gore actually favors licensing for new handgun purchasers but nothing as vast as registering all guns." Salon, 10/12/00

5.
Bush: Said he found Gore's tendency to exaggerate "an issue in trying to defend my tax relief package. There was some exaggeration about the numbers" in the first debate.

Fact: "No, there wasn't, and Bush himself acknowledged that the next day on ABC's "Good Morning America" when Charlie Gibson pinned him on it." Salon, 10/12/00

6.
Bush: "I felt during his debate with Senator [Bill] Bradley saying he [Gore] authored the EITC [earned-income tax credit] when it didn't happen."

Fact: "Actually, Gore had claimed to have authored an "expansion of the earned-income tax credit," which he did in 1991." Salon, 10/12/00

7.
Fact: Gore noted that "Texas "ranks 49th out of the 50 states in healthcare in children with healthcare, 49th for women with healthcare and 50th for families with healthcare"

Bush: "You can quote all the numbers you want but I'm telling you we care about our people in Texas. We spent a lot of money to make sure people get healthcare in the state of Texas."

8.
Fact: Gore said, ""I'm no expert on the Texas procedures, but what my friends there tell me is that the governor opposed a measure put forward by Democrats in the Legislature to expand the number of children that would be covered....And instead [he] directed the money toward a tax cut, a significant part of which went to wealthy interests."

Bush: "If he's trying to allege I'm a hardhearted person and don't care about children, he's absolutely wrong."

9.
Bush: "The three men who murdered James Byrd, guess what's going to happen to them? They'll be put to death. A jury found them guilty."

Fact: Two of the three are being put to death. The other was given life. Bush Watch, 10/12/00

10.
Bush: said he favored "equal" rights for gays and lesbians, bu not "special" rights.

Fact: "Bush has supported a Texas law that allows the state to take adopted children from gay and lesbian couples to place the kids with straight couples." Salon, 10/12/00. "Bush supports hate crime protections for other minorities! So Bush doesn't believe that gays should have the same "special" rights in this regard as blacks, Jews, Wiccans and others. Employment discrimination? Again, Bush supports those rights for other Americans, but not gays. Military service? Bush again supports the right to military service for all qualified people--as long as they don't tell anyone they're gay. Marriage? How on earth is that a special right when every heterosexual in America already has it? But again, Bush thinks it should be out-of-bounds for gays. What else is there? The right to privacy? Nuh-huh. Bush supports a gays-only sodomy law in his own state that criminalizes consensual sex in private between two homosexuals. New Republic, 10/13/00

11.
Bush. "We ought to do everything we can to end racial profiling."

Fact: The Texas Department of Public Safety has just this year begun keeping detailed information about the race and sex of all people stopped by its troopers, the sixth year Bush has been in office. Salon, 10/12/00

12.
Bush: "Got caught not giving the full story on Texas air pollution laws. He was correct in saying the 1999 utility deregulation bill he signed into law had mandatory emissions standards.

Fact: "What was missing, as Gore's campaign pointed out, was that many more non-utility industrial plants are not mandated to reduce air quality. The issue is an important one because Texas ranks near the bottom in air-quality standards. Bush instead approved a voluntary program allowing grandfathered oil, coal, and other industrial plants to cut down on pollution." Boston Globe, 10/12/00

13.
Bush: About the Balkans, "I think it ought to be one of our priorities to work with our European friends to convince them to put troops on the ground."

Fact: "European forces already make up a large majority of the peacekeeping forces in Bosnia and Kosovo." Washington Post, 10/12/00

14.
Bush: "One of the problems we have in the military is we're in a lot of places around the world" and cited Haiti as an example.

"Though approximately 20,000 U.S. troops went to Haiti in 1994, as of late August this year, there were only 109 U.S. troops in Haiti and most were rotating through as part of an exercise." Washington Post, 10/12/00

15.
Bush: "I don't think we ought to be selling guns to people who shouldn't have them. That's why I support instant background checks at gun shows. One of the reasons we have an instant background check is so that we instantly know whether or not someone should have a gun or not."

Fact: "Bush overstates the effectiveness of instant background checks for people trying to buy guns.... The Los Angeles Times reported on Oct. 3 that during Bush's term as governor, Texas granted licenses for carrying concealed guns to hundreds of people with criminal records and histories of drug problems, violence or psychological disorders." Washington Post, 10/12/00 "He didn't mention that Texas failed to perform full background checks on 407 people who had prior criminal convictions but were granted concealed handgun licenses under a law he signed in 1995. Of those, 71 had convictions that should have excluded them from having a concealed gun permit, the Texas Department of Public Safety acknowledged." AP, 10/12/00

16.
Bush:"Said the number of Texans without health insurance had declined while the number in the United States had risen."

Fact: " A new Census Bureau report says the number of uninsured Americans declined last year for the first time since statistics were kept in 1987. About 42.5 million people, or 15.5 percent of the population, lacked insurance in 1999, compared with 44.2 million, or 16.3 percent, in 1998, the agency reported. Texas ranked next-to-last in the nation last year with 23.3 percent of its residents uninsured. But that was an improvement from 1998, when it ranked 50th at 24.5 percent." AP, 10/12/00

17.
Bush:"Some of the scientists, I believe, Mr. Vice President, haven't they been changing their opinion a little bit on global warming?"

Fact: "Bush's dismissive comments about global warming could bolster the charge that he and fellow oilman Dick Cheney are in the pocket of the oil industry, which likewise pooh-poohs the issue. [While] there is no consensus about the impact of global warming,...most scientists agree that humans are contributing to the rising global temperature. "Most climate experts are certain that global warming is real and that it threatens ecology and human prosperity, and a growing number say it is well under way," wrote New York Times science writer Andrew Revkin." Salon, 10/13/00

18.
Bush: When Jim Lehrer asked Bush if he approved of the U.S. intervention in Lebanon during the Reagan years, Bush answered a quick "yes" and moved on.

Fact: "Lebanon was a disaster in the history of American foreign affairs. Next to Iran-Contra, it was the Reagan administration's greatest overseas fiasco. Quoting from the Encyclopedia of the American Presidency: '[In 1983] Reagan stumbled into a disastrous intervention in the Middle East when he sent U.S. Marines into Lebanon on an ill-defined mission as part of an international peacekeeping force.' In December, according to Reagan biographer Edmund Morris, 'two days before Christmas, a Pentagon commission of inquiry into the Beirut barracks bombing humiliated [Secretary of State] Shultz [who had backed the intervention], and embarrassed Reagan, by concluding that the dead Marines had been victims of a myopic Middle Eastern policy.'" Tom Paine, 10/11/00

19.
Bush: "I thought the president made the right decision in joining NATO and bombing Serbia. I supported him when they did so."

Fact: The bombing of Serbia began on March 24, 1999, and Bush did not express even measured support until April 8, 1999 - nearly two weeks later. Prior to April 8, 1999, every comment by Bush about the bombing was non-committal. Finally, he offered a measured endorsement: "It's important for the United States to be slow to engage the military, but once the military is engaged, it must be engaged with one thing in mind, and that is victory," he said after being pressed by reporters. A Houston Chronicle story documented the Governor’s statements on the crisis and reported that "Bush has been widely criticized for being slow to adopt a position on Kosovo and then for making vague statements on the subject." Houston Chronicle, 4/9/99

20.
Bush: Discussing International Loans: "And there's some pretty egregious examples recently, one being Russia where we had IMF loans that ended up in the pockets of a lot of powerful people and didn't help the nation."

Fact: Bush’s own vice presidential candidate, Dick Cheney, lobbied for U.S.-backed loan to Russia that helped his own company. "Halliburton Co. lobbied for and received $ 292 million in loan guarantees to develop one of the world's largest oil fields in Russia. Cheney said: 'This is exactly the type of project we should be encouraging if Russia is to succeed in reforming its economy...We at Halliburton appreciate the support of the Export-Import Bank and look forward to beginning work on this important project.’" PR Newswire 4/6/2000. The State Department, armed with a CIA report detailing corruption by Halliburton’s Russian partner, invoked a seldom-used prerogative and ordered suspension of the loan. The loan guarantee "ran counter to America's ‘national interest,’" the State Department ruled. New Republic, 8/7/00

21.
Bush "There's a lot of talk about trigger locks being on guns sold in the future. I support that."

Fact: When asked in 1999, if he was in support of mandatory safety locks, Bush said, "No, I'm not, I'm for voluntary safety locks on guns." In March of 2000, Bush said he would not push for trigger lock legislation, but would sign it if it passed. [Washington Post, 3/3/00;ABC, "Good Morning America," 5/10/99] Bush Let Trigger Locks Bill Die in Texas. When Bush was asked, "when two bills were introduced in the Texas legislature to require the sale of child safety locks with newly purchased handguns, and you never addressed the issue with the legislature, and both bills died. If you support it, why did that happen?" Bush said, "Because those bills had no votes in committee." When asked again if he supported the bills, Bush said, "I wasn't even aware of those bills because they never even got out of committee." NBC, "Today Show," 5/12/00

22.
Bush: "Africa is important and we've got to do a lot of work in Africa to promote democracy and trade."

Fact "While Africa may be important, it doesn't fit into the national strategic interests, as far as I can see them," Bush said earlier. When he was asked for his vision of the U.S. national interests, he named every continent except Africa. According to Time magazine, "[Bush] focused exclusively on big ticket issues ... Huge chunks of the globe -- Africa and Latin America, for example -- were not addressed at all." Time, 12/6/99; PBS "News Hour," 2/16/00; Toronto Star, 2/16/00

23.
Bush: "There's only been one governor ever elected to back-to-back four year terms and that was me."

Fact: The governors who served two consecutive four-year terms (meeting Bush's statement criteria are): Coke R. Stevenson (2 consecutive 4-year terms) August 4, 1941-January 21, 1947. Allan Shivers (2 consecutive four-year terms) July 11, 1949-January 15, 1957. Price Daniel (2 consecutive four-year terms) January 15, 1957-January 15, 1963. John Connally (2 consecutive four-year terms) January 15, 1963-January 21, 1969. Dolph Briscoe (2 consecutive four-year terms) January 16, 1973-January 16, 1979. George W. Bush (2 consecutive four-year terms) January 17, 1995 to present. Texas State Libraries and Archives Commission.

24.
Bush: "We spend $4.7 billion a year on the uninsured in the state of Texas."

Fact: The state of Texas came up with less than $1B for this purpose. $3.5 came from local governments, private providers, and charities, $198M from the federal government, and just less than $1B from Texas state agencies. Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts

Note: Thanks go out to the many Bush Watchers who contributed to this report. Politex, Bush Watch, www.bushwatch.com

Gail Collins of the New York Times performs a wonderful public service in today's Times by simply reprinting Bush's Tuesday night statement on the Middle East: "It's also important to keep a strong ties in the Middle East with credible ties because of the energy crisis we're now in. After all, all the energy is produced from - from the Middle East. And so I - I appreciate what the administration is doing. I - I hope to get a sense of, should I be fortunate enough to be the president, how my administration will react to the Middle East." Glory be! We have a genius among us! Quick, let's make him President!

It is that kind of dangerous ignorance, the blind recitation of vapid, vacuous platitudes, that Bush has made his forte. And yet precisely because they know Bush is so intellectually thin, the media grades him on a curve: not judging him by what a President should know and say, but rather by asking: Did he do better than a not-so-bright frat boy after cramming all night for a mid-term? No serious person describes Bush as intelligent or engaged. They just say he's brighter than he seems, or that he's bright enough. Kinda like telling your date, "You don't sweat too much for a fat chick." --Paul Begala, 10/13/00

"And How Do You Like Your Blue-Eyed Boy Now, Mr. Death?"

A smile crept across George W. Bush's lips as he talked about yet another set of executions. He looked positively delighted as he shared his good news with all of America: He will preside over the deaths of the white men who murdered James Byrd, a 49-year-old black man, in 1998. "Guess what's going to happen to these men?" he grinned at the camera during last night's debate with Vice President Gore. "They're going to be put to death." Bush beamed in happiness. He was so enthusiastic at the prospect of new executions that he said he would execute all three of Byrd's killers.

The death penalty was a topic both candidates agreed on in last night's debate. Texas does not need anti-hate-crime laws, Bush said. "We cannot enhance the penalty any more than putting those three thugs to death," he said. He grinned again. There is a problem here: Only two of Byrd's killers have been sentenced to death. The third was sentenced to life in prison. Most of America supports the death penalty for murder, and so does Gore, and so do I. But that hangman's grin gives me the willies. It brings back Bush's mockery of killer Karla Faye Tucker, whose appeals for life he rejected and whom he mimicked as saying, "Please don't kill me," shortly before Texas executed her.

Bush's death-penalty smirk marred a presidential debate that was about as combative as a game of pat-a-cake for most of its 90 minutes.... Gore was on his best behavior last night. He looked both solid and knowledgeable and made none of the body-language mistakes that cost him victory in the first outing. Bush, too, was error-free — except for that eerie smile when he talked about the executions. Such morbid mirth may not hurt him with most of America. But even supporters of the death penalty are probably scratching their heads, wondering if Bush really enjoys putting people to death. He certainly seemed delighted with death last night. --Lars Erik Nelson, 10/12/00

Note. Bush's head spins on our comedy page.

BUSH COMES THROUGH WITH BUSHISMS

by Doris in Washington

Transcript

The upshot of the second presidential debate, it appears, is that we have good news and bad news: the good news is that this was a better debate than the last one, suggesting that these guys are a lot less annoying when they're sitting down. The bad news is that it isn't going to make a damn bit of difference to the tenor of the rest of the campaign. What we saw tonight was two candidates struggling to define any particular differences between their positions on most issues, and failing to take up what Lehrer was obviously suggesting, that they give up on the "exaggerator vs. bumbler" sniping. They won't. Bush will continue to offer his odd combination of lists and slogans that never actually form into declarative sentences, and Gore will continue to speak in crisp, detailed policy statements that never actually commit him to upsetting the swing voters. Gore still obviously wins on sheer coherence and command of facts. Otherwise, they didn't exactly prove Nader wrong most of the evening.

The first third of the debate was spent on foreign policy issues. The first question was directed to Bush, asking what his "guiding principles" would be for establishing foreign policy in a new administration. Bush's answer was a rather astonishing list of phrases. After making the bold statement that the question should always be "what is in the best interest of the United States?" (all opposed, raise your hands), Bush lurched from peace in the Middle East to free trade to naming his advisors to his Texas record to schools, Medicare, Social Security and "bringing people together." Apparently all those things are related to each other, and to foreign policy, because they are in the best interest of the United States.

Gore made a somewhat more coherent if equally bland start, suggesting that his "guiding principles" are the values of Constitutional freedoms, free markets, "political freedom," protecting human rights and civil rights, both at home as well as in the rest of the world. Not an earth-shattering answer, but the question was about guiding principles and Gore talked about (very general) principles.

After that, it got just plain weird. Bush opined that the rest of the world "ought to look at us as a country that understands freedom," and that we should be humble but project strength in our foreign policy. Gore said that he agreed with that, but that there was a lot of resentment of American power out there, and so we needed a sense of mission and a strong economy so that we wouldn't scare world leaders. Bush replied that economic issues are indeed important, and suggested a program of third-world debt "forgiveness" in which we might wipe out debt in exchange for "valuable rainforest lands." I certainly think this is a very original idea; unfortunately, Lehrer did not follow up by asking what it might mean, or why it would be a case of "debt forgiveness."

There followed a series of exchanges on Israeli and Palestinian diplomacy in which no one, including the moderator, was able to find much in the way of a significant difference between the two candidates' responses. Bush was alternately complimentary of the Clinton administration's handling of Serbia and careful to define his specific approach to diplomacy: "a timetable must be agreed on by all sides." You can imagine those undecided voters thinking, "thank heavens he believes that timetables should be agreed on. I could not possibly vote for someone who thinks that timetables should be disagreed on." Gore tried to initiate a discussion of values, saying that he'd had the impression that Bush would intervene militarily in the world only for self-interested reasons, not because genocide or ethnic cleansing is simply wrong and must be stopped. Bush in essence conceded the point, repeating that his concerns in Europe are American strategic interests and a strong NATO. Gore argued that while he agreed that we should not have sent a military force to Rwanda, we were too late with humanitarian aid and should have done more faster. In response to a question from Lehrer, Bush conceded that neither Africa nor Haiti were high priorities for him beause "we don't have allies there." Whatever nascent differences in values might have been implied, there was almost no disagreement on specific questions of troop deployment or sanctions or the use of IMF/World Bank funds to aid political reform. Bush kept insisting we should be "humble, yet proud and confident"; Gore said we needed to "step up to the plate and be a leader in the world." What this titanic clash of cliches might mean in more concrete terms is still a mystery.

As usual, the debate became more animated and specific on domestic issues. Gore attempted repeatedly to nail Bush to his Texas record on hate crimes, child health insurance, and tax cuts; Bush generally avoided the bait. On the subject of hate crimes, Bush declared that Texas has a hate crimes law, without addressing Gore's accusation that Bush tried to kill it in the legislature. On the subject of child health insurance, Bush tried the old "Sacred Heart" retort--"If he's trying to allege that I'm a hard-hearted person, I'm not." Gore shot back with one of his characteristically detailed arguments: "I'm not talking about his heart, I'm talking about his priorities," followed by an accounting of Bush's spending on tax cuts, both in Texas and as a campaign proposal, compared to his spending on health and other domestic programs. We have, of course, already heard them both talk a lot about tax cuts and domestic spending, and so while this subject might have highlighted their most significant differences, it didn't exactly take us further than we've been.

In the final moments of the debate Lehrer asked Bush whether he thought Gore's "embellishments" were really a serious issue. This lead to the only real barking of the evening, as Gore tried to defend himself for having called Bush a "bumbler": Gore: "Anybody would have a hard time explaining his tax cut." Bush: "There's another exaggeration." Gore: "I wasn't the one trying to explain it."

We are all left with the impression that the next month will be spent on the exaggerator versus the bumbler, since things seem to get so murky when we try to talk about anything else.

There were certainly a few Bushisms in evidence--"You've got to love your neighbor like you like to be loved yourself" is certainly an offbeat rendition of the golden rule--but mostly Bush was the genial generalizer, Gore a less shrill version of the policy wonk. I didn't find this particularly surprising, and I doubt that many voters will, either. But it will give the pundits and cranks something to obssess about for the next week, so it can't be a complete waste of time. Doris in Washington, 10/11/00

BUSH WATCHERS REPORT IN...

Steve says, "Gore Won. Gore said Texas is dead last for family health, and Gov. Bush simply could not defend his record. Gore said the Gov. spent the money on tax cuts for the wealthy and Oil Companies. I dont know who won the debate but I sure know who will win Florida and any other state with a majority of senior citizens. Even a mild manored Gore was more presidentail and took the leadership away from the moderator. "I'm not the one having trouble explaining" will probably go down in history along with the famous: "I knes JFK, JFK was my friend, you are no JFK" The Bush strategy of agreeing with a expert to make himself look like a expert could backfire. I dont think Reich wing rednecks want Bush to agree with CIC Clinton policies...

Jennifer says, "Pundit Puke. Overall, I thought both did fairly well. I thought Gore gave many more details than Bush, while Bush gave really good sound bite rhetorical answers. I find it extremely funny that after the last debate Gore was reamed for being too aggressive, tonight he is being reamed for being too "sedate" and presidential. Unless people are actually given some accurate information and the TV media quits focusing in on whether or not Gore is too aggressive or too sedate, Bush will win this election.

Kyle says, Gore-Tex Won. "W was a lot more polished this time around. He still seemed flustered whenever Al nailed him on the issues (i.e. healthcare in Texas). Gore played it too safe and was lulled into mediocrity by two assumptions, one that W didn't know jack about foreign policy and two that the VP debates set the tone for this debate. W was given free reign to be Mr. Compassionate Conservative and if I didn't realize it was George W up there, I might have believed it. W does his worst when under attack. That was evident by the few jabs that Al got in. Tonight's style debate has to go to Bush. He was polished, tutored, and sounded like a Carter liberal. As far as the issue debate, Gore once again wins out. Now prepare for the media blitz pounding Al's "average" performance and applauding Bush's pander and dodge.

Vance says, Bush Won. Unless larry flynt has something VERY BIG, RIGHT NOW, get ready for 4 years of president smirk. Gore was a completely different person from debate 1, very sedate, almost sneering sometimes, and unsmiling most of the time, as well as slouching forward a lot. he came off as very tentative, and lerher spent tooooo much time on foriegn policy. it's too confusing an issue for most of the electorate, who wanted to hear about domestic issues, where Gore would have been ready and able to SMOKE the smirk. how do you plan to spend your tax cut? ps- i was at the nader SUPER-rally in chicago on tuesday. it was a great time, with LOTS of people, who all paid $10 to hear him speak...if he were allowed in the debates, it'd be a 3-way race, -if gore-tex were lucky.

Bonnie says, Gore Won. "I could not believe the people I heard on PBS after the debate who seemed to think W. looked somewhat "presidential." Good God, what is their definition of presidential appearance? Speaking as a former high school teacher, I thought Bush looked as he nearly always does: uneasy, even frightened, about any in-depth discussion of public affairs. When he tries to answer questions, he is the classic unprepared student trying to snow the teacher with attempts at grand expressions and gestures that don't work. He repeats and repeats himself and gathers pounds of wool, desperately trying to fill up the blue book. What we saw on television over and over was bug-eyes above pursed lips twisted to one side, trying to look professorial as he evaluated arguments, all antics of high school sophomores. W. is a second class phony and I don't understand why he ever gets a pass from any thoughtful person."

James says, Gore Won "At least from where I was sitting, Gore slam-dunked Bush. As other Bushwatchers have noted, Gore was particularly effective when criticizing Bush on Texas's abysmal record in getting health insurance for poor children. Bush never responded to the numbers Gore cited -- because they're correct -- but instead, Bush whined about Gore not understanding Bush's "heart." Speaking of Bush's heart -- I thought Gore's careful cross-examination of Bush concerning hate crimes laws was also terrific. Having followed the aftermath of the James Byrd lynching closely, I was appalled at Governor Bush's cruel rebuff of Byrd's daughter Renee when she asked for his support for a tough hate-crimes law. Bush, having not even bothered to attend James Byrd's funeral, was shown by Gore tonight to be, at the very least, misleading in his statements concerning hate crimes laws. I don't know what debate the pundits who claim Bush won were watching -- it sure wasn't what I saw."

"Usually reporters favor whomever they are covering, but I think the people on this race believe that Gore's going to win," says a witness to the straw poll [that took place on Friday 10/6 while the Bush entourage was flying from Marion, Ill. to Tampa, Florida]. According to a reporter who was on the plane, a straw poll...question was not who should win, but who would win -- and 26 reporters suggested Gore will be the last man standing on Nov. 7, while just 5 voted for a Bush victory. (Another reporter confirmed that the poll had occurred, but declined to go into specifics.)...

According to the reporter, writers from such publications as the Boston Globe, the Chicago Tribune and three Texas papers -- the Dallas Morning News, the Houston Chronicle and the Austin American Statesman -- all voted. The source did not know whether the reporters from the Washington Post or the New York Times participated. The reporter, who described the events only after being promised anonymity, thought the vote was extraordinary. "You just don't see that kind of stuff happening, (but) even then, it's surprising that Gore won by so much. Usually reporters favor whomever they are covering, but I think the people on this race believe that Gore's going to win. He's a fighter and just will not give up." --Inside, 10/7/00

APPLETON, Wis., Oct. 5 — Mr. Bush was asked by a woman what she could tell a Democratic friend who did not like Vice President Al Gore but feared upsetting the economy through a change in administrations. The governor tried several times for an answer. "Tell her to keep an open mind," he said first. "No. Tell her governments don't create wealth," he said to some applause from an audience at the McKinley Elementary School here. "You know, as I said, the economy's done more for this administration than the administration's done for the economy. I really believe that." He took another tack, saying, "Here's what I'd tell her — fellow's got a pretty good record and he's done in office what he said he would." He started to argue that the administration must be changed in order to bail out Social Security and Medicare, then said, "I'm groping for the right answer, you can tell." --Alison Mitchell, NYT, 10/6/00

BUSH DISTORTIONS His Education Plan (TP) On His Tax Plan (NYT) On His Voucher Plan (LAT) His Judicial Selection(SB) CNN Debate Transcript "This man (Gore) has outspent me." p.56 (B-$93M, G-$46M)..... "I want to get a better return...than the paltry 2% that the current Social Security trust gets." p.50 (It's 4%.)..... "I don't think a president can...try to overturn the FDA's approval [of an abortion pill]." p.18 (He talked about trying in a speech.)..... "We've got too much polling and focus groups going on in Washington today." p. 30 "A recent poll was taken amongst 1,000 enlisted personnel..." p.28 BUSH AND DYSLEXIA Laura Bush Joins Dyslexia Stonewall Seven: Sheehy Fights Back. Sidebar: Tough Message? Kill the Messenger. Six: Dyslexia Diognosticians Comment on Bush's Language Five: Bush "Belittles" Dyslexics on Larry King Show Four: Politics Before People: Why Bush Stiffs Dyslexics. Three: Bush Provides Dyslexic Denial of Dyslexia. Sidebar: Mo Paul on His Dyslexia and G.W. Bush Part Two: The Bush Team Stonewalls the Dyslexia Question In Severe Denial. Bush's Language Problem TODAY'S HEADLINES bushnews, 36 stories Bush Stiffed Blacks in Debate. today's polls Presidential Race. zogbyDaily Tracking Poll. gallupRolling Average. unweighted 4-Way Composite. electoral college All-State Projections headlines Days, Weeks, Months, Years of Previous Bush Headlines. TODAY'S 'TOONS wizard of whimsy Is the Debate Live or Bushorex? what do you think? About the "Cheney Resigning" Rumor? doris dirt Bush Isn't Dyslexic, He's Possessed. the english patient Here's the Latest Bushism. (October 1) poppy and junior Have Their Heart-to-Heart. gore-tex Stiff Jokes Meet Dumb Jokes. what do you think? About the What do You Think? Archives? old 'toons Whistle Days, Weeks, Months of Old 'Toons TODAY'S STORIES The Presidential Debates doris on the debate Candidates, Cookies, and Kids. bush's soft-core Economic Porn Sale Catalogue by request. The Day Bush's Compassion Died. ads don't Mean a Thing If They Ain't In a Swing State. midland, texas Bush's "Shining City on the Hill." book Review: Is Our Children Learning? smoking Pistols: George "Rats Ad" Bush and the Subliminal Kid hundreds of Previous Stories

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