Furious George - America's Ex-Husband?

Friday night’s debate has created more than a little buzz in the blogosphere. Sure, it was the same old campaign rhetoric we’ve heard for months, but it was delivered more forcefully than usual, to say the least. While Senator Kerry was erudite, thoughtful and even tender when discussing abortion and a politician’s obligation to represent all the people, even the ones who disagree with him, George W. Bush created a new meme for himself: Furious George.

In a perfect rendition of an entitled man who is never questioned, Bush not only scowled, but scoffed, yelled at audience members and even bullied moderator Charles Gibson. Gibson was so taken aback that he froze and let a very agitated Bush run over him to dispute one of Senator Kerry’s responses. For many of the women in the audience – the coveted “Estrogen Vote”- that scene was all too familiar. Many of us have been shouted down by abusive men with no patience for any opinion save their own. We know that kind of anger to be dangerous up close, and many in the blogsphere are beginning to wonder if they want such an uncontrolled temper in charge of our nuclear armaments. If the man can’t control his anger in a 90 minute debate with millions of people watching, can we trust him with our foreign policy? Given our failure in Falluja and the alienation of several of our major allies, one wonders why the question hasn’t been asked by responsible parties close to the President. Even the Marines are starting to speak out on the record about the mess in Iraq. (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A20794-2004Oct9.html) Best quote: “What are they going to do – send me to Iraq?”

Almost as depressing as watching our “leader” blow up at a sanitized town hall was hearing Chris Matthews (among others - why the hell is SwiftBoat Liar lawyer Ginsburg on MSNBC? ) go on breathlessly about how “manly” Bush’s demeanor was Friday. That’s not manly behavior, it’s manic. He was unable to control his anger. Managing to go 90 minutes without physically assaulting someone or losing his train of thought does not a victory make. I can’t believe that our expectations are so low that such a tantrum is considered acceptable in what should be civil discourse.

On the bright side, unwitting (or, rather, witless) Matt Drudge outed ABCNEWS Political Director Mark Halperin plotting to commit an act of Journalism. Halperin has apparently figured out that repeating information proven to be false does not make a news organization “balanced.” Reporters are supposed to expose lies. Everybody fudges a statistic now and then, but repeating bold-faced lies makes you a propagandist, not a reporter. The truth is non-partisan. If the rest of ABC figures this out, I might actually start watching network news again. (Mind you, I’m not holding my breath –Buzzflash.com is still 6 months ahead of the talking heads on the stuff that counts.)

Coming up: Debate #3: The War Hero takes on the War Zero