>Two debates done and I haven't heard Gore use any of the magic
>words. Did I miss something or has "brother" Gore used the words,
>union, labor union, no scabs, etc. etc. etc.in any of his debate
>points or speeches.
>
>Moderator: “Is there any difference?”
>Gore: “I haven’t heard a big difference right in the last few
>exchanges
”
>Bush: “Well, I think it’s hard to tell.” *
>
>WASHINGTON, DC. Oct. 12 – The code phrase for the second Presidential
>debate was “I agree.”
>
>Twelve times during the debate George W. Bush and Albert Gore used a
>variant of the phrase “I agree with you”, and 28 more times they used
>other words to let the national television audience know they were in
>agreement on everything from foreign policy to trigger locks to the need
>for gas drilling in pristine areas of Alaska.
>
>With that many “agreements,” was it a debate? Bush obviously worried
>about that, mentioning during their agreement on a hands-off approach to
>the genocide in Rwanda that “it seems like we’re having a great love
>fest right now.”
The only union Gore likes is the so-called "civil union," and that's because Gore agrees with Bush that marriage is a "sacred" union between a man and a woman, so gay men & lesbians should not be allowed to marry -- the position that has been criticized even by conservative gay men like Andrew Sullivan <http://www.thenewrepublic.com/050800/sullivan050800.html>.
***** Date: Fri, 13 Oct 2000 14:32:16 +1300 From: Philip Ferguson <plf13 at it.canterbury.ac.nz> Subject: US presidential debate To: marxism at lists.panix.com
Some snippets of the Bore-Gush debate were shown on TV in NZ. They just brought home to me how interchangeable the Democrats and Repubicans are. For instance, Bush was holding up the East Timor intervention as a model, where the US didn't go in itself but provided logistics back-up to Australia. Bush argued that it shouldn't always be the US that went in. Gore responded that the US government could not rule out intervention anywhere at any time.
Back in 1992, one of Clinton's big slogans against Bush was 'Bring America Home', ie that Washington was concentrating too much on doing things in the rest of the world and needed to come home and sort out domestic problems. Now, two elections on, Clinton's VP and successor candidate Gore is leading the charge for intervention around the globe and Bush's son and would-be heir is arguing for a somewhat more backseat (albiet backseat driving) role for the US globally.
I noticed that when they were asked about gay marriages, Bush leapt in that he believed marriage was between a man and a woman, and Gore chimed in that he agreed fully with that. Bush also actually seemed to be extremely proud of himself for the number of people who had been executed in Texas and grinned with glee in mentioning the upcoming ones.
In countries like New Zealand, where the death penalty was abolished decades ago, after a long period of ahrdly being used anyway, and anyone who advocates its return is seen as a some way-out right-wing crank, it is actually quite spooky to see death penalty enthusiasts running the United States.
Philip Ferguson *****
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