Getting Real with Bush and Kerry
TIME.com's Tony Karon pokes a few holes in some of the claims by both candidates in last night's debate
By
TONY KARON
Friday, Oct. 01, 2004
President Bush simply can't let go of his prewar picture of Saddam Hussein as a grave and gathering danger despite the realities that have debunked it; John Kerry says he'd do everything differently, yet when he gets to specifics they sound identical to what the Bush Administration is already doing. Throughout last night's debate, the president clung firmly to his trusty talking points that, despite all the evidence to the contrary, link the invasion of Iraq to 9/11. John Kerry, for his part, slammed the war as a catastrophic strategic error, but said that he intended to win it anyway — using a plan not dissimilar from the one currently pursued by the administration. A course correction, he'd say. Maybe so, the Bushies would counter, but Kerry has certainly adjusted his own positions on Iraq over the past two years. And while both candidates offered unsatisfactory explanations of how America is going to extricate itself from Iraq, they also dropped a few clangers along the way on issues ranging from Osama bin Laden to North Korea.
A closer look and the candidates' claims:
Reality Check: George Bush
Reality Check: John Kerry
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