Bush, in 3rd Debate, Tars Kerry as ‘Far Left’

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The New York Sun

TEMPE, Ariz.-In a final and feisty debate last night, Senator Kerry blamed President Bush for the loss of jobs in America, while Mr. Bush argued that Mr. Kerry has little to show for his two decades in the Senate.


The debate covered a wide range of issues, including health care, gay marriage, and abortion. The two men seized on their last joint appearance before the election to deliver some of the sharpest zingers of the campaign.


“You know, there’s a mainstream in American politics and you sit right on the far left bank,” Mr. Bush said to his opponent. “As a matter of fact, your record is such that Ted Kennedy, your colleague, is the conservative senator from Massachusetts.”


Mr. Bush said of Mr. Kerry, “He voted to increase taxes 98 times. When they tried to reduce taxes, he voted against that 127 times.” The president argued that the senator’s promises on the campaign trail, particularly on health care, would drive up the deficit and force a broad tax hike.


“There is a tax gap. And guess who usually ends up filling the tax gap? The middle class,” Mr. Bush said.


Mr. Kerry replied with a line he clearly had been saving up.


“Being lectured by the president on fiscal responsibility is a little bit like Tony Soprano talking to me about law and order in this country,” Mr. Kerry said, prompting laughter from the audience at Arizona State University.


“I have supported or voted for tax cuts over 600 times,” Mr. Kerry said. “I broke with my party in order to balance the budget, and Ronald Reagan signed into law the tax cut that we voted for.”


Mr. Bush charged that Mr. Kerry’s proposal to broaden health coverage would push Americans from private coverage into government-run plans.


“It provides an incentive for small businesses not to provide private insurance to their employees,” the president said. “Why should they insure somebody when the government’s going to insure it for them?…I think government-run health will lead to poor-quality health, will lead to rationing, will lead to less choice.”


Mr. Kerry accused Mr. Bush of distorting the proposal.


“I am not proposing a government run program. That’s not what I have,” the senator said. “I have Blue Cross/Blue Shield. Senators and congressmen have a wide choice. Americans ought to have it, too.”


“That costs the government $7,700 per family,” Mr. Bush said. “If every family in America signed up, like the senator suggested, it would cost us $5 trillion over 10 years. It’s an empty promise. It’s called bait-and-switch.”


Mr. Kerry bristled at that assertion.


“We’re going to help Americans be able to buy into it. Those that can afford it are going to buy in themselves,” the senator said. “We’re not giving this away for nothing.”


Mr. Bush seemed to have more facts and figures committed to memory than he had at previous debates. The president, who was mocked for his grimaces in the first debate, remained largely expressionless while Mr. Kerry was speaking yesterday.


The senator’s style remained methodical and relentlessly critical, largely unchanged from the first two encounters. In response to a question about abortion, Mr. Kerry said he would appoint only judges who would keep the right to abortion established by the Supreme Court in 1973.


“I believe that choice is a woman’s choice. It’s between a woman, God and her doctor,” the senator said. “I will defend the right of Roe v. Wade.”


Mr. Bush noted his support for the ban on so-called partial birth abortion, but mostly spoke in generalities about the subject. “I think it’s important to promote a culture of life,” he said.


Later in the debate, the moderator, Bob Schieffer of CBS, pressed Mr. Bush again on whether he favors overturning Roe v. Wade.


“I will not have a litmus test. I will pick judges who will interpret the Constitution, but I’ll have no litmus test,” Mr. Bush said, taking just a fraction of the 90 seconds allotted for that response.


In reply, Mr. Kerry accused Mr. Bush of being deliberately vague about his views. “Again, the president didn’t answer the question,” the senator said. “The president wants to leave [it] in ambivalence or intends to undo it.”


A question about whether homosexuality is a lifestyle choice led both candidates to discuss a subject they rarely talk about at length on the campaign trail, gay marriage.


Mr. Bush said he didn’t know if homosexuality is innate or not, but he said all Americans should be free to govern their own private lives.


“In a free society people, consenting adults can live the way they want to live and that’s to be honored,” the president said.


However, Mr. Bush said he continues to favor a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. He said he “worried that activist judges are actually defining the definition of marriage, and the surest way to protect marriage between a man and woman is to amend the Constitution.”


Mr. Kerry said emphatically that he believes people are born gay. “I think if you talk to anybody, it’s not choice,” the senator said. “I’ve met people who struggled with this for years, people who were in a marriage because they were living a sort of convention, and they struggled with it.”


While the senator opposes the constitutional amendment, he did not mention that in his answer last night. He did mention that Vice President Cheney’s daughter is a lesbian. Mr. Cheney was none too pleased with that comment.


“Senator Kerry was out of line to bring my daughter into it. I thought it was totally inappropriate,” the vice president told an Iowa television station, WHO.


Religion arose repeatedly during the debate. In response to the question about gays and lesbians, Mr. Kerry declared, “We’re all God’s children.”


Mr. Kerry also explained his religious views in answer to a question about Catholic bishops reportedly urging parishioners to vote for Mr. Bush.


“My faith affects everything that I do, in truth,” the senator said. “There’s a great passage of the Bible that says, ‘What does it mean, my brother, to say you have faith if there are no deeds? Faith without works is dead.'”


Mr. Bush said, “Prayer and religion sustain me. I receive calmness in the storms of the presidency.”


By and large, Mr. Schieffer attempted to keep the focus on the agreed subject of the debate, domestic policy. At the start of the questioning, however, the television journalist asked whether Americans will ever be as safe as they were a few years ago.


“Yes. We absolutely must be. That’s the goal,” Mr. Kerry said. He then used the opportunity to attack Mr. Bush’s execution of the war on terror.


Mr. Kerry repeated his claims from the previous debates that Mr. Bush allowed Osama bin Laden to escape in Afghanistan by relying too greatly on local forces. The senator said the president had declared himself “not that concerned” about finding the Al Qaeda chief. “We need a president who stays deadly focused on the real war on terror,” Mr. Kerry said.


Mr. Bush said he, too, believes the war on terror can be won.


“We can be safe and secure, if we stay on the offense against the terrorists and if we spread freedom and liberty around the world,” he said. He also boasted about the recent elections in Afghanistan. “Freedom is on the march,” the president declared.


A question about the influence of women in the candidates’ families gave each man a chance to show his sense of humor. Asked what he had learned from the “strong women” in his life, Mr. Bush said, “To listen to them.” Then, poking fun at his own performance in the first debate, he added, “To stand up straight and not scowl.”


Mr. Kerry said to Mr. Schieffer, “I guess the president and you and I are three examples of lucky people who married up.”


The senator then added, “And some would say maybe me more so than others.” The apparent reference to his wife’s enormous wealth drew loud laughter from the crowd and, it seemed, from Mr. Bush.


The final pre-election encounter between the two men came as polls suggested an increasingly tight race. Two surveys released yesterday showed the electorate equally divided between Mr. Bush and Mr. Kerry. Two other polls gave Mr. Bush a narrow lead.


Moments before the debate began, Mr. Schieffer told the audience in the hall, “These debates have really become appointment television.”


Perhaps. In the press center, reporters watched monitors that showed the debate, but television technicians were riveted by another pair of programs: the American League playoff game between the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox, and the National League playoff game between the Houston Astros and the St. Louis Cardinals.


Students and staff at Arizona State University seemed delighted with the attention they received by playing host to the debate. Some students complained, however, that the university recently ordered them to take down political and other signs from the windows of their dormitory rooms. At least two students are protesting the ban by refusing to take down signs.


“We think it’s a little bit hypocritical to encourage students to be civically engaged but not respect their freedom of speech,” said a sophomore at the school, Laura Thorson, who has a sign in her window that reads, “Ban This!”


Ms. Thorson said she and her roommate have been threatened with expulsion from university housing. University officials say they are simply enforcing a policy that has been on the books for years.


The New York Sun

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