2008 Woodie Awards
Bush & Kerry Face Off for a Final Debate
Tyson Collazo
Issue date: 10/27/04 Section: News
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The third and final round of presidential debates took place at Arizona State University on October 13th. The 90 minute exchange between John Kerry and George Bush should have hit closer to home as the candidates debated domestic policy. Kerry came out of the first two debates in what many thought were the stronger performance. Polls show that he had eroded the lead that the president was enjoying prior to the debates. Over the course of the debate the two men displayed sharply contrasting stances on the major issues.
The moderator, Bob Schieffer opened with a question to John Kerry on National Security asking "will our children and grandchildren ever live in a world as safe and secure as the world in which we grew up?" Kerry said that we must make sure that the country will be safer used the question as an opportunity to open with an attack on the president's handling of national security."I believe that this president, regrettably, rushed us into a war, made decisions about foreign policy, pushed alliances away and, as a result, America is now bearing this extraordinary burden where we are not as safe as we ought to be. The measurement is not are we safer, the measurement is are we as safe as we ought to be. And there are a host of options that this president had available to him like making sure that at all our ports in America containers are inspected -- only 95 percent of them -- 95 percent come in today uninspected. That's not good enough. People who fly on airplanes today, the cargo hold is not X-rayed, but the baggage is. That's not good enough."
Bush responded that we can stay secure by remaining on the offense, attacking terrorist abroad before they reach the U.S. "Yes, 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. I have got a comprehensive strategy to not only chase down Al Qaeda wherever it exists -- and we're making progress, three-quarters of Al Qaeda leaders have been brought to justice -- but to make sure that countries who harbor terrorists are held to account."
The moderator, Bob Schieffer opened with a question to John Kerry on National Security asking "will our children and grandchildren ever live in a world as safe and secure as the world in which we grew up?" Kerry said that we must make sure that the country will be safer used the question as an opportunity to open with an attack on the president's handling of national security."I believe that this president, regrettably, rushed us into a war, made decisions about foreign policy, pushed alliances away and, as a result, America is now bearing this extraordinary burden where we are not as safe as we ought to be. The measurement is not are we safer, the measurement is are we as safe as we ought to be. And there are a host of options that this president had available to him like making sure that at all our ports in America containers are inspected -- only 95 percent of them -- 95 percent come in today uninspected. That's not good enough. People who fly on airplanes today, the cargo hold is not X-rayed, but the baggage is. That's not good enough."
Bush responded that we can stay secure by remaining on the offense, attacking terrorist abroad before they reach the U.S. "Yes, 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. I have got a comprehensive strategy to not only chase down Al Qaeda wherever it exists -- and we're making progress, three-quarters of Al Qaeda leaders have been brought to justice -- but to make sure that countries who harbor terrorists are held to account."