Kerry dumb, Bush smarter
Coming up to debates, Kerry team portrays Bush as competent.
Switching themes coming up to the first presidential debate, Democratic nominee John F. Kerry is playing up incumbent George Bush’s competence and playing down his own public speaking skills.
In the past John Kerry and his team have called into question the president’s language skills and his grasp of science, and have called him a puppet of Vice President Richard (Dick) Cheney.
More recently, however, Kerry has been more disparaging of his own language skills and more impressed with George Bush’s competence.
In Wisconsin yesterday, Kerry apologized for his own “inarticulate moments” and this morning on the ABC morning show “Good Morning, America,” he said that “absolutely” Bush was smart, and also “a very clever debater”.
When ABC’s Diane Sawyer asked if this change might be another “flip-flop, trying to lower expections for tonight’s debate,” Senator Kerry responded, “duh... what?”
- John Kerry’s Acceptance Speech at the Democratic National Convention
- July 29: “What if we have a president who believes in science, so we can unleash the wonders of discovery like stem-cell research and treat illness for millions of lives?”
- Kerry Calls Bush “All Hat, No Cattle” In Ohio Speech
- September 3: Kerry summed up Bush’s convention speech in four words: “All hat, no cattle.”
- Kerry pokes fun at Bush, himself on ‘Late Show’
- September 20: “Well, we compromised and now George Bush is gonna sit on Dick Cheney’s lap,” Kerry said.
- Kerry Makes the Talk Show Rounds
- September 21: “Yes, the big hangup was George Bush wanted to get a lifeline system, you know, so that he could call somebody.”
- Why is Kerry disparaging Bush before their first debate?
- September 23: “I’m supposed to lower expectations, not raise them.”
- Kerry acknowledges ‘inarticulate moment’
- September 29: “It was a very inarticulate way of saying something, and I had one of those inarticulate moments late in the evening when I was dead tired in the primaries, and I didn’t say something very clearly.”
- Kerry calls Bush “a clever debater’
- September 30: Asked if he thought Bush were smart, Kerry said: “Absolutely. He’s a very clever debater. He’s president. Anybody who doubts that somebody who isn’t smart as [sic] president doesn’t know what it’s all about.”
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