I saw this list on DU (an admittedly extremely partisan site) and thought it would make a good drinking game. The press has been giving Bush an amazing pass in nearly every area, while criticizing Kerry to within an inch of his life. Kerry can handle criticism and anything else that comes at him (this is, after all, the man who got the ball rolling on the Iran/Contra investigation, and who almost singlehandedly brought down BCCI, not to mention the “V word” experience), but the media pundits are sure to spin against Kerry. I think we need a drinking game based on this. This list is a good start. I think that if I watched FOX after the debates I’d die of alcohol poisoning. I might check out CNN though.
Moving this from IMHO to The BBQ Pit.
I was planning on taking a drink every time Bush said, “9/11 changed everything.”
Better stock up on booze.
You know why the press “gives Bush a pass”, inasmuch as it actually happens, which in my observation doesn’t, not even in the area I live in which is extremely pro-Bush? It’s because every time they try to nail him they end up eating crow somehow. Ask Dan Rather what that tastes like.
They’ve been trying to nail him for around two years now, but they just can’t seem to be able to. God knows there’s enough out there to do so. But nope, they seem to want to try to hit the home run instead of winning with singles, and so Bush just keeps dodging.
Kerry gets schwacked because nobody remembers what he did with Iran-Contra, and I had no idea until this past year what BCCI even meant. He’s made no attempt to run on his record, which whether you like it or not IS rather weak for all the time he’s put in at Congress. The only thing anyone knows about Kerry is Vietnam, and that’s because that has been about all he’s talked about until very recently. When you open your nomination acceptance speech with a salute and “Reporting for duty”, you’re quite clearly not making a reference to your record on health care.
Bush knows how to play the game, probably because he has good handlers. Kerry, for all his time in the Senate, seems to be utterly clueless about how to respond, and that’s why he takes so much flak.
Kerry should have developed a bumper-sticker slogan from the beginning. Something like, “We need a leader, not a misleader”.
Although it looks a little bleak right now, I take heart from Kerry’s performance in the primaries. My Hubby worked on his campaign a lot, beginning a year ago, so we were watching closely as momentum ebbed and flowed - and there was a point where it appeared all was lost. But Kerry is cagier than it looks. His people did a ton of the right work in Iowa for months in advance, and that’s what got the ball rolling. It wasn’t just Dean’s to lose - Kerry’s win was his, and Dean went over the edge b/c that’s who he was all along. Watch Kerry score a few off Bush during the debates and I predict it’ll happen again.
Plus think about it, if Kerry had a clear lead right now, that would just give the Republicans 6 weeks to undermine it, and pull Bin Laden out of whatever closet they’ve stuck him in. And it would let complacent voters sit on their butts.
I also think Kerry is a really decent man at heart, which is a lucky thing since there is so much “anyone but Bush” support.
And I think the pollsters are wrong. They do all these fancy-schmancy tricks to average out the responses based on past performance of voter turnout - I think turnout is going to be radically different this time.
Love the drinking game.
Maybe it’d be asking for trouble to down a drink every time Bush says “safer.”
Oh, sure, get all us Democrats so roaring drunk from the debates that we all wake up in mid-November with splitting headaches, Bush is still President, and we have no idea what we did for the last several weeks but we ARE in Gitmo. A very clever scheme.
Be careful- you might get alcohol poisoning if you drink that much.
Or “better off”.
Given recent performances, such as the Republican convention, a member of AA would still be okay if the game were to have a drink everytime Bush mentions Osama bin Laden.
Alternatively, you can drink every time Kerry licks his lips.
Just have somebody hold your car keys, and keep you away from ugly women.
I’m picking “liberation” as the drinking word. I wonder if he’s gonna use his “fuzzy math” line this time?
Yeah, I’d much rather have a president who starts wars based on false information than a gasp - lip-licker! :rolleyes:
I’m glad that’s your preference, because it looks like that may come to pass. 
Sadly, you may be right.
If I hear the words “Fuzzy Math” I am going to down the bottle then shoot my TV.
It’s not even that so much as the pundits afterwards trying to spin it as a positive, and PEOPLE BELIEVING IT.
Kerry seemed so charismatic when he was younger. Now he is a Gaping Hole of Charisma. It’s rather unfortunate. Can we swap Kerry’s face for John Edwards’ during the debate?
Or, “Nobody ever went to war over ketchup.”
Message to Democrats:
Don’t lose hope just yet. Anything can happen in these debates. (Although, nowadays it is a bit more problematic what with the pre-screening and scripting.) I remember the impression of Reagan as a bumbling moron whom Mondale pretty solidly thrashed in the first debate. Then, in the second debate, Reagan had just finished fumbling over a question about social security, when he was asked the famous question about his age. Mondale plummetted. It only takes one “aw shit” to wipe out a thousand “atta boys”.