And don't Gore it up this time...

This is it. The election will most likely come down to the debates. I can not help but remain nervously hopeful, but the media is just dying to report this thing in Bush's favor. "While Kerry had a better understanding of issues, Bush was more effective in getting his message of 'Terrorism Bad' accross with his folksy plainspoken manner, even though this venue is not his strong suit." Be prepared to hear a lot of this crap. And don't you believe it for a second. The election is too important to let the media get away with making it a referandum on who you want to have a beer with this time around. It has to be about substance or we can all just give up now. And it's not the debates that are Bush's weakness but substance. The Roves and Luntzes of the world would have us all believe that George Bush is not good at debating and that everyone should have low expectations.

FIANLLY though someone has pointed out the obvious. Al Gore wrote in The New York Times yesterday a masterful Op-Ed about debating Bush. His advice was not to underestimate Bush, because despite what the right-wing would have us believe, he is pretty good in this format and that he's one debates against two highly respected orators (Ann Richards and Al Gore). He points out what has seemed obvious and confused me for quite sometime now:

And if anyone truly has "low expectations" for an incumbent president, that in itself is an issue.

If we are to believe that this guy is terrible in speaking directly to the American people and defending himself during confrontation of his positions, then people should really think twice about electing him in the first place. But this is the first time in his career that the low expectations game is not going to work for him though. I take issue with the notion that he beat Gore at all, but that seems to be the way that history will see it. But after debating Gore and being declared the arbitrary winner for not fumbling all over himself and ticking Gore off enough to sustain one prolonged sigh, the media seems to have caught on that he is not going to trip or drool himself to a win tonight. And he shouldn't.

Tonight's debate is not going to be about Bush's debate record. It's going to be about his record as president. And in case you haven't been paying attention, it's not a good one. Bush is going to say things about bringing personal responsibility to Washington and paint himself as if he isn't a Washington insider again. He's going to pretend that he hasn't been president for the last 4 terrible years. He's going to smirk and stall and dodge the answers. But standing next to a tall John Kerry, he's going to look like a slimey little toad who's too stubborn to admit he screwed up Iraq. John Kerry's going to stand up and say "This man lied to me. He lied to you. He lied to everyone in America and the world and it's time for him to go."

At least I hope so. Otherwise, we are all in for another four years of one looooong sigh.