Listening to Cheney and Edwards bicker over tax cuts, I think back and wonder what happened to the “ownership society” theme that Bush rolled out at the GOP convention. It seems like ages ago, it’s so far dropped off the radar. Oh, it may pop up again in the next presidential debate, when a newly coached Bush will try to sound more positive. But the country’s finances are in enough a mess that a transition to privatized social security absolutely cannot take place without a tax hike now. And more to the point, any grandness that Bush wants to put on his domestic program this campaign just won’t click under the dual constraints of foreign war and domestic fiscal debt.
In general, Cheney is debating well. Edwards is trying to scrape by on charm. It works when he speaks, til you realize forty seconds into his response that he’s not rebutting Cheney’s attacks nor will he. At least his folksy schtick will go some way to mitigating his weaknesses.
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