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A Global Test: Bush vs. Jefferson

Monday, October 18th, 2004

See here and here.

And for an amusing take on what a Bush vs. Kerry debate on the Declaration of Independence might look like, see Michael Kinsley in yesterday’s Washington Post.

Excerpt:

“My opponent, you see, wrote — or he helped to write — this document, this so-called Declaration of Independence. And in it, see, he says something about how we hold these truths to be self-evident. Now, self-evident is just a fancy word — or actually it’s two words: Of course I know that! I can count! — it’s just a fancy way of saying you don’t have to say anything because folks already know it.

“In other words, he’s saying that you don’t have to tell the truth. Well, I just happen to disagree with that. I think the truth is one of the most important things in our great country. The truth is American. And it’s good. It’s good to tell the truth. But my opponent disagrees with that. He thinks you don’t need to tell the truth. And I happen to think that’s wrong. It’s a difference in philosophy, you see.”

Read on for Kerry’s response, and what media coverage of the debate might look like.

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This entry was posted on Monday, October 18th, 2004 at 9:47 am by Radley Balko and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

3 Responses to “A Global Test: Bush vs. Jefferson”

  1. #1 |  John |  October 18th, 2004 at 1:19 pm

    Long’s comparison bad. Really bad. I posted on it at length, but so far no one has taken a stab at extending the quote comparison. There are good reasons why.

  2. #2 |  Joe Sims |  October 18th, 2004 at 4:11 pm

    The current American Conservative magazine just came out, and it provides case studies for each major and ‘third-party’ candidate. As a special treat just for Radley, they even include a section for those who choose to abstain from voting for POTUS.

    Here’s a link (which helpfully opens to the Badnarik case study):

    LINK

  3. #3 |  Anonymous |  October 20th, 2004 at 12:02 pm

    I have to agree with John. You can take any quote or writing from Jefferson a twist it around any way you want. Jefferson has been quoted many times that he did not believe in political alliances–only in doing busniess with other nations. Does that mean that Jefferson would disagree with US participation in NATO and the UN? Maybe, and if so, then he probably does not have a whole lot in common with Kerry or Bush.

    One point I would like to make…
    Al Qeada _DID_NOT_ seek UN approval for attacking the US on 9/11/01.