Kerry 4, Bush 0

John Kerry looks like our next president. We need a man of integrity and ability. He is that man.

It was easy to see that George Bush had been heavily schooled prior to this last debate. No more rants, no more scowls (although I caught him winking and silently clowning with someone in the audience a couple of times. Boys will be boys, I guess).

I think that it was revealing when Bush blamed the failings of our healthcare system on litigation. He and his supporters want to limit our ability to achieve justice in court. This is a continuation of the Bush Administration's attack on our judicial system.

When Bush again addressed Kerry's various plans with the old "How do you intend to pay for it" attack, I couldn't help thinking of the gargantuan defecit and debt this administration has racked up, and I again noticed that feeling as though we've been robbed. This is the same feeling he evokes when he winks at some deep-pocketed cohort in the audience. It's the same feeling he evokes when he gets that look on his face that seems to say, "I stole from you and there's nothing you can do about it." Yeah, like Tony Soprano the gangster.

Healthy people will strengthen America. Kerry's "take it or leave it" health strategy is long overdue in this country.

Civil rights, equal opportunity and the preservation of personal liberties are key elements of the freedom we all hold sacred. I was left, again, with the conclusion that under George W. Bush these things are severely threatened; and that under John Kerry these defining American qualities will be better protected. The fact that Bush has not talked with the NAACP is symbolic. Bush would roll back what little progress we've made with regard to civil rights. He's already doing it through his upward redistribution of wealth through tax cuts for the top 1% of incomes in the country, effectively further broadening the gap between rich and poor and weakening the middle class.

Kerry's emphasis on fiscal responsibility is a trait real republicans used to have too.

I don't like Bush's plan to let young people take their social security money and give it to private interests. That would be the end of Social Security. Carving up the government of the people and selling it off doesn't work with money or with public natural resources like parks and wildlife preserves. It is theft.

I think Bush's undoing of the assault weapons ban is a way to get more prisoners in our legal system, a way to justify the further militarization of our police; both of which will accelerate America's decline into police-statehood.

Kerry's plan to achieve a "fair playing field" in business is encouraging. There is a lot we can do to get this, and I am encouraged in what I see that John Kerry can do it. Not subsidizing job-loss (moving them overseas) is an excellent first step. A hiring credit is another excellent idea.

I think that when Bush talks of government being out of line when telling "citizens how to live their lives", he's trying to create a phantom; and he's blowing a smokescreen over the patriot act and his fundamentalist religious agenda, including his interference with stem-cell research, and his attacks on womens' choice and states' marriage rights. I agree with John Kerry that "faith must not be legislated". It's smart to keep churches of any kind out of government, and it's part of what defines America.

When George Bush described a "culture of life", I wondered how this applied to Iraq, Guantonimo Bay and Abu Graib, the increasing hate-crimes against and mass deportations of hispanics and middle-eastern Americans, when he said it.

Bush's further mentions of "Legal Reform" were extended to product liability this evening. Not just healthcare. Corporate neo-conservative special-interests have wanted this for years. Beware.

Kerry was believable again when he stressed that partisan bickering should never interfere with reason. His history of cooperation with republicans such as John McCain is proof of this.

George Bush mentioned McCain-Feingold (campaign finance reform), in answer to Kerry's emphasis on the need for clean elections. What he didn't mention was that he grudgingly signed that bill, almost in secret, and that he virtually disabled it in its application, in his FEC.

I think Kerry could have said more on the elections issue, especially when Bush mentioned the 2000 election debacle. Watch Ohio this time around.

It comes down to integrity and credibility. Regarding these, again, Kerry won the debate hands-down.

When John Kerry prepared to give his closing statement, I caught myself silently prompting him, "My fellow Americans"; and he started with that.

As he should.