I do, however, give Cheney a slight nod as the winner. He radiates battle-tested authority and experience, making it hard to lay a glove on him even when he's brazenly lying, as he did when stating "I have not suggested there's a connection between Iraq and 9/11." As Joshua Marshall and countless others have pointed out, no Bush Administration official has made that pants-on-fire claim more strongly than Unfrozen Caveman Vice President, trading in his future credibility for a headlong rush to war.
As far as I'm concerned, this point can't be made often enough in the next 27 days by Kerry and Edwards. When a president sells a war on false pretense, we'd be crazy to reward him with another term, even if the sight of Saddam Hussein in an orange jumpsuit pleases the eye.
A re-elected Bush would be the lame duck who cried wolf. If he receives intelligence in 2006 that requires a pre-emptive strike on North Korea or Iran, to pick two possibilities, millions of Americans won't believe him. His ability to prevent another 9/11 has been undercut by the deep-tissue truth massage that led us into Baghdad.
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