Highlights from the 3rd 'Debate'

Excerpts from the Presidential "Debate" on 10/13/04:

• Q: I would like to ask you, what part does your faith play on your policy decisions?


• Q: The New York Times reports that some Catholic archbishops are telling their church members that it would be a sin to vote for a candidate like you because you support a woman's right to choose an abortion and unlimited stem-cell research. What is your reaction to that?

Bush:

• First, my faith plays a lot -- a big part in my life.


• And my faith is a very -- it's very personal.


• I pray for strength. I pray for wisdom. I pray for our troops in harm's way. I pray for my family. I pray for my little girls.


• But I'm mindful in a free society that people can worship if they want to or not. You're equally an American if you choose to worship an Almighty and if you choose not to.


• That's the great thing about America, is the right to worship the way you see fit.


• Prayer and religion sustain me.


• Religion is an important part.


• I believe that God wants everybody to be free. That's what I believe.


• And that's been part of my foreign policy. In Afghanistan, I believe that the freedom there is a gift from the Almighty.


• And so my principles that I make decisions on are a part of me, and religion is a part of me.


• God bless you.

Kerry:

• Well, I respect everything that the president has said and certainly respect his faith. I think it's important and I share it. I think that he just said that freedom is a gift from the Almighty.


• We're all God's children, Bob.


• And I've met wives who are supportive of their husbands or vice versa when they finally sort of broke out and allowed themselves to live who they were, who they felt God had made them.


• Everything is a gift from the Almighty.


• And as I measure the words of the Bible -- and we all do...[sic]


• I went to a church school and I was taught that the two greatest commandments are: Love the Lord, your God, with all your mind, your body and your soul, and love your neighbor as yourself.


• And the president and I have a difference of opinion about how we live out our sense of our faith.


• I talked about it earlier when I talked about the works and faith without works being dead.


• And as president, I will always respect everybody's right to practice religion as they choose -- or not to practice -- because that's part of America.


• I am a Catholic.


• I believe that I can't legislate or transfer to another American citizen my article of faith. What is an article of faith for me is not something that I can legislate on somebody who doesn't share that article of faith.


• Now, with respect to religion, you know, as I said, I grew up a Catholic. I was an altar boy.


• And as President Kennedy said when he ran for president, he said, "I'm not running to be a Catholic president. I'm running to be a president who happens to be Catholic."


• My faith affects everything that I do, in truth. There's a great passage of the Bible that says, "What does it mean, my brother, to say you have faith if there are no deeds? Faith without works is dead."


• And I think that everything you do in public life has to be guided by your faith, affected by your faith, but without transferring it in any official way to other people.


• That's why I fight for equality and justice. All of those things come out of that fundamental teaching and belief of faith.


• And, with faith in God and with conviction in the mission of America, I believe that we can reach higher.


• And God bless the United States of America.

Transcript Tally:

• Problem[s]:         21


• Faith:               19


• Economy/ic:         18


• Protect[ed|ing]:     15


• Promise[d]:         12


• Safe[r]:             12


• Terror[ist[s]]:     11


• Love:                 10


• God:                 9


• Pray[er]:           8


• Iraq:               8


• Religion:           6


• Catholic:           5


• Almighty:           4


• Homeland:           4


• Principle[s]:         3


• Troop[s]:           3


• Worship:           3


• Bible:               2


• Church:            2


• Altar Boy:         1


• Lesbian:           1


• Sin:                1

Angels on the Head of a Pin:
Bush: 18
Kerry: 31


Inspector Lohmann's blipvert analysis:
I'd say it's obvious, Bob, that Bush's faith is softspoken and sincere -- his faith is real. Kerry pushed it way too hard and comes off insincere: his attempt to appeal to the religious vote is transparent. I think Bush easily won this one, Bob.