"Bush Scored Points Against 'Wooden, Flat' Kerry"

On Wednesday, questions about wives, minimum wage and healthcare dominated the third, final debate. Kerry was swinging and missing all night. He spent a minute and a half talking about his mother instead of his wife, and another two minutes about Vice President Cheney's lesbian daughter, following up on John Edwards' below-the-belt political strategy from the Veep debate last week. President Bush landed a few good ones, specifically when he said Kerry was on the "left bank of the mainstream."

Now, to the facts. John Kerry's "I passed 56 bills during 20 years" statement could only be construed as true if "five bills and four resolutions" added up to 56 instead of nine, as that was all that Senator Kerry introduced and subsequently were passed. Bush had his strong points. He lit up the supposedly "silent" audience with laughs from time to time as well as putting forth his best debate performance.

A few facts that would be good to remember before you go to the polls in a little over two weeks. First, the U.S. spends more per capita on education spending than any other country in the world bar none. Our public schools have ranked very low for the past 20-plus years and throwing more good money after bad has never been a way to fix something that is broken.

Anyone having taken a macroeconomics course would recognize that if one were to universally raise the minimum wage all prices would increase along with it. One does not get rid of poverty by just paying everyone more. Raising the minimum wage would simply price lower-skilled workers out of the work place. Do you think Burger King could afford to pay its employees $12 per hour while keeping its 99 cent menu?

On the subject of health care, Bush said "A plan is not a list of complaints." The early zinger by George Bush was well played although neither side, Kerry nor Bush, had anything substantive to say on health care. Getting more domestic suppliers of flu vaccination shots benefits everyone, and much like our dependence on foreign oil, helps us considerably in cases where importing it is no longer an option.

John Kerry handed President Bush a big point early on. Kerry's line "Are we safer?" is not the question, but "Are we as safe as we should be?" leads one to think that we are safer than before the Sept. 11 attacks, and if that's the case, President Bush is doing his job.

Overall, President Bush performed head and shoulders above his previous debates, while John Kerry remained the same, wooden and flat.