Rove planning to reduce the the number of debates.

[Manix]

..heard Howard Fineman say this yesterday as a inside scoop on
Matthews show.

[cthrumatrix]

1. pass it around....bush is a coward

[Walt Starr]

2. Roping the Dope even further

It was BRILLIANT for Kerry to accept the three debate schedule.

They'll look like the chickenshit cowards they are if they don't go the full three rounds.

Edited to add, when they suggest it, scream it long and loud:

BUSH IS A COWARD!!!
BUSH IS A COWARD!!!
BUSH IS A COWARD!!!
BUSH IS A COWARD!!!
BUSH IS A COWARD!!!
BUSH IS A COWARD!!!
BUSH IS A COWARD!!!
BUSH IS A COWARD!!!
BUSH IS A COWARD!!!
BUSH IS A COWARD!!!
BUSH IS A COWARD!!!

[charlie105]

7. Well, he got away with appearing before the 9/11 commission

with Cheney in tow. Don't think they can swing this?

Never underestimate the power of the Rove spin-machine. Especially when the media is is so spineless.

One possible excuse. That the C-in-C is too busy fighting the 'war on terrah' that he cannot spare the time and energy needed to prepare for pointless debates.

[Walt Starr]

If they propose anything less than three debates, we hit them with this:

BUSH IS A COWARD!!!
BUSH IS A COWARD!!!
BUSH IS A COWARD!!!
BUSH IS A COWARD!!!
BUSH IS A COWARD!!!
BUSH IS A COWARD!!!
BUSH IS A COWARD!!!
BUSH IS A COWARD!!!
BUSH IS A COWARD!!!
BUSH IS A COWARD!!!
BUSH IS A COWARD!!!
BUSH IS A COWARD!!!
BUSH IS A COWARD!!!
BUSH IS A COWARD!!!
BUSH IS A COWARD!!!
BUSH IS A COWARD!!!
BUSH IS A COWARD!!!
BUSH IS A COWARD!!!
BUSH IS A COWARD!!!
BUSH IS A COWARD!!!
BUSH IS A COWARD!!!
BUSH IS A COWARD!!!
BUSH IS A COWARD!!!
BUSH IS A COWARD!!!
BUSH IS A COWARD!!!
BUSH IS A COWARD!!!
BUSH IS A COWARD!!!

[Octafish]

35. Bush is a Coward!

Everyone should be saying that now.

The sissy boy won't even take a question from Helen Thomas.

What's he afraid of? The Truth?

[SammyWinstonJack]

24. How's that gonna play?

He's running all over the Country, following Kerry's bus around. :evilgrin: He has time to campaign before hand picked bushbots but doesn't have the time for debates? He is just gonna stop campaigning now and devote all his time to the War on Terra? Heh! Why should he worry, after all, he "won" the debates with Gore.:crazy: Kerry shouldn't be all that tough to debate. :eyes:

[peaches2003]

3. Only thing Rove can do

If you had an idiot who can't string 3 words together to make a cogent sentence, wouldn't you want to keep him from debating to?

[TrogL]

15. I don't see what the problem is

He'll just do the same thing as last time:

• lie
  
• quote meaningless and incorrect statistics
  
• accuse the other side of "ivory tower"
  
• accuse the other side of "fuzzy math"
  
• lie some more
  
• lie about lying
  
• talk in nice-sounding sound bytes that don't actually make any sense
  
• stand on his record (which is a pack of lies)
  
• claim credit for things he didn't do
  
• turn any discussion into "black and white"
  
• logical fallacies
  
• straw man
  
• slippery slope
  
• false dilemma
  
• lie
  
• lie
  
• lie
  

and the Murical public will go "yuck, yuck Dubya shore nos who talk to plain folks"

[Beetwasher]

4. Yeah, He Wants To Go From the 3 that are Planned to None

They've got a real problem because they can't put the monkey out there unless he's medicated, and when he's medicated he's practically incoherent...

[Johnny Arson]

17. This just in...

In that case, * must have been heavily medicated for his entire life.

edit: typo

[The_Casual_Observer]

5. They will probably propose one debate

with both chimp and cheney against Kerry only.

[Gloria]

6. Kerry should run an ad of him debating an empty podium........

get some facts out PLUS a knock at Bush's cowardice........

[wicket]

23. cue *crickets*

And everytime they cut to the empty podium they should play the sound of a bunch of crickets :D

[democrat_patriot]

8. Kick. Bush is a COWARD!!

Thanks Walt Star:

BUSH IS A COWARD!!!
BUSH IS A COWARD!!!
BUSH IS A COWARD!!!
BUSH IS A COWARD!!!
BUSH IS A COWARD!!!
BUSH IS A COWARD!!!
BUSH IS A COWARD!!!
BUSH IS A COWARD!!!
BUSH IS A COWARD!!!
BUSH IS A COWARD!!!
BUSH IS A COWARD!!!

[StClone]

9. What a laugh Rove is no Yoda

His client is a space cadet though. Yeah Karl hide your space case Bush. He is a defective product and I wish America could sue both your looser asses.

[uconnyc]

10. This might not be so bad

With Kerry, I feel like I'm holding my breathe hoping he does not have a Dukakis moment.

* is digging his own grave. We just need Kerry to not make any mistakes along the way.

Debates don't help us, as Americans give * a pass on his stupidity. If he has a hard time answering a question, they will blame Kerry for attacking Bush or the moderator for being unfair.

[Old and In the Way]

18. Really?

Kerry is a great debater. He can think on his feet, too. Bush was able to slide through against Gore because he was unknown and, back then, he was able to string up to 3 sentences together to form a coherent thought. Now he has a record to defend and I think his intellectual processes have deteriorated significantly.

I have no doubt that Bush'll only do one. That alone will lose him another couple of points in the polls.

[thecrow]

38. "form a coherent thought"

Don't you mean a coherent LIE?
:)

[ramapo]

11. Bet they try this

Bush is too busy fighting terra, keeping America safe, to take time out for a debate. There is no debate when it comes to keeping our citizens safe.

Scary but not out of the question

[Crunchy Frog]

21. I don't think that will work.

It will be obvious to everyone that he's not devoting much of his time to "fightin terra". Over the next few months, he will be devoting most of his time to campaigning, when he isn't vacationing or playing golf.

All Kerry has to point out is that if he has enough time to make campaign appearances, or play a game of golf, then he has enough time to participate in a handful of debates. He should point this out loudly, every time Bush engages in any activity that does not involve fighting terra. Point out that he has continued to take month long vacations all through the war on terra.

If Bush* still insists on backing down on the agreed upon number of debates, Kerry should simply hold the debates without him. He can debate against various bits of footage of Bush* saying contradictory things, and engaging in major flip flops.

[Doctor_J]

12. kerry needs to start calling him a coward

"if i were mr. bush i wouldn't appear in an open forum either"

"we need a leader who isn't afraid to back up his policies and claims"

and so on

[Caution]

13. $500 he uses the latest "threats" as the excuse.

[democrat_patriot]

14. KICK!!!

Kick. Kick, and another.

[Old and In the Way]

16. Back a few months ago, Barbara Walters asked Bush about the

debates. He said he'd be too busy presidentin' to do more than one. What a joke.

[giant_robot]

25. You forgot to add

"now watch this drive" :)

[MaineDem]

30. Do you have a link to that?

I'm not doubting you in any way. I'd just love a confirmation that I can show people.

[napi21]

19. I think he almost HAS to do at least ONE!

I don't think he (or Rove) would be willint to rish the "What's the matter, are you scared?" statements that would be rampant if he were to decline completely!

There are lots of things Rove can demand prior to that one debate: Advance list of questions, 1 minute answers and 30 second rebuttal, forbidding any direct questions between opponents are just a few.

The other tactic they will resurect is "Kerry has a reputation for being a GREAT debater, poor George doesn't have that gift, but he is such a GREAT leader, we can all overlook that small flaw. You remember in the 2000 debate, everyone was saying "all Bush has to do is show up, and not fall off the stage"? Well, here it comes AGAIN!

[MallRat]

20. Here we go again. * lowers expectations so that he can surpass them.

Be careful, folks. This is what they did in 2000, and it worked brilliantly. Bush begrudgingly agreed to three debates, and when he successfully put a subject and a verb together, he was perceived as "the winner."

Our tack here?

Don't say that Bush is afraid to DEBATE. Say that Bush must defend his record before the American people. There's a big difference between these two statements.

-MR

[Walt Starr]

22. Nothing so simple as that. No, anything less than three debates and

BUSH IS A COWARD!!!
BUSH IS A COWARD!!!
BUSH IS A COWARD!!!
BUSH IS A COWARD!!!
BUSH IS A COWARD!!!
BUSH IS A COWARD!!!
BUSH IS A COWARD!!!
BUSH IS A COWARD!!!
BUSH IS A COWARD!!!
BUSH IS A COWARD!!!
BUSH IS A COWARD!!!
BUSH IS A COWARD!!!
BUSH IS A COWARD!!!
BUSH IS A COWARD!!!
BUSH IS A COWARD!!!
BUSH IS A COWARD!!!
BUSH IS A COWARD!!!
BUSH IS A COWARD!!!
BUSH IS A COWARD!!!

[Renew Deal]

29. Kerry should just show up at all three debates.

And if Bush doesn't feel like being there, all the better for Kerry.

[wicket]

26. Bush is a coward if he doesn't do 3 debates!

:kick:

[mopaul]

27. bush would be like mike tyson the other night

[NewJeffCT]

28. Debates might mean * has to change his vacation schedule!

Don't you know that our War President needs a lot of vacation time to recover from the stress, straing & hard work of running America into the toilet!

[RedEarth]

31. Read my lips...........Bush is a coward.......an AWOL chickenhawk

[bobbieinok]

32. this is what bushco did in 2000!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

in order to get a reasonabl # of debates, the (stupid) democrats agreed to all sorts of modifications of the usual debate format........in one they sat at a table, etc

the republicans with their media said that democrats did not want debates, were unwilling to compromise, etc

republican fear of fair debates was spun to be evil democrats fear fairness

[LTR]

33. I say if Bush chickens out...

...Kerry should just set up the debate, have two podiums, arrange TV coverage, then stand there and wait for him to show. If Bush is a no-show, go on without him and answer questions.

They should do a town hall-type debate. That was the debate that drove one of the final nails in Poppy's coffin.

[Gin]

34. Rope the Dope...great visual!

g

[k in IA]

36. I believe Fineman said 2 Prez and 1 VP.

[Kazak]

37. Are they worried about an earpiece malfunction?

Or what?