Fact-checking Bush, by Tim Grieve
Since the media has failed to call the president on his lies and flip-flops, Kerry must do the job in the debate.
Four years ago, the press excoriated Al Gore for supposedly stretching the truth in his first debate with George W. Bush. Voters who actually watched that debate thought Gore had gotten the best of his opponent. But in the days that followed, the media, buying into the Republican story line on Gore's supposed mendacity, told them they were wrong. Bush had won the debate by defying the low expectations that had been set for him. Gore had lost it by stumbling over the facts -- sort of -- on a couple of inconsequential anecdotes about which FEMA official joined him on a tour of a disaster area and whether a school-girl in Florida had a desk.
As president and as a candidate, Bush has been known to mangle facts big and small -- but he most likely won't get Gored at the first debate here tonight, as he hasn't yet in the 2004 campaign.
......One morning in May, Bush said: "I clearly remember a guy in a hard hat" who said, "'Don't let me down.'" Later that same day, Bush said: "I'll never forget the firefighter that pointed at me and said, 'Don't let me down.'" By June, the "guy" had become a whole group of "tired firefighters and police and rescue workers" who said, "'Don't let us down.'" By July, the "guy" was just a guy again, but Bush couldn't remember which kind: "I remember a fireman or a policeman, I can't remember which one, looking me in the eyes and saying, 'Do not let me down.'"
And it kept getting better. In early August, Bush said: "I don't know if he was a firefighter or a policeman -- I do know that he was looking through the rubble for one of his buddies." A week after that, Bush said the guy had been searching for "a loved one." One day later, he had been searching for "somebody that he worked with." And the day after that, he was searching for a "buddy" again, but this time he said: "Mr. President, do not let me down." Two weeks later, Bush had him saying, "You don't let me down." And on Sept. 14, 2004 -- the third anniversary of the president's visit to ground zero -- Bush offered up his most vivid memory yet. "I remember a guy grabbed me the arm, a big old burly firefighter, I guess he was a firefighter, he said: 'Do not let me down.'"
It was, the president said, "a day I'll never forget."
http://salon.com/news/feature/2004/09/30/debate/index_np.html
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