Falling Apart Part 2

Why the first debate may have been a watershed moment, regardless of how the next two play out:

The New York Times > Arts > Frank Rich: Why Did James Baker Turn Bush Into Nixon?

Rich talks about the echo chamber trap of a Bushie operation that got too good at manipulation, and began to believe its own imagery. But this is when it really counts. Some 64 million people watched the first debate; some 43 million watched the vp debate, which is just a couple of million fewer than watched the highest-rated Gore v. Bush debate. It will be interesting to see the audience for Friday's debate---will it be larger or smaller? We'd bet larger. Which is why Kerry has to continue to do well.

The headline on Friday's debate is already being written: the Bush comeback. It's utterly predictable because it's the only available story line that GOPers will allow. Some Bushies are already signalling it by saying that if Bush doesn't do well, he's finished. Of course they won't say he's finished! And unless Kerry wins the polling by another 4 to 1 margin---very unlikely given the expectations---the pundits will be able to say that Bush has recovered.

Meanwhile the Bush pretexts for Iraq continue to unravel, as the news from Iraq continues to be grim and tragic. The New York Times, exposing in devastating detail the misstatements on Iraq's nuclear program (the aluminum tubes that experts said were a no-brainer, they just weren't right for what the Bushies said they were only right for, the centrifuge in the nuke program) is calling for Condi Rice's resignation.

We've got a better idea. Vote the whole rotten bunch out.