The clear loser of the third debate

For those who complained about Gwen Ifill (I was not one of them): She's probably looking pretty good to you right now, if you saw Bob Schieffer.

America is faced with poverty, crime, a disintegrating environment, sexism, racism, erosion of the First Amendment and declining civil liberties, so the terminally smarmy Schieffer chose to ask questions about faith-based decisions and whether homosexuality is a choice. It could even be argued that some of the questions were loaded to favor Bush. With all of the problems America has, it certainly seemed illogical to ask two questions about abortion.

Schieffer's first question was especially disturbing. He asked the candidates if our children and grandchildren could ever hope to live with the safety and security that we have enjoyed. I wondered how the thousands of people in the poor, crime-ridden neighborhoods of America have enjoyed their safety and security these past several decades. But this is what you get when you have one rich white man asking two other rich white men about how things are in America.

The moderator's final question was equally offensive--an updated version of 70's self-conscious "Hey, aren't those gals something?" To talk about "strong" women implies that the candidates escaped getting involved with weak women. Can you imagine Schieffer (or anyone) saying to a female candidate "What have you learned from the strong men in your family?"

But if you wanted to hear really stupid comments, you had to listen to the C-Span call-in after the debate. One caller reminded everyone that Kerry said he was against homosexuality (he said no such thing, but rather, that he supports many gay rights), but wants gays to be able to marry (he said he was opposed to gay marriage). Another said that Kerry said he wants to raise the minimum wage to $10 (Kerry said $7) in just a few years (he said several years).

And best of all--the caller who said that Kerry just spoke a bunch of lies, but the things Bush said were "authentic." "How do you know they're authentic?" the moderator asked? "Because I'm well-read, and because...because he loooks authentic." News to me.