Presidential Debate

[Griselda]

I say you have to look at both sides equally. If you want to be the kind of schmuck that only listens to Rush Limbaugh, Micheal Moore or (insert political mouthpiece here) then go for it. If that's what Gris said (Though I can't read that into her post), then yeah I misunderstood and she would be wrong in that case.

I disagree with you then. Each source will need to be evaluated for its own merits, not just as an attempt to look at things from both sides. Nobody is trying to argue that people should get their truth from Rush Liumbaugh *or* Michael Moore here. What I am trying to do is bring a little rigor into the discussion. I suspect you didn't mean what you said literally, since you clearly give more weight to the swift boat ads than you do to the "Dan Rather documents", and by your argument you'd have to believe both or neither.

While most people here probably do fall into one clear camp or the other, it's important to avoid jumping to conclusions about other people's points of view. Just because somebody has questions about Bush's military record does not mean that they take every rumor on that topic to be the truth. Just because Nico's political views are to the left of yours does not mean that he supports everything that moveon.org has ever said.

The only way we are going to be able even to agree to disagree in the coming weeks is if we all try to argue against the positions that people have actually stated- and not against the positions that we assume that they have.

(PS- and I know I'm getting myself in trouble for this- Al French is one of the vets from the swift boat ads, and he happens to be somewhat local so I know a little bit more about his story. He says in the ad that he served with John Kerry, in fact he signed an affidavit swearing that he served with him, but it turns out that he never did. He was in the military, and in Vietnam, but he never served with Kerry. So, I don't consider him a reputable source of information about Kerry's military record, for what it's worth. Plus, as a District Attorney, you would think French would know better than to tell an outright lie. :( )