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Presidential Debates Transcript: Third Presidential Debate Arizona State University, Tempe, Ariz. October 13, 2004 Debate Transcript From FDCH E-Media, Inc. Following is a transcript of the third and final presidential debate betw een between President Bush and Sen. The moderator of the nationally televised debate is Bob Schieffer of CBS News. The "referee" icon marks the spots of o ur calls and where you can make your call as well.
com producers Mike Snyder, Kevin Hechtkopf, Chet Rhodes, Suzette McLoone, E d O'Keefe, Kristen Fletcher, Mike Santa Rita, Kaukab Jhumra Smith and Ry an Thornburg.
Latest Blogs on the Debate SCHIEFFER: Good evening from Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona. I want to welcome you to the third and la st of the 2004 debates between President George Bush and Senator John Ke rry. As Jim Lehrer told you before the first one, these debates are sponsored by the Commission on Presidential Debates. Tonight the topic will be domestic affairs, but the format will be the sa me as that first debate. I'll moderate our discussion under detailed rul es agreed to by the candidates, but the questions and the areas to be co vered were chosen by me. I have not told the candidates or anyone else w hat they are. To refresh your memory on the rules, I will ask a question. His opponent then has a minute and a half to offer a rebuttal. At my discretion, I can extend the discussion by offering each candidate an additional 30 seconds. A green light will come on to signal the candidate has 30 seconds left. There are no opening statements, but there will be two-minute closing statements. There is an audience here tonight, but they have agreed to remain silent, except for right now, when they join me in welcoming President George B ush and Senator John Kerry. Senator, I want to set the stage for this discussion by asking the questi on that I think hangs over all of our politics today and is probably on the minds of many people watching this debate tonight. And that is, will our children and grandchildren ever live in a world as safe and secure as the world in which we grew up? KERRY: Well, first of all, Bob, thank you for moderating tonight. And thank you to the Presidential Commission for undertaking this enormou s task. Mr President, I'm glad to be here with you again to share similarities a nd differences with the American people. Now, how do we achieve it is the most critical component of it. I believe that this president, regrettably, rushed us into a war, made de cisions about foreign policy, pushed alliances away. And, as a result, A merica is now bearing this extraordinary burden where we are not as safe as we ought to be. And there are a host of options that this president h ad available to him, like making sure that at all our ports in America c ontainers are inspected. Only 95 percent of them -- 95 percent come in t oday uninspected. People who fly on airplanes today, the cargo hold is not X-rayed, but the baggage is. Police officers are being cut from the streets of Americ a because the president decided to cut the COPS program. I can do a better job of waging a smarter, more effective war on terror and guarantee that we wil l go after the terrorists. I will hunt them down, and we'll kill them, we'll capture them. But I pledge this to you, America: I will do it in the way that Franklin Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan and John Kennedy and others did, where we bu ild the strongest alliances, where the world joins together, where we ha ve the best intelligence and where we are able, ultimately, to be more s afe and secure. Yes, we can be safe and secure, if we stay on the offense against the ter rorists and if we spread freedom and liberty around the world. I have got a comprehensive strategy to not only chase down the Al Qaida, wherever it exists -- and we're making progress; three-quarters of Al Qa ida leaders have been brought to justice -- but to make sure that countr ies that harbor terrorists are held to account. As a result of securing ourselves and ridding the Taliban out of Afghanis tan, the Afghan people had elections this weekend. We held to account a terrorist regime in Saddam Hussein. In other words, in order to make sure we're secure, there must be a compr ehensive plan. My opponent just this weekend talked about how terrorism could be reduced to a nuisance, comparing it to prostitution, illegal gambling. I think that attitude and that point of view is dangerous. I don't think you can secure America for the long run if you don't have a comprehensive view as to how to defeat these people.
Reader's forum At home, we'll do everything we can to protect the homeland. I signed the homeland security bill to better align our assets and resources. We're doing everything we can to protect our borders and ports. When the president had an opportunity to capture or kill Osam a bin Laden, he took his focus off of them, outsourced the job to Afghan warlords, and Osama bin Laden escaped. Six months after he said Osama bin Laden must be caught dead or alive, th is president was asked, "Where is Osama bin Laden?" We need a president who stays deadly focused on the real war on terror.
Reader's forum BUSH: Gosh, I just don't think I ever said I'm not worried about Osama bi n Laden. We're using every asset at our disposal to get Osama bin Laden. My opponent said this war is a matter of intelligence and law enforcement . No, this war is a matter of using every asset at our disposal to keep the American people protected. We are talking about protecting ourselves from the unexpected, but the fl u season is suddenly upon us. Suddenly we find ourselves with a severe shortage of flu vaccine. BUSH: Bob, we relied upon a company out of England to provide about half of the flu vaccines for the United States citizen, and it turned out tha t the vaccine they were producing was contaminated. And so we took the r ight action and didn't allow contaminated medicine into our country. We're working with Canada to hopefully -- that they'll produce a -- help us realize the vaccine necessary to make sure our citizens have got flu vaccinations during this upcoming season. My call to our fellow Americans is if you're healthy, if you're younger, don't get a flu shot this year. Help us prioritize those who need to get the flu shot, the elderly and the young. The CDC, responsible for health in the United States, is setting those pr iorities and is allocating the flu vaccine accordingly. I haven't gotten a flu shot, and I don't intend to because I want to make sure those who are most vulnerable get treated. We have a problem with litigation in the United States of America. Vaccin e manufacturers are worried about getting sued, and therefore they have backed off from providing this kind of vaccine. One of the reasons I'm such a strong believer in legal reform is so that people aren't afraid of producing a product that is necessary for the he alth of our citizens and then end up getting sued in a court of law. But the best thing we can do now, Bob, given the circumstances with the c ompany in England is for those of us who are younger and healthy, don't get a flu shot. KERRY: This really underscores the problem with the American health-care system. And it's gotten worse under President Bush over the course of the last years. Five million Americans have lost their health insurance in this country. You've got about a million right here in Arizona, just shy, 950,000, who have no health insurance at all. All across our country -- go to Ohio, 14 million Ohioans have no health insurance, 114,000 of them lost it under President Bush; Wisconsin, 82,0 00, Wisconsites lost it under President Bush. This president has turned his back on the wellness of America. In fact, it's starting to fall apart not because of lawsui ts -- though they are a problem, and John Edwards and I are committed to fixing them -- but because of the larger issue that we don't cover Amer icans. We're the richest cou ntry on the face of the planet, the only industrialized nation in the wo rld not to do it.
We're going to let everybody buy into the same health-car e plan senators and congressmen give...
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