So, Your New Pet Does Pre-emptive Concessions

It would take a heart of stone not to laugh at this

I also want to pay tribute to my dog Togo, who died three years ago today, and whom I love very much. He was a beautiful red Finnish Spitz, and we named him after the famous Siberian Husky who ran farther than anyone in leading the team of sled dogs in the "serum drive" that brought medicine from Anchorage for the diptheria outbreak in Nome, Alaska. Unfortunately, another dog named Balto got all the credit.
-Bobby

And now he's been replaced with another pet whose bark is worse than his bite:

Let's face it: whatever happens in Thursday's debate, cable news will proclaim President Bush the winner.

Since comparatively few watch cable news, what difference will that make, Paul? Do you think Dan--The Man--Rather, will have been retired by Thursday? Methinks the economist doth protest too much:

But as Adam Clymer pointed out yesterday on the Op-Ed page of The Times, front-page coverage of the 2000 debates emphasized not what the candidates said but their "body language." After the debate, the lead stories said a lot about Mr. Gore's sighs, but nothing about Mr. Bush's lies. And even the fact-checking pieces "buried inside the newspaper" were, as Mr. Clymer delicately puts it, "constrained by an effort to balance one candidate's big mistakes" - that is, Mr. Bush's lies - "against the other's minor errors."

Big time?

Speaking of lies:

There's also North Korea, which Mr. Bush declared part of the "axis of evil," then ignored when its regime started building nuclear weapons. Recently, when a reporter asked Mr. Bush about reports that North Korea has half a dozen bombs, he simply shrugged.

Paul, you really ought to get in the habit of reading your own newspaper at least as well as Donald Luskin does:

According to the Times interview, after shrugging,

"He said he would continue diplomatic pressure -- using China to pressure the North and Europe to pressure Iran -- and gave no hint that his patience was limited or that at some point he might consider pre-emptive military action. "'I'm confident that over time this will work -- I certainly hope it does,' he said of the diplomatic approach."

It is an "error" (polite word for "lie") that Bush "simply shrugged."

Hey, my politeness policy is to call a spade a spade. When Paul Krugman says:

Last week, after Mr. Bush declared that Mr. Kerry "would prefer the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein to the situation in Iraq today," The Associated Press pointed out that this "twisted his rival's words" - and then quoted what John Kerry actually said.

And, those actual Kerry words were:

We have traded a dictator for a chaos that has left America less secure.

We gotta go with; Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire.

That, and; Paul's throwing in the towel before the fight even begins, because even he realizes how hopeless the Democrat nominee is.