"Don't take the wrong side of an argument just because your opponent has taken the right side."
-- Balthasar Gracian, great advice from his timeless Art of Worldly Wisdom
Tonight is the last chance for George W. Bush to try to prove that John F. Kerry is wrong.
He has not had success to date. After Kerry's impressive performance in the first two debates, there are fewer and fewer voters left to convince. The two sides are firmly ensconced. There are few minds left to be changed now. Unless Bush undergoes a lobotomy or Kerry uncharacteristically comes unprepared, it's a near-certainty that Kerry will be tonight's debate victor. In most instances, Kerry sounds "right" and Kerry makes more realistic sense, no matter how many times Bush takes the opposite side for the sake of drawing stark political distinctions with meaningless rhetoric.
We lost philosopher Jacques Derrida last week. Derrida warned that compositionists should be especially wary of what he called "rhetoricism", which is 'thinking that everything depends on rhetoric.' Certainly, rhetoric is central to almost every facet of life, but Derrida warned that we must not attribute to rhetoric more power than it has. Rhetoric is not the last word. Derrida knew the full complexity of language; its power and its limitations.
George Bush has only his rhetoric left to defend his miserable failures. If Bush is re-elected, it will only mean that Americans have bought into the powerful fantasy of his rhetoric. It's a frightening thought.
IDDYBUD