These are mostly Bush quotes, with a few Gore and moderator comments for clarity.
Here's a LINK for the complete transcripts, if you have the stomach for them.
FOREIGN POLICY
BUSH: Well, I think they ought to look at us as a country that understands freedom where it doesn't matter who you are or how you're raised or where you're from, that you can succeed. I don't think they'll look at us with envy. It really depends upon how our nation conducts itself in foreign policy. If we're an arrogant nation, they'll resent us. If we're a humble nation, but strong, they'll welcome us. And it's -- our nation stands alone right now in the world in terms of power, and that's why we have to be humble.
Does he understand the meaning of the word humble? All he's done is behave arrogantly and make nearly the entire world resent us. The hostile glares from the UN members and their silence throughout his speech last week was painful to watch.
THE MIDDLE EAST PEACE PROCESS
BUSH: I think credibility is going to be very important in the future in the Middle East. I want everybody to know should I be the president Israel's going to be our friend. I'm going to stand by Israel. Secondly, that I think it's important to reach out to moderate Arab nations, like Jordan and Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. It's important to be friends with people when you don't need each other so that when you do there's a strong bond of friendship. And that's going to be particularly important in dealing not only with situations such as now occurring in Israel, but with Saddam Hussein. The coalition against Saddam has fallen apart or it's unraveling, let's put it that way. The sanctions are being violated. We don't know whether he's developing weapons of mass destruction. He better not be or there's going to be a consequence should I be the president.
Again, he told us exactly what he was going to do, but he softened his ambitions by making the existence of WMD a condition of taking Saddam out. He lied about that one.
THE US ROLE AS HONEST BROKER
BUSH: When it comes to timetables it can't be the United States timetable as to how discussions take place. It's got to be a timetable that all parties can agree to, like the Palestinians and Israelis. Secondly, any lasting peace is going to have to be a peace that's good for both sides. And therefore, the term honest broker makes sense. This current administration's worked hard to keep the parties at the table. I will try to do the same thing. But it won't be on my timetable, it will be on the timetable that people are comfortable with in the Middle East.
Ok, that was a complete lie. No two ways about it. Bush has sided with Sharon, at the expense of being an honest broker.
SADDAM HUSSEIN
BUSH: ... I think that, you know, I would hope to be able to convince people I could handle the Iraqi situation better.
MODERATOR: Saddam Hussein, you mean, get him out of there?
BUSH: I would like to, of course, and I presume this administration would as well. We don't know -- there are no inspectors now in Iraq, the coalition that was in place isn't as strong as it used to be. He is a danger. We don't want him fishing in troubled waters in the Middle East. And it's going to be hard, it's going to be important to rebuild that coalition to keep the pressure on him.
He just goes on and on about Saddam. He was obsessed with getting Saddam out of Iraq, no matter what.
US INTERVENTION IN SOMALIA
BUSH: Started off as a humanitarian mission and it changed into a nation-building mission, and that's where the mission went wrong. The mission was changed. And as a result, our nation paid a price. And so I don't think our troops ought to be used for what's called nation-building. I think our troops ought to be used to fight and win war. I think our troops ought to be used to help overthrow the dictator when it's in our best interests. But in this case it was a nation-building exercise, and same with Haiti. I wouldn't have supported either.
Interesting response, since all he's done is change the mission. First it was WMD, then getting Saddam, then imposing democracy on a country that may or may not want our style of government. Remember too, his father is the one who sent troops to Somalia and left it for Clinton to finish.
RACIAL PROFILING
BUSH: Yeah, I can't imagine what it would be like to be singled out because of race and stopped and harassed. That's just flat wrong, and that's not what America is all about. And so we ought to do everything we can to end racial profiling.
Um, ok. Whatever.
EDUCATION
BUSH: And to make sure our society is as hopeful as it possibly can be, every single child in America must be educated. I mean every child. It starts with making sure every child learns to read. K-2 diagnostic testing so we know whether or not there's a deficiency. Curriculum that works and phonics needs to be an integral part of our reading curriculum. Intensive reading laboratories, teacher retraining. I mean, there needs to be a wholesale effort against racial profiling, which is illiterate children.
He started out so well here. The focus on reading in the early grades is a wonderful idea. Why he decided to veer off into racial profiling as a cause for some children's poor reading skills is a complete mystery.
GAY MARRIAGE
BUSH: I'm not for gay marriage. I think marriage is a sacred institution between a man and a woman. And I appreciated the way the administration signed the Defense of Marriage Act. I presume the Vice President supported it when the President signed that bill and supports it now. But I think marriage is a sacred institution. I'm going to be respectful for people who may disagree with me. I've had a record of doing so in the State of Texas. I've been a person that had been called a uniter, not a divider, because I accept other people's points of view. But I feel strongly that marriage should be between a man and a woman.
He's consistent on this issue, to a point. He is not, however, repectful of other people's opinions. Is this when the "I'm a uniter not a divider" meme started? Who called him a uniter? Besides himself?
GAY RIGHTS
BUSH: I will tell you I'm the kind of person, I don't hire or fire somebody based upon their sexual orientation. As a matter of fact, I would like to take the issue a little further. I don't really think it's any of my -- you know, any of my concerns what -- how you conduct your sex life. And I think that's a private matter. And I think that's the way it ought to be. But I'm going to be respectful for people, I'll tolerate people, and I support equal rights but not special rights for people.
Unless of course, you're gay and work for the federal government while he's president. That would be different. How many people with special skills, like say, speaking Arabic, have been fired for being gay?
GUNS
BUSH: Let me say something about Columbine. Listen, we've got gun laws. He says we ought to have gun-free schools. Everybody believes that. I'm sure every state in the union has got them. You can't carry a gun into a school. And there ought to be a consequence when you do carry a gun into a school. But Columbine spoke to a larger issue. It's really a matter of culture. It's a culture that somewhere along the line we've begun to disrespect life. Where a child can walk in and have their heart turned dark as a result of being on the Internet and walk in and decide to take somebody else's life? So gun laws are important, no question about it, but so is loving children, and character education classes, and faith-based programs being a part of after-school programs. Some desperate child needs to have somebody put their arm around them and say, we love you.
Sorry, folks. This one has left me speechless.
MORE ON GUNS
BUSH: What matters is something in this person's head says there is not going to be a consequence. So in my state we toughen up the juvenile justice laws. We added beds. We're tough. We believe in tough love. We say, if you get caught carrying a gun, you're automatically detained. And that's what needs to happen. We've got laws. If laws need to be strengthened, like instant background checks, that's important.
That's it, that's his whole problem. He wants someone to be the tough daddy and set limits for him! Apparently Bush Sr. didn't, and Georgie never had to suffer for anything he screwed up, so now he's overcompensating.
HEALTH CARE COSTS
BUSH: Well, I've got a plan to do something about that. It's to make health care affordable and available this way. First,
there's some who should be buying health care who choose not to. There's some --
MODERATOR: Some of the 40 million.
BUSH: Some of the healthy folks, healthy young kids say I'll never get sick, therefore I don't need health care right now. For those what I think we need to do is to develop an investment-type vehicle that would be an incentive for them to invest, like medical savings accounts with rollover capacity. In other words, you say to a youngster, it will be in your financial interest to start saving for future illness.
I get it. Bush wants us to pay for all of our health care costs ourselves, without any insurance. Thanks. Really. I mean that.
GORE: Well, I don't know about all these percentages that he throws out, but I do know that -- I speculate that the reason why he didn't answer your question directly as to whether my numbers were right, the facts were right about Texas ranking dead last in families with health insurance and 49th out of 50 for both children and women, is because those facts are correct. And as for why it happened, I'm no expert on the Texas procedures, but what my friends there tell me is that the governor opposed a measure put forward by Democrats in the legislature to expand the number of children that would be covered. And instead directed the money toward a tax cut, a significant part of which went to wealthy interests. He declared the need for a new tax cut for the oil companies in Texas an emergency need, and so the money was taken away from the CHIP program.
Is that the compassionate conservatism he crows about?
MISSTATEMENTS
GORE: I think that what -- I think the point of that is that
anybody would have a hard time trying to make a tax cut plan that is so large, that would put us into such big deficits, that gives almost half the benefits to the wealthiest of the wealthy. I think anybody would have a hard time explaining that clearly in a way that makes sense to the average person.
BUSH: That's the kind of exaggeration I was just talking about. (LAUGHTER)
GORE: Well, I wasn't the one having trouble explaining it.
Al knew what was coming. He told us we'd have big deficits, but a lot of greedy people voted for Bush anyway.
One last thought. Some dweeb talking head on tv the other day claimed "the democrats go over the time limits in these debates" so here are two quotes from the moderator.
MODERATOR: "The end of our 90 minutes last week in Boston, the total time each of you took was virtually the same. Let's see if we can do the same tonight, or come close."
"Both of you have now violated -- excuse me. Both of you have now violated your own rules. Hold that thought."
That sounds like they behaved very much the same. No harm, no foul.