Hello. So, I'm a Brit, but I take an active interest in the 04 election on account of how I remember when the US President was the LEADER OF THE FREE WORLD... and I think it's healthy to take an interest in who your leaders are. So when I meet American expats, I always fish for their voting intentions. Until now, it"s always been Dem, so we bitch about Bush together, and sometimes they also bitch about Kerry and I say, you know, I think he's OK! And that's that.
So last night for the first time ever I meet a hard core Bushite, in a room featuring a couple of other undecided, leaning Kerry Americans..
and he's taking them on, featuring such gems as
- the economy's looking pretty good
- Clinton is to blame for this 911 mess, being soft on terrorists
- Kerry is a hypocrite on abortion, as he claims to believe life starts at conception, so that means he is in favor of killing living people etc etc
- draft talk is just scare talk, if anything happened, either president would have to deal with it, so if a draft is needed, it is needed - but either would have to do it. but it is unlikely.
- Bush won Florida, straight up
so I figure number 1 I disagree on, number 2 is total horseshit, and number 3 I don't know enough about, but what matters is the policy more than the thought behind it. number 4 I think is horseshit also, and number 5 almost froze my mind with so many possible arguments against.
But anyway, the point is this - how can I best argue against such a guy? I don't want to get into a fight - this guy is in my circle of friends. And he's not the persuadable type. I just need to passive-agressively make comments during his talking point reel-offs that scupper his arguments. And I can't sound too preachy, cos I'm a Brit, and I don't want to trigger some 'HEY, it's not your election, butt out' trump card.
So, where can I get 1 or 2 line dismissals of common GOP talking points? Just stuff that I can drop into the mix and throw him off a little when needs be? I want to make him look just dumb enough that other people in the room end up thinking he's off base, without actually geting into a proper 1-on-1 with the guy.
Thanks!