Frank Rich says we’ll need another Woodward and Bernstein if Bush is re-elected.

You know, as much as I want Kerry to win, a very small part of me hopes Bush wins, if only because I want him to have to clean up his own mess in Iraq. If things are going to be shitty in Iraq no matter who wins, we may as well make him deal with it himself. On the other hand: 1) his power of denial is astonishing, and he probably won’t clean up his mess, nor appear to care about it, and 2) the small bit of satisfaction gained in watching the public turn against him will be outweighed by having to deal with him for another four years, wth the public powerless to kick him out.

I’m bummed that the polls seem to be stuck in a tie, but at least that’s better than Bush’s clear lead before the debates. Still, I’m dumbstruck by what Bush gets away with. He outright lied last night when he said, “Gosh, I just don’t think I ever said I’m not worried about Osama bin Laden. It’s kind of one of those exaggerations.”

No it’s not, dipshit. From March 2002:

Q: But don’t you believe that the threat that bin Laden posed won’t truly be eliminated until he is found either dead or alive?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, as I say, we haven’t heard much from him. And I wouldn’t necessarily say he’s at the center of any command structure. And, again, I don’t know where he is. I — I’ll repeat what I said. I truly am not that concerned about him. I know he is on the run.

And those words from 2002 weren’t just a verbal gaffe. He didn’t just say he wasn’t concerned; his subsequent actions showed he wasn’t. He didn’t care about finding bin Laden as much as he cared about using 9/11 as an excuse to get rid of Saddam.

There was also Bush’s lie last night that “my opponent says he’d give other nations a veto over national security” or whatnot, when Kerry has repeatedly and quite directly said that he won’t. Again, I’m amazed. I wish Kerry had made more of a character issue out of this kind of thing. There was a lot of “he said/he said” last night; Bush would say something and Kerry would respond with his version of things, leaving the viewers to wonder who was right. Kerry should have tied it all together and made a global argument, saying, “This is a president who hears only what he wants to hear, who has shown time and again that he’s completely out of touch with reality,” and so on. He should have exploited the instincts people already have about Bush. But perhaps he thought that would sound too mean-spirited when he’s trying to win over more women.

So, here we are: 19 days to go, the polls are tied, and unless something changes (and I’m sure the Bush people have a few tricks up their sleeves), November 2 is going to be one long night.

In fact, November might be one long month.