Tony Blankley, columnist for the conservative Washington Times, equated John Kerry's "Mary Cheney is a lesbian" comment to former President Gerald Ford's gaffe alleging that there was no soviet domination of Poland at the 1976 debate with Jimmy Carter. Blankley made the assertion on the October 15, 2004, edition of The McLaughlin Group on PBS.

MR. BLANKLEY: Look, I think that the lesbian comment could be the equivalent of Ford's Poland comment in the '76 debate. [...] And the fact that here you [Lawrence O'Donnell] are, a Kerry supporter, talking about this days after the debate, just like Ford's supporters had to do about Poland after the '76 debate, it was a blunder of the first order and it may have cost him the election.

Source: mclaughlin.com

Blankley has made a couple errors in his analysis however: (1) Mary Cheney is a lesbian and (2) Poland was a victim of Soviet domination. Although the outrage after the debates may have been similar, it is because the right purposefully created a diversion from the much more important statement and outright lie from Bush during the final debate.

KERRY: Six months after he said Osama bin Laden must be caught dead or alive, this president was asked, "Where is Osama bin Laden? " He said, "I don't know. I don't really think about him very much. I'm not that concerned."

SCHIEFFER: Mr. President?

BUSH: 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.

Source: Commission on Presidential Debates

During a news conference at the White House on March 13, 2002, Bush said, "I truly am not that concerned about him [bin Laden]."

Source: Yahoo!

Labels: bush