the "he said, he said" battle roars on and how i'm going to vote come nov. 2 looks more and more clouded.

_Kerry: "George Bush (news - web sites)'s record speaks for itself. 1.6 million lost jobs."


That's private sector employment. Kerry ignores mitigating job gains in the public sector. Overall, 913,000 jobs have been lost under Bush.


_Bush: "I believe that health care decisions should be made by doctors and patients, not by Washington, D.C., bureaucrats."


It will take Washington bureaucrats to put his health care plans in motion and manage federal spending on them. Bush's proposals include letting small companies buy into insurance pools that theoretically offer more affordable coverage. But that plan does not sideline insurance company bureaucrats who will still make decisions about what's covered and selection of physicians.


_Kerry: "President Bush inherited record employment, record homeownership ... and more families with health care."


His implication was that Bush squandered the record of the Bill Clinton (news - web sites) years. But home ownership has hit still more record highs under Bush, thanks to low interest rates. On health care, more people are uninsured than when Bush became president. But Clinton also saw the rate of uninsured rise in his presidency.

FULL STORY