Re:Whaaaa? (Score 1)

I believe "Global Test" was defined within the same sentence as it was used in the most recent presidential debate.

KERRY: No president, through all of American history, has ever ceded, and nor would I, the right to preempt in any way necessary to protect the United States of America.

But if and when you do it, Jim, you have to do it in a way that passes the test, that passes the global test where your countrymen, your people understand fully why you're doing what you're doing and you can prove to the world that you did it for legitimate reasons.

http://www.debates.org/pages/trans2004a.html

I don't believe this is as difficult to understand as some people pretend, for example:

BUSH: Let me -- I'm not exactly sure what you mean, "passes the global test," you take preemptive action if you pass a global test.

My attitude is you take preemptive action in order to protect the American people, that you act in order to make this country secure.

Both candidates made the same sentiment with regards to protecting America as a first priority; to do otherwise would be political suicide. However, while Kerry acknowledged the importance of justification and accountability, Bush replied by feigning ignorance, implying that Kerry was over complicating things. Bush's repetition of the "protect America first" spiel implied that Kerry had said something different.

I don't believe that the public is incapable of understanding an 80 word argument. I don't believe Kerry needed to exclude justification just to reduce his statement to 24 words so Bush and the rest of the public could understand. I do believe that claiming ignorance over what Kerry meant by "global test," both by Bush and the above poster, is a smug mockery of a poorly chosen phrase rather than a considered objection.