Oliver Willis has the answer in a convenient video that should make anyone shake his head. Watch the whole thing.

President Bush's performance was so bad in the debate last Thursday night that he's responding in what seems to be the only way he knows how: by lying about it. Even for someone who thinks Bush is absolutely the wrong man to sit in the Oval Office, this conduct is quite depressing.

Take a look at this Reuters story, for example:

During the debate, Kerry said the president should have the right to wage a preemptive war, but Americans and the world must understand why and see the reasons as legitimate. But Bush said Kerry was suggesting U.S. military action would be subject to an international veto.

"I will never submit America's national security to an international test. The use of troops to defend America must never be subject to a veto by countries like France," Bush said. "The president's job is not to take an international poll. The president's job is to defend America."

And here's what Kerry actually said, in the first 60 seconds of the debate:

I believe America is safest and strongest when we are leading the world and we are leading strong alliances. I'll never give a veto to any country over our security. But I also know how to lead those alliances. This president has left them in shatters across the globe, and we're now 90 percent of the casualties in Iraq and 90 percent of the costs. I think that's wrong, and I think we can do better.

(Emphasis added, of course, in case the President missed it again.) Now try this AP story:

Bush took issue with many of Kerry's positions and wasted little time in aggressively attacking them, particularly his pledge that if elected he would call a summit to seek more international help on Iraq.

"I've been to a lot of summits. I've never seen a meeting that would depose a tyrant or bring a terrorist to justice," Bush said at a rally in Allentown, Pa.

Even AP's Steve Holland admits, up front, that Kerry did not say a summit would have removed Saddam Hussein from power. Kerry said, also in his opening response:

I know I can do a better job in Iraq. I have a plan to have a summit with all of the allies, something this president has not yet achieved, not yet been able to do to bring people to the table.

Bush responded later:

And finally, he says we ought to have a summit. Well, there are summits being held. Japan is going to have a summit for the donors; $14 billion pledged. And Prime Minister Koizumi is going to call countries to account, to get them to contribute.

And there's going to be an Arab summit, of the neighborhood countries. And Colin Powell helped set up that summit.

So at least during the debate, Bush knew that Kerry did not say a summit would have "deposed a tyrant" or "brought a terrorist to justice," but back out on the campaign trail, Bush is pretending that's what Kerry said.

In a speech yesterday heard on NPR that I can't find linked right now, Bush said something like, "My opponent says the troops deserve better. They certainly deserved better when he voted to send them to war and then voted against the $87 billion in funding to equip them."

That's a lie Bush has been spreading all year, and it's just not that complicated. Two parts:

1. The president asked Congress to approve the use of force in Iraq to back up his treats to Hussein. Bush called the vote a "vote for peace." He said at the time that war was his last option, but we now know that to be false: his administration had decided months earlier to invade Iraq no matter what happened in the interim, and he knew he couldn't get Congress to approve force without mischaracterizing the request.

   Bush asked Congress (and Kerry) to sell him a gun for self-defense only against people who were physically threatening him. He then used that gun to shoot someone who simply looked menacing, and when called on it, he's saying that if Congress only wanted him to shoot the people he said he'd shoot, they shouldn't have given him the gun. What a load of crap.

2. Kerry didn't vote against spending $87 billion to equip the troops, and Bush has known that since day one. Kerry voted against paying for it Bush's way, by running up the debt and maintaining (and adding) more tax cuts for the richest people in the United States

NPR got it right on the nose: Bush spent yesterday reading the scripted answers to what Kerry said live in the debate the previous night. Without Kerry up there to correct his falsehoods and distortions, Bush was back on his game, but he can only score points by distorting what Kerry says.

You're left with only two options:

• Bush is too incompetent to understand what Kerry said right in front of him on critical matters of US policy, or
• Bush is deliberately lying about Kerry's statements, and has been for six months, because he can't defend his own policies without distorting Kerry's responses to them.

There are no other explanations, and either of these should disqualify the man from receiving anyone's vote for any position of power.