Some moments from last night's Democratic debate:

KERRY:

(On opposing Dean's call to repeal the Bush tax cuts)
What he said: The fact is that 32 million American couples get about $1,000 out of the tax cut. The fact is that 16 million American families get $1,500 to $3,000 from it. Just ask Ted Walsh and Mia Gloss in Barrington, New Hampshire. He's a firefighter, she's a teacher. If Governor Dean has his way and Congressman Gephardt, they're going to pay $3,000 additional taxes.
What he meant: I'm using the same statistical tricks as the Bush Administration, but Dean doesn't know enough to call me on it.


GEPHARDT:

(On free trade)
What he said: [T]he fight for labor unions and working families is in my bones. My dad was a Teamster and a milk truck driver, and I'm very proud of what he stood for and represented in my life and in my family's life. And I'm proud to have the support of working families.
What he meant: My dad hated unions and despised his job, but it makes for a good sound bite.


GRAHAM:

(On the $87 billion budget request for Iraq)
What he said: For the rebuilding of Iraq, I believe that we should look to the Iraqi oil source in the same way that in the 1990s we looked to the Mexican oil source in order to finance the bail-out plan that we had for them.
What he meant: Anyone else on this panel help bail out our closest southern ally during one of the gravest international fiscal crises of the last quarter-century? No? Just me?

(On job creation)
What he said: While I was governor of Florida, when the state had a population of approximately 12 million people, I presided over the creation of 1.4 million new jobs in Florida, new jobs that resulted in, for the first time in our state's history, the per-capita income in Florida being above the national average; resulted in Florida for three years in a row being recognized as the state that had the best climate for economic development.
What he meant: Top that, Jeb Bush!

(On health care)
What he said: There will be nothing done about the price of prescription drugs as long as George W. Bush is president. He is literally in bed with pharmaceutical companies and has made a pact to even avoid in the proposed new federal expansion of Medicare to include prescription drugs anything that can be construed as holding down prices.
What he meant: Either I have no idea what "literally" means, or I know something about George W. Bush's bedtime habits no one else does.


LIEBERMAN:

(On the $87 billion budget request for Iraq)
What he said: [W]e are involved in a great battle in the war on terrorism. Those terrorists have poured in there. They're attacking Americans. They're attacking the institutions of civilization: the United Nations, Jordanian embassy, Muslim mosques. We cannot afford to lose this fight.
What he meant: Someone seems to have handed me George W. Bush's U.N. talking points.

(On raising taxes, after Bob Graham refused to pledge not to raise taxes)
What he said: Same answer that Bob Graham gave; it's the right answer.
What he meant: Right answer, but I'm not going to make a sound bite out of it.

(On free trade)
What he said: Some forget that Bill Clinton was for trade that created jobs, and they're against trade today. I want to build on the Clinton-Gore record, and create 10 million new jobs in the first four years of my administration.
What he meant: Bill Clinton. Me. Bill Clinton. Me.

(On his economic plan)
What he said: For the details I would forward folks to my Web site, joe2004.com. You can imagine how happy I was the day Joe Biden announced he was not running for president of the United States.
What he meant: I'm in desperate need of a decent comedy writer.

(On health care)
What he said: Look, the American pharmaceutical industry has presented us with drugs that are keeping people alive and well a lot longer than they otherwise would be. But they're asking the American people, and the American people alone, to finance the research that leads to those drugs. That's not fair.
What he meant: I have absolutely no idea how much money it costs to develop new drugs.

(On corporate governance)
What he said: In the Bush administration, the foxes are guarding the foxes and the middle-class hens are getting plucked. I want to make clear I said plucked.
What he meant: Not only do I need a decent comedy writer, I also need someone to explain to me how metaphors work.


SHARPTON:

(On Gen. Clark)
What he said: I want to welcome General Clark to New York and I want to welcome him to our list of candidates. And don't be defensive about just joining the party. Welcome to the party. It's better to be a new Democrat that's a real Democrat, than a lot of old Democrats up here that have been acting like Republicans all along.
What he meant: If I piss off the wrong front-runner, I'll never get to be Senator from the District.

(On free trade)
What he said: African-Americans are here on a bad trade policy. We're talking about where we are near, we are near an African burial ground. I'm here on a bad trade policy. ...And we need to walk over to the African burial ground here and understand what bad trade policy--non-ethical trade policy has led to in the history of this country.
What he meant: If you're not against the WTO, you're for slavery.


MOSELEY-BRAUN:

(On health care)
What she said: [T]here's no question in my mind but that every American wants to have universal coverage. But the only way we can get there is with, in my opinion, a single-payer system that is decoupled from employment, that's to say, doesn't depend on employment. The Clinton plan attempted to reconcile the public and private systems that we have now. They are simply irreconcilable. You cannot bring it together and make it make any sense without a whole lot of bureaucracies.
What she meant: So instead, I'd just create one really big bureaucracy.

(On free trade)
What she said: [L]et me suggest a slightly different way of looking at these international trading agreements and arrangements. And that is that it's in the interest of American firms to embrace the idea of labor and environmental and human rights standards, because, otherwise, not to embrace them, simply gives a price advantage to firms and countries that exploit workers, exploit the environment and take advantage of that exploitation by passing it along in their price.
What she meant: I don't have the faintest understanding of economics.


CLARK:

(On being a Democrat)
What he said: I was never partisan in the military. I served under Democratic presidents, I served under Republican presidents. But as I looked at this country and looked which way we were headed, I knew that I needed to speak out. And when I needed to speak out, there was only party to come to.
What he meant: The GOP was going to make me wait at least four years to satisfy my overweening ambition.

(On job creation)
What he said: Well, I think that American business is the source of jobs and opportunity in this country. We need to look very carefully at how we create positive incentives for business. And we need to go right at the jobs problem in this country. I've got a better job plan in eight days than George Bush had in three years in this country, and it will work, it's significant, and we need to concentrate on creating jobs here.
What he meant: I'll get back to you on that plan thingy.

(On potential problems with Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae)
What he said: This is an area where the way the process works is that if there's a sudden rise in interest rates these institutions will be in jeopardy. It's time to relook again the real meaning of the federal guarantee or whether or not there is a federal guarantee behind them.
What he meant: I don't have a plan, but I'll snow you with economic theory if I have to.

What he said: I think Sarbanes-Oxley is a step in the right direction. I think we need to continue to emphasize independent corporate boards. That's the key. Put the corporate governance in place, independent, put the responsibility of the board to the shareholders, not just to the CEO and that will start the ball moving in the right direction. ... I'm out there on the cutting edge in five different companies, and I can tell you that Sarbanes-Oxley is tough, it's difficult and companies are working through it. They are working on revenue recognition. They are working on transparency of options so everybody knows what the full diluted value is. These rules are in place, but they've got to be implemented.
What he meant: I'm jes a plain ol' soldier who wants ta do right by his country. Except when I'm channeling Al Gore.


DEAN:

(On Gen. Clark)
What he said: But the biggest issue in this campaign is the question of patriotism and democracy. I am tired of having John Ashcroft and Dick Cheney and Jerry Falwell and Rush Limbaugh lay a claim to patriotism and lay a claim to the American flag. That flag belongs to every single one of us. And I am tired of having our democracy hijacked by the right wing of this country.
What he meant: I'm just as patriotic as the guy with four stars. Really.

(On repealing the Bush tax cuts)
What he said: Bob Graham and I are the only people up here that have ever balanced a budget and I think we ought to balance this budget and not promise more than we can deliver.
What he meant: Graham has as much chance of winning the nomination as Lyndon LaRouche, so I can afford to make a rhetorical alliance with him here.

(On sniping between Democratic candidates)
What he said: Well, little flashes of disagreement are going to happen from time to time.
What he meant: Don't make Dean angry. You wouldn't like Dean when he's angry.

(On free trade)
What he said: These days I feel my need to restate practically every position I have based on all the things these guys have said about me in the last three or four weeks.
What he meant: Don't make me angry ...

(On job creation)
What he said: You know, to listen to Senator Lieberman, Senator Kerry, Representative Gephardt, I'm anti-Israel, I'm anti-trade, I'm anti-Medicare and I'm anti-Social Security. I wonder how I ended up in the Democratic Party.
What he meant: You're making me angry!

(After Gephardt attacked him for supporting a Medicare funding cut)
What he said: That is flat-out false, and I'm ashamed that you would compare me with Newt Gingrich. Nobody up here deserves to be compared to Newt Gingrich.
What he meant: Dean smash!

(On raising the retirement age)
What he said: You know, Dick Gephardt, earlier in his career considered means testing Social Security and Medicare both, something that I have never considered. I considered raising the Social Security age possibly to 70, possibly to 68. I've rejected that. I think Dick has since rejected means testing Social Security.
What he meant: You screwed me at the AFL-CIO debate with my Social Security flip-flop, so don't think I'll walk into that one twice.

(On free trade)
What he said: Now, what's my position on labor standards? Eventually we have to have the same labor standards through every trade agreement. The European Union is often held up as the model, but you can't get into the European Union unless you have the same environmental and trade standards. I think the place to start is international labor organization standards adhered to and enforced by every one of our trading partners, but ultimately we have to have exactly the same labor standards everywhere.
What he meant: I'll screw over every developing nation to get those labor votes.

(When asked for the most unpopular thing he'd do as President)
What he said: I also signed a civil unions bill which gave equal rights to gay and lesbian people when only 35 percent of the people in my state supported it. That's what American people want. They do not want people who are going to promise them everything. What they want is somebody who's going to tell them where they stand.
What he meant: I've just handed a perfect sound bite over to the GOP.


KUCINICH:

(On potential problems with Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae)
What he said: It think it's important to do some analysis as to why people have lost their homes, because unless we have economic policies that are aimed at savings jobs and stopping the loss of jobs and creating new jobs, you could talk about Fannie Mae and other agencies and it will be for naught.
What he meant: I have no idea what Fannie Mae is.

(On free trade)
What he said: There has to be some relationship between what a country sells in America and what it buys from America. And that's not my idea, it's Lester Thurow who's talked about it and other economists who recognize that there has to be some reciprocity.
What he meant: I have no idea what a competent economist looks like.

(When asked for the most unpopular thing he'd do as President)
What he said: Three things come to mind. First, I would take action to stop the federal death penalty.

Second, I would move to cut the Pentagon budget by 15 percent, which would in no way affect adversely our national defense, and put the money into child care.

Third, I would move to create a Department of Peace which would seek to make nonviolence an organizing principle in our society and to work with the nations of the world to make war itself archaic.
What he meant: I am completely insane.