From this past week in the presidential campaigns, here are two disheartening sound bites: (These are paraphrases, not exact quotes). George Bush At his recent press conference, when asked whether the results achieved in Iraq had been worth the loss of 600 young Americans' lives, and countless Iraqi lives, President Bush made (among other points) the monumentally insensitive observation--juxtaposed with mention of American war dead--that we had "Saved the oil. We didn't know if we were going to be able to do that; but we saved the oil." (Thank god...) John Kerry On "Meet the Press" this past Sunday, Kerry was the guest. He had been the guest on that same program about six months ago, shortly after announcing his candidacy. My first impression back then was that he was trying desperately not to say anything to offend anyone. I was hoping to be dissuaded of that initial impression by his second appearance. The moderator, Tim Russet, played a clip of Kerry's appearance on that same program back in 1971, in which Kerry basically called the President of the United States "a war criminal". After citing the atrocities he had witnessed or taken part in personally, he made the logical connection that those people who had ordered such actions were just as guilty as those who had actually committed them. These were the comments of a forthright, even-tempered, thoughtful young man...not a hysterical radical. However, after viewing that clip on this Sunday's program, Kerry chuckled a bit, made some lame comment about how his hair had changed, and said "Well...those were the comments of an angry young man. It was part of the times then. Probably 'atrocities' was too strong a word. If I knew then what I know now, I would have been a little less abrasive, and used more art." (yuck...) saxon