Reality Check The president's biggest problem isn't John Kerry. It's the world around him.

Now we know that the president disagrees with the Dred Scott decision and is not likely to reappoint its author, Chief Justice Roger Taney (1777-1864) to the United States Supreme Court. This comes as a relief. After all, several of George W. Bush's favorite justices have been elevating the doctrine of states' rights over those of the individual and the federal government during the past decade. If his term runs long enough, Clarence Thomas can reasonably be expected one day to declare that under a proper originalist reading of the Constitution, he should be enslaved. Bush's break with Taney in Friday night's debate, then, is good news for abolitionists. It's on more contemporary topics that Bush's answers Friday night were troubling. In numerous answers, Bush either failed to respond to John Kerry's indictment of his presidency or turned his attention to his own alleged resolve and Kerry's alleged inconsistencies and creeping Europhilia. "In order to be popular in the halls of Europe," Bush noted disdainfully, "you sign a treaty." That may be what girlie-man John Kerry wants, but not Bush, the American homie through thick and thin. [more ]