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BOB BARR, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Thank you, Wolf. And it's great to be with you and Al. I think this whole episode is bizarre. Here we are in the middle of an election, close to Election Day. And you have an incumbent president and a Democrat challenger and we're fighting a war. We're talking about the economy. We're talking about all sorts of important issues, or would like to be, and they're arguing over what it means to be a homosexual. This is really bizarre. And I think that the sooner and the quicker we can get this whole episode behind us and get these two men, and apparently their wives also, talking about the real issues, the better. I think that people are getting indignant about the indignation about the indignation. (LAUGHTER) BARR: And it all is getting kind of silly, to be honest with you. BLITZER: I think Bob Barr, Al, makes a pretty good point. What do you think? FRANKEN: I do, too. I'm not indignant about the indignation. I just think it's -- I agree with Bob Barr entirely. We would -- we got the war and the economy and other things to worry about. BLITZER: All right, so let's talk about really other important, substantive issues. And I'll start once again with you, Al Franken. Where do you see this campaign focusing right now? Which issue is going to make or break it for either of these candidates? FRANKEN: I don't know. Events will -- we have 18 days. Events may tell us where we look. We have had a bad day in Iraq yesterday, but we had a bad day in Iraq for the last -- every day for the last several months. And, economically, this president has not done the job and he has not done the job on health care. It may start to get -- fall to character in the sense that I do feel the Bush team and Bush himself grasping at this point. For example, that ad where they talked about -- where they extracted four words from an 8,000-word article on Kerry's view of the world in "The New York Times" magazine and said that Kerry is just saying that terrorism a nuisance? And, of course, that's not what he said. And I think your job, Wolf, if I may say so, to add on to what Jon Stewart was saying to Tucker Carlson, is to look at something like that. That was disgraceful. That's a disgraceful ad. And the president at the end of that ad says, I'm George Bush and I approve that message. And they took what he took out of context. BLITZER: Bob Barr, did the Republicans take those words, when he said he would hope someday that the war on terrorism would be more of a nuisance, sort of like prostitution or illegal gambling, did the Republicans take... FRANKEN: He didn't say the war on terrorism. He didn't. He said terrorism. BLITZER: He said terrorism, terrorism, would be a nuisance. FRANKEN: Yes.
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