Oops. I forgot one point. If Mr. Kerry does win the Presidency, there is one big plum for the GOP and the country in general. Hillary Clinton is done as far as running for President.
upon further review...in general, no big rhetorical mishaps by either candidate, but Bush did nail Kerry at least twice. once on North Korea, and bilateral talks, the second time on the global test for preemption. these will be the republican talking points for the next week. kerry spoke well, but you gotta watch what you say...
CSPAN showed the split screen fro the entire debate. W had his panties in a serious wad during most of Kerry's replies. Both Kerry and GWB had their moments. The MSNBC crew had Kerry winning by a bit. I thought Kerry looked "presidential", more so than GWB. Rove has his work cut out for him.
So..... what's everybody's prefered blog saying? I don't read blogs, but I know plenty of you guys do.
Kerry didn't have a strong debate, but Bush had a horrible one. Consider, everything in this debate was scripted. EVERYTHING. Kerry had a few moments of indecision - but except for the moment at the end Bush was floundering, tripping over his tongue and unable to articulate anything. Kerry split some hairs he shouldn't have split, and left himself open on issues I thought Bush could score on - but Bush never really got him - a Reagan or Clinton would've smashed him. Got to be a bit dissapointed in the result, this was Bush's strongest debate issue and he really didn't perform that well.
Kerry needed a homerun tonight and didn't get it. At his very best he tied Bush. That ain't going to be enough.
Did anyone catch the interview with the undecided voters on NBC after the debate? --100% considered Kerry the clear winner.
though my cold medicine (or the candidates) put to me to sleep for about 15 minutes during the debate, i thought most of the debate was about Iraq. Did people really think Bush had an advantage on Iraq?
Foreign policy is typically a Republican forte. And as for Iraq, when was the last time an incumbent President was ousted during wartime?
Bush won on substance but negated that with his horrible delivery. It is imperative that he comes correct next time, and gives us immediate post 9/11 Bush instead of the nervous, stagefrightened guy he was tonight.
Not sure I agree with the first statement. It may apply since Reagan, but I think that has a lot to do with the particular president and doesn't necessarily continue to the entire party. Remember 4 years ago, people were talking about Bush not knowing jack about foreign policy. I think I'm missing your point on the 2nd statement. At least before tonight, Bush was still winning. Maybe I should have said Relative advantage. Bush thinks he has an advantage on all the issues. Amazingly, so does Kerry. That's why they are both pompous assholes.
