I watched it from start to finish, not non stop but I watched every minute of it. I could pause it, rewind it and relisten to what either man said. And I did. I went back over alot of the points, I watched and listened to John Kerry respond to the questions with clear answers, directions, actions to take that haven't been taken.
And I saw George W. Bush squirm. I saw him stutter, sputter and mutter. If it was a dogfight then he's coasting home on his silk. He got beaten. He got beaten badly.
Where Bush offered the lame soundbites that his team has been pushing since the beginning, Kerry sideswiped and kicked his ass with a body blow after body blow. I need a transcript!
Bush trotted out the most ridiculous expenditure of the modern era, the missile defense system. Holy motherfucking shit, you simpering moronic little chimp of a man. You think the terrorists are going to use missiles?
You are deeply, deeply out of touch with reality. Terrorists would never use a missile, they'd smuggle in a bomb in a backpack and destroy downtown New York.
A fucking missile defense system? Who's he appealling to? Reaganites! He wants to evoke nostalgic sympathy in the geriatric set! Nice work, Mr. President.
Oooh, being President is hard. I seem to remember Will Farrell parodying you before you were elected saying "Being President is haaaaaard!"
okay, let's get back to the program at hand. Bush repeated time and again how Kerry has been inconsistent and was countered strongly each time. Kerry held his ground and spoke clearly, confidently and intelligently.
Bush hunched himself over the podium looking smaller than he already was compared to Kerry. Kerry looked stately, calm and capable.
Instead of supporting his claims, Bush would just give a look and nod. Yep, gotcha, boss. Oh wait, its a debate, you're supposed to make a premise, support it with other statements and arrive at a logical conclusion. Bush smirked and that was that.
On a bunch of occasions, Bush finished before time was up, the middle light, not the last 5 second light. When they got to the final closing talks, both my wife and I said there was no way he was going the full 2 minutes.
Reactions from the Bush side have been interesting. I will probably go out and read some sites and comments.
There's really not much denying that this was a big Kerry victory. I have read that people only listening to the debate gave it to Bush by a nose because Kerry sounded a little haughty.
And it has occurred to me that this could be a slick rope-a-dope. Let Kerry take the first two rounds and then deck him in the third. I don't think it'll go that way but that could be a strategy. It could also be what the new strategy is for them since this one's done and its a win for Kerry.
Now, does that translate into votes? It should. Why else would we have the debates if they didn't help people make up their minds? Maybe minds haven't been changed yet but maybe they've started to be opened. I'm very curious to hear what Ryan, Seed and Savage Henry have to say. What say you, guys? Anyone else?
Some interesting takes at the Allah Pundit (yeah, who knew?) which is serving as a central repository for thoughts about the debate. I haven't figured out if its solely committed to the GOP or if they are polling Democrats as well. But there are plenty of allegations of lies, slander, whatever. Kerry screwed up some points, Bush outright misrepresented his points. Calling this a draw is incorrect. Its just simply wrong.
Watch.
The Daily Show's take, "a retarded man held his own against a senator, you've gotta reelect him!"
More here and a very extensive thread on MeFi. The "Pundits" on CNN gave Bush mostly B's and Kerry got mostly A's.
And some excerpted responses from the other side of the fence.
"In tone and bearing, (Kerry) seemed calm, authoritative, and, yes, presidential. . . . this was critical to undermining Bush's constant assertion that Kerry is unclear, wavering and unreliable . . . it was Bush who was grimacing, furrowing his brow, almost rolling his eyes and at the very beginning, looking snippy and peevish." - Andrew Sullivan
"The Bush campaign miscalculated on having the first night be foreign policy night." - Jonah Goldberg, National Review
"(Kerry) was shockingly succinct and sharp . . . Bush was badly hurt by, yes, the podium height, which made him seem smaller, in comparison to Kerry, than he actually is. (Bush) looked . . . a bit like a gargoyle, or someone who needed the podium for protection. After an hour I'd had enough of Kerry's humorlessness. But I no longer had such a problem with him being humorless in the Oval Office." - Mickey Kaus, Slate
"I think Kerry did pretty well tonight, he was forceful and articulate." - Bill Kristol, Weekly Standard"
"Kerry was tougher than I had expected . . . Bush started off weak" - Glen Reynolds, Instapundit
"(Kerry) does not come across as arrogant and obnoxious as we believe him to be. . . The President is a dismally poor public speaker. - John Derbyshire, National Review
"Despite my partisan inclinations, I have to admit that Kerry has won this debate . . . Kerry comes off as the prosecutor accusing Bush of incompetence. Bush comes off as his Meet-The-Press, press-conference version - dogged, arrogant and unlikable. Kerry will get a significant bounce in the head-to-head poll numbers from this debate." - Polipundit.com
"I thought the President was repetitive and reactive . . . Kerry was smoother and proactive..." - Kate O'Beirne, National Review, The Capital Gang
"Kerry is the more fluid debater . . . I think he might have picked up some undecideds because I thought he looked and sounded plausibly Presidential." - John Hillen, National Review
"Tonight (Kerry) seemed to find his voice for the Democratic view of the world." - Tim Russert, Meet the Press
"This is the President's turf, this is the place that the President is supposed to dominate, terror and the war in Iraq. I don't think he really dominated tonight. I think Kerry looked like a commander-in-chief." - Morton Kondracke
"AND THE WINNER IS . . . Kerry. Five weeks, white knuckles." - Richard Brookhiser, National Review
[Update: I've engaged the opposition in discussing the debates over at A Small Victory. The discourse has been surprisingly polite and only very, very mildly combative. However, my comments are freaking huge. Truly like six pages each. But there was lots of stuff to refute. Come on over and join in. I can always use some allies with other news to add.]
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