Just a place to stick stuff about the second debate.
Update: I think it was a wash, more or less. Style points still give the edge to the Senator from Massachusetts (though he loses a point for a Red Sox joke, and another point because that joke came on the same night they swept the Angels to get into the ALCS).
I also have one point of frustration for the two debates so far that finally boiled over. WHY in God’s name does Bush always get extra rebuttal time while Kerry only gets it some of the time. The President is nearly jumping out of his chair at every question and thus always get rebuttal time while Kerry nearly has to wave his arms wildly in the air to get a followup. Also, Gibson and Lehrer never interrupted the President as he started his rebuttal to ask a “follow-on” question. Gibson ALWAYS stopped Kerry. I know Bush is the President, and is thus afforded some deference, but he should still be required to follow the damn rules.
Beyond that, Kerry got gypped his 30 seconds at least once during this debate and once or twice last time. I don’t think it’s a huge deal, but I wish these guys would simply follow the rules of the format. Just because Bush jumps up and wants to say “I know that!” doesn’t mean you don’t let Kerry rebut as well. It just annoys my sense of fair play to no end.
Finally, did you notice the tape line on the floor of the stage? I think it was a measure to prevent a Gore incident from 2000. The dashed line of tape ran down the center of the floor and both candidates never crossed it as far as I could see. I think that the seating arrangements of the questioners was set up so that the candidate was able to walk up to them. So, all the Kerry questioners were on the Kerry side of the stage and vice versa. I wasn’t checking each questioner, so I could be wrong, but I didn’t notice any crossover. Nicely staged event, this one. Oh wait, there was the head fake questioner… damn, so much for my theory.
Anyway, it was a wash. I thought it was nice that Kerry began to address the finance issue relating to his proposals. It’s a good start to begin laying that stuff out.
October 8th, 2004 at 11:07 pm
Wow that was crazy! I think bush almost lost it at one point. Kerry gave him that last point, which was too bad.
October 8th, 2004 at 11:13 pm
Did my last post get lost? Or is there just a delay?
October 8th, 2004 at 11:20 pm
Argh. From now on, compose in Word, then paste to Fatmixx….
Ok, WTF was that line about the Dred Scott decision? Has he *read* the constitution? Prior to the Thirteenth Amendment, upholding slavery on personal property grounds *was* a strict constructionist approach to the Constitution. And he kept claiming that the Duelfer report supported the decision to go invade Iraq, on the grounds that Iraq wanted to acquire WMDs which it would then provide to terrorists for use against the U.S. But, in fact, the report actually found that Iraq wanted WMDs (whether it could develop them is another matter), not to provide to terrorists or to use them against the U.S., but to use them against Iraq’s traditional enemies, Iran and Israel. Of course, if you really want to use the Duelfer report as a post hoc excuse, you could seize on that last fact, Israel being an ally and all. Why invent stuff out of whole cloth? I’m not watching the post debate commentary (still at work, could only even see it by watching a CSPAN internet feed) – is he being called on any of this?
October 8th, 2004 at 11:21 pm
Ok, clearly I’m tripping up the spam filter. Is there a way to find out what the parameters of the filter are, so this can be avoided in the future?
October 8th, 2004 at 11:33 pm
login and look under options->discussion
or you can look under edit->awaiting moderation.
October 8th, 2004 at 11:49 pm
My permissions aren’t high enough for the Options -> discussion. But I’ll have to remember the Edit -> awaiting moderation one.
October 8th, 2004 at 11:51 pm
The President came out swinging… for 12 rounds of a 15 round title fight. Kerry got in some quick hits near the end that will sting. The President beat up the Senator with the “you can run but you can’t hide from your record” line but then missed the greatest opportunity he could’ve have used against the Senator… “But you voted against Gulf I when there was a unilateral coalition and Sadam Hussein proved he is and will be a threat to the world.”
Kerry made the broke the number one rule of campaigning… “any time you are left to explain yourself or constantly defend an attack, you are losing ground.” … with that said, I don’t think it hurt him as much as it could’ve but I saw the debate with my wife’s family (all staunch democrats) and in many instances as he was beggining his answer by explaining himself on a question asked previously, they would say, “What does that have to do with…???”
But near the end, the Senator landed some serious punches that stung.
I have to say the Senator used the Duelfer Report very effectively. The President could’ve diffused it by simply stating 20/20 hindsight is perfect but based on the intelligence we had at the time, this is the course of action we took. The President tried but just didn’t hit hard enough.
The partial ban abortion vote hurt… But the supreme court justice question evened out the damage.
as for a winner… an undecided must be saying this right now… I know where both stand, I know what both have said… which one do I believe? The polls over the weekend will be interesting… neither candidate ran the table… both selectively reached out for undecideds but neither went out on a limb to grab the whole group and reel them in… I guess we wait for the finale!
October 9th, 2004 at 12:04 am
I don’t know whether it is true or not that the President owns or is a partner in a timber company… (he probably is but for $84… I have no time to go look it up) … but you have to love his line:
“I own a timber company? That’s news to me….. Need some wood?”
I know it was smug, but funny as hell.
October 9th, 2004 at 12:25 am
And, like so much that comes from his mouth, it was wrong and misleading:
http://www.factcheck.org/article.aspx@DocID=265
It was more smug than funny, especially the awkward “Need some wood” line. Very un-Presidential and unbecoming. Heidi and I promptly looked at each other and did a “did he actually say that?” Of course, we were watching and Tivo’ing the whole thing, so we rewound and played it back…
Oh, and he might want to remember that he’s running against Senator Kerry, not Senator Kennedy.
October 10th, 2004 at 6:55 pm
“I know that!”