Who won?
Much has been said about the first presidential debate, so now it's my turn. But I'm too lazy to organize my thought into paragraphs.1. The time limit, as I had expected, worked to Kerry's advantage. However, I wish both men would stop talking when they were finished even if the lights hasn't started to flash.
2. Bush scores points with the religious core by mentioning "prayer" and "God" and that "mountain top... valley of peace" quote. Like he ever feels threatened to lose their votes. My question is, if they translate his speech into Arabic, does "God" become "Allah"? So would he score points with the Muslim Arabs? (It's a rhetorical question.)
3. Kerry won, mainly style over substance. While we like to believe substance should come first, the fact Kerry APPEARED to win a debate on a topic of Bush's own choosing, War, and at the game that the Bush team were usually superb at, images and impressions, is a victory that should hearten the Kerry team.
4. Kerry missed some chances early to hurt Bush, but he got better as the time went on. Early on Bush repeated Iraq IS a central front in war on terror and that's why we are there. Kerry should have corrected him by saying the cause-and-effect is backward: we went to Iraq first, exposing the troops to become a vulnerable target for the terrorists which then turned Iraq into a front in the war on terror. It seems Bush didn't have the stamina in the second half of the debate and resorted to his stump speeches which did not play well in front a quiet audience.
5. Why I would vote for McCain but not Giuliani. Giuliani has become a mouth piece of Bush, and it is so transparent it is sad. McCain on the other hand must be throne on the side of Bush. Yes he's SUPPORTING Bush, but he's very careful with his words. It's often more like a Dad talking about his son. When pressed by Larry King to compare Bush of today to Bush of 2000, the best McCain could say is, "He's really grown in the four years in the office." Dude, Bush is like 58 and still growing?! Is he done growing? With the faces that he was making last night, apparently not.
6. Kerry should thank his people that negotiated the debate setup. The first debate is so rigidly constructed, with podium and lights and time limits, no one could help but be a little stiff. So Kerry is comfortable, except he experimented with a few hand puppet... I mean, gestures. Bush on the other hand is just dying over there. He hunched over the podium (it was shown more clear with a camera behind him, but not Kerry, who's as stiff as ever), but couldn't do the folksy talk that he loves to do.
7. As to whether winning the debate can help to win the undecided, I'm not convinced. It seems that there are two groups. One group is undecided because they don't care and don't bother to learn about the candidates. So they probably didn't watch the debate anyway. A second group is undecided because they are torn, and they want to hear very specific things that would convince them one way or the other. But the debate is still more style and sound bites than anything else, so the hope of hearing something new and revealing is dim.
8. on TV, Kerry stands on the left, and Bush right. Nice. with the split screen, a picture is worth a thousand words.
posted by hedgehog @ 10:12 PM
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