Right now he's pathetically pleading that he's "closely cooperating" with the Foreign Minister of France, our close ally. Old Mr. Unilateral Action appears to have been retired.
Posted by DeLong at September 30, 2004 07:08 PM | TrackBackKerry did very well tonight. You could even say he wiped the floor with Bush, but if you don't want to go that far, you have to admit his performance was very solid.
Posted by: Brian at September 30, 2004 07:40 PMBush seemed not to have his head in the game at a couple of points. However, getting that to stick in undecided voters' heads depends crucially on what undecided voters are told to think over the next few days. They have, after all, not been able to make up their minds till now. The pros will now set about trying to help them make up their minds, based on the same old crap they were saying before the debates. C. Boyden Grey jumped right out and claims that Bush won on content and style. That he was, get this, "more fluent" than Kerry. Help your undecided friends think this through.
Posted by: kharris at September 30, 2004 07:48 PMBy my count W said "It's hard work" 13 times (Scarborough on MSNBC counted 11). I think it's clear the job is just too damn much work for him.
Posted by: Martin at September 30, 2004 07:49 PMScarborough just said that when Bush fumbles questions, he relates well to people because "he talks just like they do." ARRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGG!
Posted by: Richard Green at September 30, 2004 07:56 PMAndrew Sullivan's first post "No president who has presided over Abu Ghraib should ever say he wants to put anyone on a leash. That's all. Stay tuned."
Posted by: Martin at September 30, 2004 07:58 PMKerry really got Bush's goat tonight.
"Of course I know that Osama attacked us." Wow. He sounded totally pissed off and petulant when he said that. That he even had to say that was a major defeat for Bush. Bush did not look like a president tonight.
Kerry looked very presidential.
Bush returns to the deer in the headlights expression he had reading My Pet Goat. Where am I? Why am i hear? what should I do? Where is dick? see Dick run...
Posted by: pfknc at September 30, 2004 08:25 PMIt almost makes me worried that dubya could not possibly look this bad again. Clearly, though, the callers on CSpan who identified as Bush supporters were unmoved by his lame showing. So that's what "resolute" means...
Posted by: TomChicago at September 30, 2004 08:40 PMIt almost makes me worried that dubya could not possibly look this bad again. Clearly, though, the callers on CSpan who identified as Bush supporters were unmoved by his lame showing. So that's what "resolute" means...
Posted by: TomChicago at September 30, 2004 08:42 PMkharris writes:
>
> The pros will now set about trying to help them make up their
> minds, based on the same old crap they were saying before
> the debates. C. Boyden Grey jumped right out and claims that
> Bush won on content and style. That he was, get this, "more f
> fluent" than Kerry. Help your undecided friends think this
> through.
Yes, that moment was completely surreal. Fortunately, we have a remote control... More seriously, I don't doubt that Team Bush will try to spin this into gold, but Kerry (tonight, anyway) gave them a lot less to work with than Gore did. I think they'll hammer home the idea of "straight, simple talking" or some such. I think that will also work with some subset of undecideds, too. But, again, not many people have probably seen Kerry debate somebody live and in person, and I suspect some portion of those voters are going to be impressed. He didn't sound all flippy floppy, he did sound relentless against Osama Bin Laden, and he wasn't wind-surfing. That's a trifecta, right? :-)
Posted by: Jonathan King at September 30, 2004 08:46 PMLooking for phone chat? try our juicy chat lines!
Posted by: Phone Chat at October 1, 2004 02:34 AMThe Presidential "debate" between Kerry and Bush revealed a lot more about these men than I had expected to see:
John Kerry revealed himself as a strong and steady leader who understands how to make the best of the mess we have gotten into in the Iraq war. Kerry consistently stated that Bush's invasion of Iraq was a collosal mistake, diverting our effort away from the real fight against terrorists. Although he voted to authorize the President's use of force against Hussein in Iraq, Kerry fealt that we were all mislead when Bush broke his pledge to go to war as a last resort,and in cooperation with old allies. Bush had his opportunistic war in spite of US, got thousands of our best people killed, and squandered over 200 $$ billion of our treasury; John Kerry knows how to win help from our friends, and then come home. He knows we cannot and must not lose this one.
I was really hoping to hear President Bush tell the truth about Iraq, but he babbled about fantasies. Bush's neo-con-men turned down help from the UN, and they lied about the real reasons for this war in Iraq. We didn't plan for winning the peace, and our troops are now mired in the quicksands of Babylon. Iraq is in chaos according to our own State Deptartment and CIA intelligence; The people of Iraq want us to get out. Bush still paints a rosey picture of Iraq, but I detected a plaintively pathetic note when Bush talked about their new "Freedom". We're less safe now.
These debates give us new hope for the future: John Kerry is a leader we can believe and count on for America's security. George Bush has blown our country's credibility and trust; I'm ready for real change at the top.