I promised my thoughts on the various debates, and keep forgetting to do that, so here goes. Since the first thoughts are what I really want, I’ll grab things from emails I sent at the time when I can…
First Presidential Debate
(my comments sent at 1 Oct 2004 04:02:40 UTC)
I though Kerry definitely won. He came off much more together and coherent and his answers were a lot more thought out. He did a lot better than I expected. Bush did just about how I expected. I was surprised at just HOW much he just kept repeating his stock phrases and prepared stock answers. I expected both of them to do some repetition, it is part of what you do. And they both did. But over and over W kept going back to the same few things, even when it wasn’t related to the question at all… and I was just amused by some of the long pauses.
Vice Presidential Debate
(my comments sent 6 Oct 2004 11:18:19 UTC)
Unlike the other one, this one was a fair fight where both contestants were in the game. In the first half though, Cheney was running circles around Edwards. Edwards looked and sounded like a young wippersnapper who had a few lines he wanted to get off, while Cheney sounded like an authoratative adult who knew what the hell he was talking about. Edwards did a little bit better in the second half when they got to domestic policy, but just a little bit better, not a lot. He never pulled ahead. Cheney won this one.
I also note, that although I probably still would have issues picking a candidate, I’d be a lot happier if these were the two choices rather than Bush/Kerry. Either one of these guys would be better than the ones above them on the tickets.
(IE: I may still violently disagree with Cheney on many things, but at least it is obvious he has thought about the issues and has some complexity and depth behind his positions. Edwards is less of a difference, but I’ve just had a better reaction to him than Kerry, going all the way back to the primaries. He’s slick in a Clintonian way, but I still trust him more than Kerry.)
Second Presidential Debate: Well, I didn’t really comment much at the time in any form I can cut and paste. I thought it was much more even. Bush did a good job. Kerry did a good job. No knockouts, nothing significant. I was not impressed by the format. If you are going to have a town hall, have a real town hall. If you are just going to do what they did there, dispense with the audience and just have the moderator do it.
Third Presidential Debate: Well, to be honest… Domestic issues kind of bore me for the most part (with some exceptions) and I was kind of tired to begin with. I fell asleep at least three or four times trying to watch this debate. If it wasn’t for the Tivo I never would have made it through. As it was it took me several days. And I end up with very groggy impressions of it. So I can’t put a real opinion together. The polls and such seem to have Kerry coming out better from it.
Well, that is my debate opinion summary.
My opinion:
#1 Kerry won. Bush is a moron.
VP – They tied. Edwards made up whatever ground he had lost in the beginning by playing the lesbian card.And I got the feeling that the VP thinks that Bush is an idiot.
#2 Kerry formulated coherent answers. Bush tried to be the “buddy” but came off as an alkie trying to make friends with the cop who is pulling him over by elplaining how the fact that he was driving irratically was the fault of the guy sitting on the stool next to him back at Hooters. It was totally fake and he is creepy. And oh yeah, Bush is a moron. Kerry won.
#3 Kerry won. I got to see some parts several times what with all the rewinding to catch the parts that were snored through. Bush is a moron. But at least this time he managed to learn more than one speach to get him through. That must have taken forever. I’ll bet it’s like trying to housebreak a retarted puppy.
ANYWAY, my favorite part of all during the final debate was during the wrap up, when they were talking to the commentators with the cheering masses behind them. And there was some scruffy guy standing there holding a marker on posterboard sign that said”Kerry Eats Babies”. And then there were people with the Kerry/Edwards campaign signs on sticks and they were kinda trying to slip their sign in from to the baby eating one. And in comes another sign, and my favorite one of all: a pro BUsh sign that has a whole bunch of writing on it, but it’s so small, all you can see clearly on the tv is in block letters “BUSH IS STUPID”. Now, since we were watching it on a 6′ woder wall,we could see a not more of it, and it was suppsed to be like an “other than these things Bush is stupid? Definately not!” But again, the only printing big enough to see for most people was “BUSH IS STUPID” and they were trying really hard tomake sure the rest of the world saw it too. I found that rather amusing. So Bush is a moron, and apparently so are his followers.