I think both of the candidates did well tonight, though overall I believe John Kerry handled himself better than Bush. A few times during the evening Bush seemed to become confused and wander offtopic. Kerry pretty much remained focussed. Neither candidate seemed to be able to keep the other on the defensive for long, though Kerry seemed to have the upper hand there as well. No small feat for the challenger…
Bush returned again and again to challenging Kerry's fitness to command. “You can't say 'wrong war / wrong time' when you're commander in chief. What kind of message does that send to our troops, to our allies, to the Iraqis, to our enemies?” Bush's primary concern seems to be the same old flip/flop BS that the Republican BS machine keeps harping on. Bush is quite clear that the commander-in-chief must project certainty, and be unwavering and resolute.
Kerry's appropriate responce is basically what good is certainty when you're wrong? You have to be smart. You have to use your brain. You have to be able to say, shit, I messed up, how do we fix it? And if fixing it calls for a change of position, or of policy, so be it. If you're going to do the job, do it right.
Bush tied Kerry's position to politics saying that “you can't change your core convictions based on politics.” Of course, this is an attempt to divert from Kerry's salient point–what good is certainty when you're wrong?
Kerry points out that he is consistent, his position is clear, and when given the opportunity, Bush continues to try and make it look like it isn't. It seems so plainly clear to me, I can't see how anyone else would be fooled by this… but then again 42% of Americans think Saddam had something to do with 9/11. Yeesh… don't get me started there.
Bush had a couple of tired lines that he kept repeating, and by the end of the debate, he looked pretty tired himself. Kerry became more animated, and I was impressed with how smoothly he fielded Bush's claims and barbs, letting nothing slip by. Bush on the other hand looked irritated most of the time.
The big flub of the evening was in a continued discussion on North Korea. John Kerry challenged the president's truthfulness on the events leading up to the present situation in North Korea. Lehrer offered Bush 30 seconds to rebut, and Bush said “I made my position on North Korea clear.” Apparently, missing the point (or unwilling to address the point) of innaccuracy that Kerry had caught him on. Lehrer pointed out “Well he's using the word truth here. He's saying that what you said was untrue.” To which Bush responded by repeating some lines he had said earlier about Iraq, and explaining that he and Kerry saw the same intelligence about Saddam. Oops. And what has this got to do with North Korea? Anybody in there, George?
George brought up flip/flopping no less than 10 times–I counted. Although in this debate it was called “mixed messages”. It seemed to be his universal response to everything. Mr. Bush do you think our priorities are wrong in pursuing Saddam instead of Osama? We can do both! What we must not do is send mixed messages. Are the lives lost worth it? Every life is precious, but we must not send mixed messages. Does the Iraq experience make it more likely or less likely that we would go into a preemptive war? I hope we never need to again, we should use diplomacy every chance we get, and send clear signals–no mixed messages.
Kerry buried Bush on his own mixed messages, and in a masterful moment did something that Bush is unable to do, he admitted a mistake: “…when I talked about the $87 billion, I made a mistake in how I talk about the war. But the president made a mistake in invading Iraq. Which is worse?” Kerry can admit his mistakes and still come out on top.
Bush continues to conflate the Iraq war with the war on terror, now saying that a free Iraq and a free Afghanistan are essential to winning that war. This is a new message from the president. Talk about mixed signals!
Anyway I thought both candidates did very well. Bush did better than I expected him to, and Kerry as the underdog, put forth an exceptionally strong and confident discourse throughout. In my opinion Kerry wins this one, but not by as wide a margin as I would have expected.
You can read a transcript of the debate here.
James has written some excellent articles about the debates (speedy bastid!) that I encourage you to check out:
I agree with most of what you say Chuck, Bush didn't look good, but, this is not his strong suit and never has been. He's a terrible debater, and Kerry was at his best last night, not devastating, but damn good nonetheless. Whether or not any of it will move any votes remains to be seen, but what I saw last night was what I expected to a large degree. The only way Bush was going to win last night was if John Kerry slipped up badly, and of course, he did not.