Friday, October 01, 2004
UNDEBATABLE !
I found the debate to be a little tedious. Not only was it not Lincoln-Douglas, it wasn't even Kennedy-Nixon.
My analysis:
The candidates spoke primarily to their own bases to strengthen and soldify existing support by getting in the treasured zingers against the other guy. Little or no attempt to peel off support from the other side was made. My impression was that between the candidates exists a feeling of mutual disdain but no real heat or personal animosity. Major gaffes, or even minor ones, were avoided as they played it safe.
Bush's level of eloquence is what it is - he is a known quantity and performed slightly better than usual in extemporaneous settings but no where near his best speech to the Congress, given after September 11. Of the president, the voters minds are already made up for good or ill.
John Kerry was not a known quantity to most of the public before last night's debate and he blew his chance for a dramatic introduction though he has two more chances to improve the impression. He comes across on TV as the slightly repellent Dean of Students from your days in High School or the chairman of an Undertaker's Association in a small New England State.
The Democratic Party has decided to run for the presidency a scolding, gloomy, Ichabod Crane of elite liberalism.
¶ 6:35 AM
I found the debate to be a little tedious. Not only was it not Lincoln-Douglas, it wasn't even Kennedy-Nixon.
My analysis:
The candidates spoke primarily to their own bases to strengthen and soldify existing support by getting in the treasured zingers against the other guy. Little or no attempt to peel off support from the other side was made. My impression was that between the candidates exists a feeling of mutual disdain but no real heat or personal animosity. Major gaffes, or even minor ones, were avoided as they played it safe.
Bush's level of eloquence is what it is - he is a known quantity and performed slightly better than usual in extemporaneous settings but no where near his best speech to the Congress, given after September 11. Of the president, the voters minds are already made up for good or ill.
John Kerry was not a known quantity to most of the public before last night's debate and he blew his chance for a dramatic introduction though he has two more chances to improve the impression. He comes across on TV as the slightly repellent Dean of Students from your days in High School or the chairman of an Undertaker's Association in a small New England State.
The Democratic Party has decided to run for the presidency a scolding, gloomy, Ichabod Crane of elite liberalism.
¶ 6:35 AM
Comments:
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I'm not sure what you were watching last night Zen but I saw a debate in which the President lost hands down. He seemed very out of sorts despite having his afternoon nap. Face it, he just can't function without a script. If I were a neocon like you I'd try to spin it that way too i.e. the debate was a bore, yawn yawn etc. Not working. Your guy lost.
Err...was anyone expecting a reprise of Pericles funeral oration from George W. Bush ? Bush did look tired and irritable but he didn't have a Dan Quayle moment either
Kerry had a debating edge in a technical sense but that doesn't really matter too much with the type of superficially interested voter both men are trying to reach right now. Partisans have already made up their minds.
Mithras I thought, had a good review and he's no neocon to say the least.
Kerry had a debating edge in a technical sense but that doesn't really matter too much with the type of superficially interested voter both men are trying to reach right now. Partisans have already made up their minds.
Mithras I thought, had a good review and he's no neocon to say the least.
I don't think anybody scored Bush higher on presentation but presentation is only half the battle. In wartime I would say that it's the lesser half. Kerry opened himself up to some followup shots based on the substance of his remarks that will be difficult for him to come back from.
Right now, there are engineers working feverishly on creating underground installations that are below the level we can get to with conventional munitions or even any likely future conventional munitions. Funded by various dictatorships, they eliminate the ability for people to raid a WMD facility and just take it out without doing a full invasion. Nuclear bunker busters are pretty much our only hope to reduce the number of scenarios where we need to invade to solve a problem and Kerry's against them.
Kerry thinks we made a colossal mistake entering Iraq but that the troops are not dying for a mistake. This is the famed Kerry consistency he was going to show in order to resolve the flip-flop image?
We got taken to the cleaners the last time we negotiated bilaterally with N. Korea. We worked very hard to force the PRC into a multilateral talk process. Kerry would undo that progress and put us back into bilateral negotiation hell. The idea that the PRC won't exit multilateral talks the moment they can is beyond naive and into dangerously irresponsible territory.
Kerry wants to give nuclear fuel to Iran and when they break yet another paper agreement he will put sanctions on them. I'm sure the mullahs are shaking in their boots. After all, our 2.5 decades of sanctions have hurt them so much.
Kerry denigrated Poland, a fact that the President of Poland has taken note of and no doubt has been more than mentioned in the Polish-American community all across the US. That community is very strong in the Midwest (Chicago is the world's 2nd biggest polish city, by number of poles after Warsaw). Is this how Kerry is going to build alliances, by engaging in traditional european derision and bigotry?
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Right now, there are engineers working feverishly on creating underground installations that are below the level we can get to with conventional munitions or even any likely future conventional munitions. Funded by various dictatorships, they eliminate the ability for people to raid a WMD facility and just take it out without doing a full invasion. Nuclear bunker busters are pretty much our only hope to reduce the number of scenarios where we need to invade to solve a problem and Kerry's against them.
Kerry thinks we made a colossal mistake entering Iraq but that the troops are not dying for a mistake. This is the famed Kerry consistency he was going to show in order to resolve the flip-flop image?
We got taken to the cleaners the last time we negotiated bilaterally with N. Korea. We worked very hard to force the PRC into a multilateral talk process. Kerry would undo that progress and put us back into bilateral negotiation hell. The idea that the PRC won't exit multilateral talks the moment they can is beyond naive and into dangerously irresponsible territory.
Kerry wants to give nuclear fuel to Iran and when they break yet another paper agreement he will put sanctions on them. I'm sure the mullahs are shaking in their boots. After all, our 2.5 decades of sanctions have hurt them so much.
Kerry denigrated Poland, a fact that the President of Poland has taken note of and no doubt has been more than mentioned in the Polish-American community all across the US. That community is very strong in the Midwest (Chicago is the world's 2nd biggest polish city, by number of poles after Warsaw). Is this how Kerry is going to build alliances, by engaging in traditional european derision and bigotry?
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