debate

[rm]

I saw very little of the debate (the approximately 18-minutes which I did coding on, which apparently did not contain the more interesting events of the evening).

However:

- Bush does better in this format
- Kerry did better in this format that I expected
- Bush's tie was crooked, again
- Did I really hear (and I was doing something else at the time, I only overheard it vaguely) Bush go on about the need for group homes for unwed mothers?
- Bush seemed out of touch
- Kerry seemed non-specific
- I get why people dig Bush's aww-shucks persona, but that's a weird persona to dig in a president
- When Kerry talked about killing Osama bin Laden, he punched the word "kill" in a way I've never heard him do before, and it was effective, convincing, and enough to actually set me back in my seat a little. I mean, quite frankly, as much as that is that needs to be done (and I'm glad we're not pussy-fotting around about it), it was a little creepy.
- Finally, what was up with that timber company thing? It was bizarre from start to finish, especially when Bush tried to turn it into a joke a second time and randomly said, "You wanna buy some wood?" Ummmmm... help?

All in all, I didn't see enough of it to say who won, but my sense was their performances were equal but that undecideds might give it to Kerry because he was at least vaguely present on "yo, the economy needs some help."

Meanwhile, the mystery of the bulge (as the media is apparently obsessed with calling it, much to the giggling amusement of the entire damn Internet) finally makes its appearance in the New Yor Times, which sheds no light on the subject beyond saying that whatever people are reacting too is something (even if that something is a fabric wrinkle) and not a doctored image. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/09/politics/campaign/09bulge.html?oref=login

Comments

[algor.livejournal.com]

The thing about the unwed mothers surprised me, and I didn't catch it all. Was he implying that unwed mothers were unable to live on their own?

[kathrynrose.livejournal.com]

I walked out after the first couple of questions, just because I can only handle five or ten minutes of Dubya before my head explodes. I did tape it, though, and I heard part of it from the other room. I'm not sure, but I think I heard Bush use the term "haters" and I busted out laughing. I might have mis-heard, or he might have meant it a different way, but it cracked me up that he might be trying to be "all that". :P

[bloo-stocking.livejournal.com]

Once again, Bush was defensive and looked like he felt like a cornered animal. He threw around the word "liberal" too many times. His refusal to let Charles Gibson "mediate" at one point, I think, made him look even more like a defensive bumbling idiot. Although both sides rely way too much on repetition, Kerry can at least pull it off with some finesse. I especially like Bush's reference to the "Internets." Plus his subject/verb agreements are always good for a laugh.