The Presidential debate starts in about ten minutes. As before, I’ll be watching it on C-SPAN’s internet feed. Rambling, incoherent, stream of consciousness commentary to be posted once the debate is over with.
Introduction is going on, Charles Gibson moderating. Hmm…any bets on how (un)likely it is that someone will ask the \$6000 question?
Rules, rules, rules, yadda yadda.
And the contenders enter the ring.
For Kerry: “Why are you so wishy-washy?” (Paraphrased) Kerry: “The President has turned his campaign into a Weapon of Mass Distraction.”
They’re not doing the split-screen here that they were previously (since the candidates are able to get up and walk around), but in the few shots I’ve seen of Bush while Kerry is talking, he looks utterly lifeless — like he’s trying so hard not to react to what Kerry’s saying like he did in the first debate that he’s completely relaxed his face. Unfortunately, this now makes him look like he’s about to start drooling…
How many times can Bush mention 9/11 in a minute? He just got three in fifteen seconds without even trying.
Bush: “Saddam could give WMD’s to Al-Quaida.” But Saddam and Al-Quaida weren’t dealing with each other (at least that’s what I remember). Not to mention that the latest reports say that the sole WMD programs in Iraq since 1991 were in Saddam’s head.
Kerry didn’t let that one pass at all — brought up yesterday’s report on the non-existence of WMD’s.
Bush keeps saying that other nations won’t follow a President who says “follow me into a war that is a mistake.” How about a President who asks, “would you help me fix the mistakes that were made?”
Bush keeps saying the same things over and over again &dmash; “global conflict”, “75 percent of Al-Quaida”, etc. He really doesn’t improvise well (or at least, he’s not now).
Bush is actually bragging that he refused to talk to Palestine — because, of course, the best way to deal with a bad situation is to ignore it.
Ugh — Kerry’s not answering the question on Iran, merely pressing that they were ignored while we went into Iraq. True, yes, but he’s not addressing what he’ll do if Iran does develop nuclear capabilities. It really bugs me when either Bush or Kerry do this.
What? The recent report on the non-existence of WMD’s showed that Saddam was deceiving the inspectors? What universe does Bush live in?
Bush: “We’re not going to have a draft. Period. The all-volunteer army works.”
Whoa — Bush just ramrodded right over the moderator. He’s pissed and showing it.
Kerry: “If just the people in Missouri were one of the countries in the coalition, they’d be the third largest member of the coalition, behind the US and England.”
Was that just a subtle jab from Kerry, almost blatantly calling Bush an idiot? Something along the lines of, “the most important thing to keep us from having another terrorist attack is intelligence.” (Very badly paraphrased, but you get my drift.) Got a laugh out of Prairie and I, at least.
Again, Bush is taking a rebuttal without even letting the moderator approve it (this time during the question on Medicare and importing of drugs from Canada).
Bush: “That’s what liberals do. They create government-sponsored health care.” And this is a bad thing?
Question: “Please explain how the seven billion dollars in spending you’ve approved and not paid for is better than your opponent’s spending.” Bush: “There’s a deficit because there was a recession.”
Nice one from the moderator: “I’ve heard both of you claim that you’ll halve the deficit in the next four years. I haven’t heard one thing from either of you on how you’re going to do that.” Unfortunately, they each have only thirty seconds to reply to that, and not much is really being said (aside from some blistering numbers from Kerry).
Nice job by Kerry on giving the overview of his tax plan, especially with the ending mention that probably on three people — the President, himself, and the moderator — would likely be effected.
Watching Bush try to defend his environmental record should be entertaining. He’s going to increase wetland “by three million”. Three million what? “I’m a good steward of the land.”
I think Bush just grabbed another rebuttal without permission from the moderator — though he may have gotten a nod or something non-verbal. For myself, the mere fact that Bush is trying to claim that he’s an environmentalist is just (sadly) funny.
Bush is trying to defend the Patriot Act, and he’s stating that he hopes we don’t actually feel like our rights are eroding. “I don’t think the Patriot Act abridges your rights at all.”
The question on embryonic stem cell research was actually more interesting than I thought it would be when the questioner got started. Kerry’s handling it well, too — Bush just summed up his whole position with “embryonic stem cell research requires the destruction of life.” Admittedly, this is a really touchy issue, but man am I more on Kerry’s side here.
Somewhat ironic that Bush is so concerned with preserving life by denying stem cell research, yet he’s managed to get us into the quagmire in Iraq. There somewhere over 1000 dead soldiers who might question Bush’s ability to preserve life.
I like Kerry’s answer regarding the question of what type of Supreme Court judge he’d appoint.
And again, good answer from Kerry on the abortion question — stating that he won’t let his personal beliefs on matters of faith infringe on people’s rights.
It’s so hard to listen to Bush blather on and oversimplify things.
Bush just got asked to proved three decisions he made that he later found out were wrong, and what he did to correct them. Instead, he’s declaring that he was right in going into Iraq, Afghanistan, etc. — asserting that those were not mistakes. Entirely avoiding the question. “I made some mistakes in appointing people, but I don’t want to name ’em. Don’t want to embarrass them on national TV.”
Bush’s reaction to Kerry’s “mistake” statement was beautiful. Kerry started with, “I made a mistake in how I talked about the \$87 billion…” and Bush grinned, chuckled, and laughed. When Kerry continued with, “…President Bush made a mistake going into Iraq,” Bush’s head whipped around to glare at Kerry. That was not a happy man.
And we’re done.
Bush definitely handled himself better than he did during the first debate — but “better” still isn’t anywhere near Kerry’s confidence and collected manner, especially with the times when Bush forced his way into a rebuttal. Kerry didn’t seem as aloof as he’s seemed to in the past, either — he’s been getting some good training or practice in over the months of campaigning, apparently.
In the end…Bush’s better behavior means that it’s not as much of a rout as the first debate was, but I’d still definitely give the nod to Kerry.
Three debates down, one to go…