The debate

[nancylebov]

I heard most of the debate on NPR--"most of" because I spaced out now and then.

General points: Neither candidate was actively embarrassing. I didn't like either of them. I conked out almost immediately after the debate, rather earlier and suddenly tireder than I would have expected--I think I'm allergic to politicians.

The format wasn't as awful as I feared--the moderator handed them some fairly tough questions. Yay, moderator!

They were both fairly repetitious, though Bush was more so. and Kerry had more substantiating details.

Bush said one thing that struck me as reasonable--"If you say the war was a mistake, how are you going to gather allies to help you fight it?" (Approximate quote.) I wish Kerry would get more specific about changes in US policy instead of just saying that we need allies to do whatever we're doing.

Imho, the dumbest thing Bush said was "It is hard work. It is hard work to go from a tyranny to a democracy. It's hard work to go from a place where people get their hands cut off, or executed, to a place where people are free." Is it possible he doesn't know that the US has capital punishment and he's been supporting it? That "hard work" thing--he used the phrase a bunch of times, and it may be one of the reasons people have been calling him petulant: "How can you criticize what I'm doing when I'm trying so hard?"

Bush had some odd pauses toward the beginning of the debate. It sounded to me as though he just wasn't interested, though I've since seen a theory that he had an ear bud.

Comments

[filkerdave.livejournal.com]

Neither candidate was actively embarassing?

I had rather a different impression of Bush; he seemed unable to make a coherent sentence.

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

Maybe it's the soft bigotry of low expectations, but he sounded coherent to me--repetitious and wrong-headed, but I could tell what he meant.

[filkerdave.livejournal.com]

Possibly.

I don't expect much of Bush, but I expect him to be able to string 5 words together without stopping.

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

He said "vociferous" without choking on it. I'm proud of him.

[ckd]

Bush: "Of course we're after Saddam Hussein - I mean Bin Laden. He's isolated."

That's enough to make me believe in Freudian slips right there.

[sturgeonslawyer.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but he meant something like "vehemently."

The enemy understands a free Iraq will be a major defeat in their ideology of hatred. That's why they're fighting so vociferously.

"Vociferously" is just wrong there. Though maybe I'm misunderestimating him.

[filkerdave.livejournal.com]

If they're speaking a lot while fighting, it might be correct. I'm not sure how you'd test that, though.

[mouseworks.livejournal.com]

My Dad was frothing at the mouth about Bush, but then my Dad knew people who fought in the American Civil War and heard just how pissed people get when their territory is invaded even for the best of reasons, so he's been anti-Bush from early on.

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

Do you know whether Southerners were generally more opposed to the Iraq war than Northerners?

[mouseworks.livejournal.com]

I wonder about the 82 year olds who had Lincoln Republican fathers.

Probably only people who were interested in the old men's stories would be so affected.

My nephew who's an Naval Aviator just loves the war, but then he gets to fly a big shiny jet with his nickname on it.