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So the debate's going to start here in a little while. Who's watching it? Any comments? Anybody not going to watch it? Either of them impress you? Anybody blow it?
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Serious Bob? I was kind of thinking this would be the first piece of serious election related stuff I'd actually pay attention to. Besides the jib jab video.
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posted
I'll watch it, even though it is almost inconceivable that I will see anything in it that will change my mind.
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I'm with you, Kirk. I kind of hope they break format and start going at each other. I think Kerry would have to be the one to jump the tracks. The rule is very safe for Bush and it's his camp's idea. I hope if Kerry goes for it, though, Bush will follow.
I'm not too optimistic, though.
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Kerry missed a response. He should have said that "I authorized you to make the decision based on faulty and misleading information that you provided. I did not endorse your decision, I endorsed your authority to make it. Mr. President, we now know you made the wrong decision, and it is your responsibility. You cannot offload the responsibility onto me."
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I hate to say this, but judging on style alone I have to give the advantage to Kerry. The debate is 1/3 over. I hope Bush gets his stride soon. He needs to maybe make a joke here somewhere.
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Bush is extremely flustered. Kerry isn't, he's strong, which is what people like about Bush. Right now, advantage Kerry. He did miss that response though, and my dad and I were talking about it before the debate. We said his response should have been, essentially, "If you had not intentionally misled the american people and congress, then you would not have been authorized to use force."
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Ooh, Bush just responded to a Kerry's response, then steamrolled past Lehrer's objection so Lehrer had to give in. Extensions are supposed to be solely at the discretion of the moderator. The moderators from now on aren't going to give him any slack if he's not respecting the authority he agreed to give him.
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Are they going to talk about any foreign policy outside of Iraq and Afghanistan? What about N. Korea? What about illegal immigrants?
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Kerry's dealt with his long-windedness, but it appears that Bush has the opposite problem. He's so good at the soundbite responses he gets 45 seconds into his responses and runs out of things to say. He keeps talking anyway. I wonder if he should just stop talking when he's done.
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Oh, that's great. Kerry said when we went in we only had GB and Australia, not much of a coalition. Bush said "You forgot Poland!" Made him look very small, insisting we actually had one more ally as if that meant a large coalition. Also, he's wrong. Poland was not with us when we went into Iraq (they came later), and they are pulling out now.
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Okay, he finally had to resort to the flip-flop argument. He should have known that would be an easy lob to Kerry.
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Neither one is doing all that well I would say, but I think Bush is doing worse. He needs to quit saying the same few lines over and over again.
I mean, It's exactly what I expected, we aren't going to see anything new in these debates, but a boy can dream...
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President Bush seems to be lost sometimes. Like he's trying to remember the answer he was supposed to use if this came up.
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Looking at this as a competition, which seems to be what we are doing, I would have to say that neither candidate is doing well. We certainly had better speakers in the 80s debates.
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I think Bush looks okay at times, but his whole attempt to paint Kerry as a troop demoralizer don't seem effective to me. I think the looking at the camera at the end of my time shtick is both fake and brilliant; it does help create an aura of strength.
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Apparently...since no WMD were found and we knew he DID have them because we sold them to him.
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OUch! Score one for Kerry -- When Kennedy offered to show photos of Cuba's missiles, DeGaulle waved him off and said the word of the President of the US was enough for him!!! Then -- can anyone imagine that happening today?
I know you know Chris Bridges, and Chris Bridges knows that I know that you know Chris Bridges, and you know that I know taht Chris Bridges is no um...
Weapons of Mass Destruction. Look!!!
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I know I am supremely biased, but I think Kerry is actually impressing me; he is concisely clarifying his "flip-flops", in ways similar to what I thought he meant. I guess I had lower expectations about Kerry's performance; I really thought Kerry would be mediocre and muddled (more so than he seems to be now).
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You know, Bush's main advantage on Kerry in a debate is that he's got a much better sense of humor. Kerry's a more literate-sounding speaker, but it was said that Bush could win the debate with a bit of the funny. He's not cracked a smile the whole debate. It's really hurting him.
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Kwerry has missed one or two chances to slam Bush...but he is looking like a bigger man for passing on the easy "You are no Kennedy" line because of it, I think.
Bush looks smaller on TV that I have ever seen him, and is not at his best.
And even at his best, he would be losing this one.
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I like the attempts to make them look equal height by putting the camera lower on Bush than on Kerry. I know it's not an uncommon practice or anything, but it's the sort of thing that always amuses me. In a "I can't believe you think I'm so dumb I won't notice that twice as much of Bush's podium is showing" kind of way.
I think I'd like Bush more (Okay, I still would dislike him intensely, but I'd have a teeeeeensy bit less dislike) if he was just like "Look at me! I'm short!"
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