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You know what I think was the most telling moment in the first Presidential debate; the shining moment that illuminated the candidates? President Bush taking the opportunity to compliment Senator Kerry. President Bush pointedly put aside differences, both personal and political, and found actions to admire in his fellow human being. Sincerity and genuineness saturated the President’s voice as well as his words. His words were so authentically spoken as to even take the Senator off guard, if his facial expression was anything to judge by. Senator Kerry paused in his statesmanlike pose to direct a surprised look at President...

Oct. 8, 2004 | Was President Bush literally channeling Karl Rove in his first debate with John Kerry? That's the latest rumor flooding the Internet, unleashed last week in the wake of an image caught by a television camera during the Miami debate. The image shows a large solid object between Bush's shoulder blades as he leans over the lectern and faces moderator Jim Lehrer. The president is not known to wear a back brace, and it's safe to say he wasn't packing. So was the bulge under his well-tailored jacket a hidden receiver, picking up transmissions from someone offstage...

Was President Bush literally channeling Karl Rove in his first debate with John Kerry? That's the latest rumor flooding the Internet, unleashed last week in the wake of an image caught by a television camera during the Miami debate. The image shows a large solid object between Bush's shoulder blades as he leans over the lectern and faces moderator Jim Lehrer. More (if you can stand it) at: http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2004/10/08/bulge/

Salon.com reports that Bush had a radio receiver taped to his back during the first debate so he could receive messages via a tiny hearing-aid-like device in his ear. They back this up with a photo. I have no way of verifying the story, but the Commission on Presidential Debates has verified that one of the rules of engagement the Bush campaign insisted on was no camera shots of the candidates from behind (which one of the pool cameras did anyway). This story is either investigative journalism at its best or wishful thinking. If you are not a Salon.com subscriber,...

October 7, 2004 Kerry Gained Favorability after Debate but Bush Is Still Preferred As Commander-In-Chief John Kerry goes into Friday’s second presidential debate with more Americans having a favorable opinion of him now than did before his first debate with George W. Bush. But the public still clearly regards Bush as someone they would trust more as commander-in chief of the military and to lead the war on terrorism.

October 7, 2004 Kerry Gained Favorability after Debate but Bush Is Still Preferred As Commander-In-Chief John Kerry goes into Friday’s second presidential debate with more Americans having a favorable opinion of him now than did before his first debate with George W. Bush. But the public still clearly regards Bush as someone they would trust more as commander-in chief of the military and to lead the war on terrorism.

WE'VE never seen anything like this, even the old Kennedy-Nixon classic great debate," said a breathless Chris Matthews on the "Today" show as he touted a poll showing that John Kerry had won presidential debate No. 1 by as much as a 4-to-1 margin. But actually we have seen something like this - and at that first Kennedy-Nixon debate. The polls may have gyrated more violently this time around, but the scenario is identical: a campaign's seemingly mundane decision about television theatrics has potentially changed the dynamic of a presidential election. Only Election Day will reveal if Sept. 30, 2004,...

If President Bush had not clearly won the three debates in 2000 against so formidable a debater as Al Gore, one would be tempted to chalk up last week’s inept performance to an innate lack of verbal skills. But Bush’s forensic abilities were so amply on display four years ago that their disappearance last week is all the more puzzling. The fault, one suspects, lies with the candidate’s advisers and coaches, who clearly were not up to the task of preparing the president for the debates. It is a much more difficult task to prep a president than to get...

Robert Novak warns that if George Bush’s deficiencies in the first presidential debate expose ''the candidate’s basic flaws'' rather than his ''poor debating skills,'' then Republicans may have good reason to be depressed (''Bush backers have cause to worry,'' Chicago-Sun Times, October 4, 2004). Novak’s column, however, pins Bush’s ''loss'' in the first debate on two things: Bush’s facial expressions while Kerry spoke--caught on camera by networks not party to the pre-debate agreement barring reaction shots--and his failure to answer Kerry’s many dubious assertions. Among the assertions that Bush did not effectively answer in Novak’s view were these: the president...

I'd like to suggest a campaign debate strategy that might account for the Bush showing during the first debate. At this moment polling results at the bottom of the Latest Posts page on Free Republic, indicate that by 92% Freepers believe Vice-President Dick Cheney won his debate.  This compares to a similar poll regarding President Bush and his first debate.  52% of Freepers responded that Bush won that debate.  As biased as we were for Bush during that debate, most of us were aware that Bush did not measure up. I don't mention this with malace.  In truth, I believe...

The power of the media's spin: Newsweek's Evan Thomas and NBC's David Gregory conceded on Imus in the Morning this week that they thought George W. Bush won the debate last week, but changed their mind in the face of the media line. "I was quickly informed I was wrong and that Kerry had won," Thomas quipped Monday morning. Thomas said that while "Kerry did well," he "didn't think that Bush was as terrible as everybody else did." Gregory stated that he "initially" saw Bush as the winner, but then "there was kind of a debate in the press corps,...

John Kerry (search) appeared to score points in Thursday’s debate by mentioning the thousands of hours of recordings of Arabic terror suspects that sit useless on FBI (search) shelves because we have so few Arabic translators. What Sen. Kerry did not mention is that the FBI warned of this in the Clinton administration, which did nothing to alleviate the shortage.

Boston Collage Prof. Joseph Tecce (Psychology), who studies the causes and effects of nonverbal expressions discussed the Bush/Kerry and and Cheney/Edwards debates on the NECN cable network (controlled by the Boston Globe) and said in the Bush/Kerry debate Bush had an average eyeblink rate of about 40 (a normal range is between 30 and 50) and Kerry had a 51 blinks per minute average, slightly outside the normal range. According to Tecce, the eyeblink rate, an indicator of stress, was predictive of the winner in the 6 in the last 7 of the last presidential elections, and for the 2000...

The first moderator of the Presidential debates asked extremely biased questions aimed at damaging the President and putting him on the defense.  He did not ask a single question critical of John Kerry.The moderator of the VP debate wasn't much better -- but the comparison to the first moderator made her appear to be more fair.  She wasn't, and asked Edwards leading questions while slamming Cheney with difficult ones.Now, I know it won't change things necessarily, but unlike PBS (which cannot be pressured by the public), ABC is a private sector company like CBS, and they saw what happened to...

Whether or not you think the debate last Thursday was fair depends on how you view the purpose of the debate process. If you see as its purpose, to examine President Bush's performance regarding events that have not gone perfectly, to give him a chance to explain and to give Senator Kerry an opportunity to criticize and state how he could do better, then you should have found the first debate fair. If you see as its purpose, to let us learn what goals the President and the Senator have in mind for the next four years and to let...

I was listening to Rush Limbaugh Thursday morning, and he said: "Folks, you want to know about the debate tonight? Well, you don't have to bother to tune in. What will be reported on Friday morning is that John Kerry walked away with it." Well, that's not exactly the unanimous verdict, but it's true that Kerry scored. There were two reasons for this, one personal, the other objective. Sen. Kerry was presentable, polite, informed, combative and credible. Those who felt that he would crumble, or hoped that he'd do so, waited out the 90 minutes without gratification. He is quick...

Senator John Kerry came out of the first presidential debate having reassured many Americans of his ability to handle an international crisis or a terrorist attack and with a generally more favorable image, but he failed to shake the perception that he panders to voters in search of support, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll. The poll also found significant doubts about President Bush's policies toward Iraq, with a majority of the public saying that the United States invaded too soon and that the administration did a poor job thinking through the consequences of the war. But...

NEW YORK — Even as a clear majority thinks Sen. John Kerry (search) won the first presidential debate, the Democratic challenger and President George W. Bush are still in a sharply divided race for the White House, a FOX News poll released Tuesday shows. While Kerry gained ground in key areas, the president retained his spot as being seen as the stronger leader and the candidate who would do a better job on terrorism. Most voters (79 percent) claim to have seen or heard at least part of Thursday night's presidential debate and by more than four-to-one, debate watchers believe...

Here are the specific frames from the debate video shoqing most clearly what Kerry had in his hand as he took it out of his pocket and placed it on the podium. I have taken two of the frames, lightened them, zoomed in, and sharpened the pics. No other enhancements have been made: Cropped, lightened original of Kerry pulling item from pocket. Enlarged and sharpened. Cropped, lightened original, of Kerry putting article down. Enlarged and sharpened.

So GWB did not dominate the first debate, the sky is not falling. It seems that Freerepublic is filled these days with whiney little weenies that want to do nothing but complain. Would you people please toughen up! Elections are hard work and you can't expect the Swift Boat Veterans For Truth to carry your water all the way to November. Live with it and do something postitive to help, instead of bitching about it. Some of these same namby-pambys are the people that complain the most about "spineless republicans" that let the dems roll them over. When the going...