As a rabid Republican and Bush supporter, I find these images of Bush embarrassing and indefensible.
What was wrong with Bush? He came into this debate with a huge advantage when it came to his position on Iraq and Kerry was a sitting duck considering all his conradictions and flip-flops.
Bush not only passed up once in a lifetime opportunities to nail Kerry on his BS but worse yet came off as nervous, defensive, and frustrated in the last half of the debate.
This is the worst I've seen Bush and I am not the only one who thinks he could have lost the election with this performance. I hope not but have to be realistic. Those awful images of Bush are not going to go away anytime soon.
You sound just like people from 4 years ago.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1233234/posts?page=1,50
To: hole_n_one
Face it folks: Gore is on the offensive and Bush is only responding to Gore attacks. I hoped very much that Bush would kick his ass, but he is DYING. He is doing very badly. Early on, he was trying to out-socialist Gore, now he is on the defensive. It is not going well. He is speaking badly, sounding unconfident. Let's face it: we are screwed.
87 Posted on 10/03/2000 18:42:05 PDT by Zviadist
The Democrat 527s have spent millions of dollars running indefensible attack ads against the President.
John Kerry then stands up at the debate and lies through his teeth for 90 minutes. I think in the face of all that, President Bush has shown remarkable restraint.
It's possible you and I didn't watch the same debate, because the "scowls" and "squints" and "disgust" that this "reporter" mentions did not translate into the President's speech patterns. Ergo, he is misreading GWB's expressions in my opinion - I believe wishfully so.
This debate was a success for Bush based not so much on what he said, but on what Kerry said. Lurch will rue the day he ever spoke about a "global test", because Rove and the Bush team will never let him forget it.
There are two more debates, in formats more friendly to the President. And Cheney gets to sink his teeth into the Breck Girl next Tuesday. Miles to go before we sleep, good sir.
We'll have to give it a few days to see if those images catch fire and becoming a "Gore" fiasco for W. because let's face it--these things can take on a life of their own, just because we don't want it to and hope it doesn't, won't make it happen. I'm sure when the buzz in 2000 started about Gore's sighing and eye-rolling, the dems thought it was insignificant and would die down, but it turned out dismally for them. Same as with W's DUI, a lot of folks thought it would be (or were hoping it would be) no big deal, but it did a lot of harm.
This is still W's race to lose, but it is an undeniable fact that Kerry has a viable shot now. This election could have been a done deal last night for W. If he loses, I think we can look back and safely say that this was one, if not the, factor.
I am not being demoralizing, but realistic here.