Posted on 10/09/2004 12:59:55 AM PDT by Utah Girl
WHO won the debate? After completely misreading last week’s presidential clash, I will spare you my call. But it seems inarguable that George W. Bush was not the same candidate last night he was last week. He was prepared, pumped up and enthusiastic, even though his trademark verbal solecisms kept getting in the way (yes, he said “Internets”).
Mind you, John Kerry was superb — for a while. He was at his best, most concise and most pointed in his summary of the case against Bush’s conduct of the Iraq war. Indeed, his handling of the matter was better, I thought, than in last week’s debate because there was something about the looser town-hall format that brought the argument down to human scale. “I do believe Saddam Hussein as a threat,” he said at the beginning of the debate. “I always believed he was a threat. Believed it in 1998 when Clinton was president. I wanted to give Clinton the power to use force if necessary. But I would have used that force wisely, I would have used that authority wisely, not rushed to war without a plan to win the peace . . . And Iran now is more dangerous, and so is North Korea, with nuclear weapons. He took his eye off the ball, off of Osama bin Laden.” Though I don’t agree with this line, it was well-stated and cogent. But when Kerry said of future Iraq-like conflicts that “we’re not going to go alone like this president did,” he gave Bush an opening for the most passionate and heartfelt moment in both debates Bush interrupted moderator Charles Gibson to fire back: “You tell Tony Blair we’re going alone.
(snip)
There are 30 countries there. It denigrates an alliance to say we’re going alone...
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Podhoretz initially called the first debate for President Bush. And then after reading the polls and 'getting the general feel of what happened' Podhoretz reversed and said Kerry really won. The archives at the NY Post are down right now for maintenance but I will link the article tomorrow.
The disturbing thing is that there were members of the media who did feel Bush won the first debate (David Gregory for one, Podhoretz is another example.) But then they talk to their colleagues and all of a sudden they're all like lemmings off a cliff.
BAM! Bush has just won this election.
Its telling when John F*ckin' pretends to be Ronald Reagan. I can only imagine the mood over at DU. They don't like this. Tell me if its still a 50-50 country when the Democrat tries hard to avoid being tagged a "liberal."
the gloves were off...2 KOs for Bush-Cheney this week.
I don't remember those exact words. Very clever and well said. I'm glad Bush made that point. It shows how phony Kerry's claims are.
About freakin' time. Bring. It. ON!!!!
The problem for Kerry is that he missed the opportunity and then George W. Bush put him away with his closing remarks.
This was a big win for Dubya tonight
I like how Bush has moved on in his descriptions of Kerry, progressing from flip-flopper to liberal, which I think he can hammer home the way his dad did against Dukakis. We haven't heard the L word in this campaign much, so it hasn't been overused, but Bush can paint it on Kerry, who will run from it and all the weeniness it implies.
It'd be finny if Kerry replied in the next debate "Well, YOU're a CONSERVATIVE!" and W said something like, "No kidding. Unlike you I'm not afraid of what I am."
Kerry'll be applying for a new Purple Heart if this keeps up. Probably ask for a "V" to be added to it.
"(yes, he said “Internets”)"
Where did JOHN PODHORETZ ever get the idea there was only one internet? What a silly quibble.
Definitely a big win. The momentum should stay for the next debate. President Bush did really well on the domestic issues this evening and the next debate is domestic issues.
I really thought Kerry would have some slogan or something more forceful about the revision of the jobs today. He did miss that opportunity to spin the revision of less jobs than originally thought.
I'm really hoping the first debate was the high water mark for Kerry in this campaign.
"We haven't heard the L word in this campaign much, so it hasn't been overused, but Bush can paint it on Kerry, who will run from it and all the weeniness it implies."
Or better yet, Kerry will be forced to "own it" and admit he is a liberal and try to sell THAT in the last weeks of the campaign.
Talk about a setup question.....God D*mned liberal MSM.
Yet STILL no one asked Kerry about the L word--- Why did you LIE about your service in Vietnam, and why did you stab your mates in the back? I can hardly believe that he is going to get by without being held accountable for this for another 20 years perhaps. Why does everyone, including Bush and Cheney, give him a pass on this issue? I don't get it.
The Swiftees are the only ones man enough to confront him.
It worked like a charm for Mike Dukakis
Yup.
And W handled it with SUPREME DUBYA-JIU-JITSU; he answered, yet without giving the Legacy Media the SCREAMING HEADLINES they wanted:
BUSH FINALLY ADMITS TO THREE MONSTER COCKUPS!!!!!
I'm sure he must have been coached on that exact question, (which proves only that the liberal media is not as unpredictable as they think), but regardless-- it was a perfect ten answer, when he identified, '...that's what they're really fishing for with that question, whether Iraq was a mistake, and the answer is NO...' Great.
The other body-blow to JFK, I thought, was how he didth protest too much with the 'labels don't apply, they don't apply, they don't apply'.
Really? You mean, for instance, the word "LIBERAL" doesn't describe you? Hmmmm-- let's talk about that, preferably for the next couple weeks.
The SBV have run their course. Whether or not Kerry served honorably is not valid to the discussion now because Bush said Kerry served honorably. Remember Kerry at least was in VN which is what the MSM will report.
Bush did, and is doing fine without the SBV. This election is going to be won on who is a better leader in this time of war. Kerry's "Global Test" alone does him in!
BTW, when Bush says that he knows how these foreign leaders "think" I believe he's slamming Kerry on his comments about having support of certain foriegn leaders. Bush talks to these people every day, Kerry doesn't.
Man, I couldn't stand a girlfriend or wife who was a liberal. There have to be some single, conservative girls out there.
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