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.
That leads up to a point I have had rolling around in my head for a while now which was confirmed last night. All of the talking heads point out that the strength of the Democrats lies in domestic issues. This is simply not true.
The fact is, Democrats have a slight advantage, but it is in foreign issues. This is decidedly not because they have facts on their side, but rather because of the propaganda they have floating around and because of the willingness they have from the MSM to paint the Iraq War effort as a failure. The Democrats and the left in this country were under the mistaken notion that foreign policy was the strong point of this presidency, and they believed that if they somehow managed to undermine that, Bush would go down easily.
The problem, however, is that Bush has been far stronger domestically than anyone on the left would give him credit for being. In addition, the Democrats made the mistake of choosing the most liberal senator in Congress, a point which makes Kerry quite weak on domestic issues. His positions simply do not reflect what the average American believes in and wants from the government. His voting record largely contradicts that which he says he will do. On conservative issues, he has voted against issues that Americans want. On issues that would appeal to liberals, he has, for the most part, failed to show up to vote.
I read an article after the last debate that talked about how the President might have been sandbagging. I am thinking this could be true. He and his campaign know that the left and the MSM have muddied up the waters on foreign policy. He could afford to throw away that debate to give his opponent a little security. I personally have high hopes that the president might drive the final nail into the coffin in the next debate.
Bush owns the domestic issues on the table this election cycle.