ON C-SPAN NOW....KERRY-O'NEILL 1971 DEBATE !!!
Saw it a few months ago. For all his ill-fitting attire O'Neill had his factual ducks in a row and was a fine debater. Audience sympathy seemed to be evenly divided. To give him credit, Dick Cavett was clearly on Kerry's side, but he wanted a fair debate (the absolute best part was when he had to break it off to put in a plug for Clairol Hair Care products, hee! hee! the look on his face...). Trivial, I'll admit, but I was struck by the difference in style between the two men. It was O'Neill's crew-cut Johnny Unitas versus Kerry's blow-dried Joe Namath. I found myself wishing it had been O'Neill who had gone into politics.
just watched it again.
O'Neill then and now is the better man.
Kerry was then and remains to be a slimey, wicked weird looking, pompous, self-serving doofus. He still employs the same "oratory" tricks ("let me also say...") to try and gains time to think...when the audience laughed at something stinging O'Neill said, he flushed and stuttered...let's see more of that in the debates.
He is nasty.