I got news for ya.. the American people, as a rule, only CARE about style points. They don't understand substance. We're in the land that worships folks like P-Diddy and Paris Hilton. We lost horribly tonight.
Yer right...IN this fight, George kept leading with his nose...His over repeated phrase is "this is hard work"...May be true but kerry made it sound like it will be easy for him...
George never attacked Kerry...George was sincere and right but that won't convince anyone riding the fence...
They care about style over substance?
You act like G.W. Bush is the unknown he was 4 years ago. We KNOW this man. He led us through Sept. 11. He has spoken to us from his heart many times.
So maybe he had a bad night, big deal. He is the one we all know in our hearts, not the slick botoxed liar from Boston.
Style connects with some people for certain, and most of them are Democrats already. We already lost those, didn't we?
How many of your friends would honestly tell you that they would base their vote on "style'?
To be certain, some shallow people will,
but I'll submit that many more will do it based substance.
On a whole we are not a shallow people;
Especially amoungst the subset who have taken the time to register to vote.
People like that weren't even watching the debate. Kerry helped himself a little tonight (mostly by not living down to the worst that has been said about him), but he isn't going to get back the Reagan Democrats that the SwiftVet ads cost him.
I agree, but I think in the short run, style points count. In the long term, and with likely voters, substance counts.
Swing voters are by definition uninformed. I've decided that Bush wanted to have this debate first so they could spend the next month tearing apart Kerry's foreign policy statements. They analyzed his debate techniques which are very attorney like. He plays to the audience of the moment... the jury of the moment. John Kerry is not a long term planner.
So yes, this debate will have a short term positive effect for John Kerry, but between blogs, the internet, and Fox News - prepare to see John Kerry's and Bush's responses torn to pieces... and under intense scrutiny, Bush wins hands down.