Sincerity and authenticity win big time over being smarmy and slick.
Kerry had wonderful presentation and spoke with authority and had all the right camera angles to make him look the best, plus a moderator that hardly laid a glove on him but civilly hammered away on Iraq for him...but when you revisit what he actually said you come up with hogwash if not downright insanity.
We need to be multilateral in Iraq, 30 coalition partners aren't enough. We need bilateral talks with North Korea, 5 coalition partners are too many.
We need to outsource our national defense decisions; they must past an "international test" before we do a preemptive strike which can only be successful if there is no warning.
President Bush has ignored science in stem cell research and global warming, and that's why he misled us in going to war in Iraq.
Nuclear proliferation is the most dangerous problem of our times and I will solve it by giving nuclear fuel to Iran.
I can bring cumbayah to the table when I solve how to win Iraq by having a summit, and in the meantime Saudi Arabian rulers are jerks, Poland and Britain are coerced and bribed and Putin of Russia is a KGB totalitarian who no decent person should speak to.
The man is insane.
President Bush was given bad camera angles, shown reacting while Kerry was talking, which was against the rules, and had spent time that day dealing with real people who had suffered real losses in the hurricanes...and he looked exasperated by Kerry.
But everything he said made sense, and reflected a sane and steady approach to the current problems of a world gone mad long before he took the reins of power, with a vision and plan for long term solutions as well.
Did he knock Kerry out? No, but there were too many lies and pipe dreams coming from the other side to refute in 90 second rebuttals.
When people talk about the debate, what will they tell each other about the substance...
I think the glow of Kerry's glibness will fade like cotton candy, and the exasperation of Bush's sincerity and levelheadedness will be seen with greater appreciation.
And then as always, events will drive the last month. I'm sure the Dems are prepared now to show that Kitty Kelley's books are backed by affidavits and hystericalhistorical memo's.
But like the camera angles last night, and terrorist attacks, you can't always descend far enough into the pit to see what dirty tricks they will pull and what lies they will be peddling in October.
But we have an ace up our sleeves. We know how to pray.
Kerry thinks Treblinka is in Moscow.
He said so in the debates.
No one pointed out that fact. It's just like spelling potato wrong.
I watched c-span's split screen format and Kerry looked terrible, in fact his profile looked like the well known drawing of a haggard old woman.
now I realize that looks should not be the deciding factor, but they were in the Nixon/Kennedy TV debate.
when Kerry's eyes were wide open they looked hollow, vacant, perhaps stupid, his face had gone from bright orange to washed out ashen white and his constant nodding of his head, while Bush was speaking, was truely weird.
and while Bush left us momentarly hanging in some of his commentary, Kerry's answers were boring, confusing and non-responsive.
wonders of wonders, CBS gave the debate to Kerry based on their "metered" polling.
but like Bush said in response to one of Kerry's answers about fighting on two fronts in the war on terror, and I paraphrase - we're capable of walking and chewing gum at the same time...rto
I don't know. The President was on message. But it was clumsily done. He wasn't listening to Kerry, a lot of the time. Kerry had the substance, in some ways. But what he substantively promised was frightening! Bush also had substance, based on his actual performance in office. I wish Bush would have appropriately replied in many cases. Kerry would have been a wreck by the end of the debate - Lehrer, too, of course (which would have been just as good).
In other words, it wasn't the Lehrer softballs that Kerry wasn't hitting out of the infield. It was the fat pitches Kerry was throwing Bush that Bush couldn't hit into the cove.
...and don't forget "I have a plan."
...of course, don't forget that he failed to describe the plan and he failed to explain how he would do better!
Bush has heart, Kerry's insides are hollow, except for those lies inside.