*WE* are not the ones President Bush needs to convince (what is so hard to understand about that?).
Bush has people (lots and lots of people) to handle any contingency that comes up 24/7/365 at least well enough that he doesn't get sucked into false alarms and spend precious time and energy chasing rabbits just hours before a crucial event as the very first presidential debate. He owes at least that much to the people who are out here in the trenches fighting for him.
And I am not one damned bit ashamed to say it. I'd say it right to his face: "Mr President sir, you need to practice the delivery of your responses by avoiding hesitation and using crutches such as "Um, well, er ...", etc. This is basic communication effectiveness 101 - nothing mysterious about it at all.
The people President Bush needs to convince to vote for him are the ones who need to be able to look at him and have complete, total confidence that he has complete control of the situation and a vote for him is without hesitation the very best choice of the two.
None of us here have to be convinced of that but the average Joe on the street does.
If a person with zero prior knowledge of what has happened to this country on 9/11 and since then and who also knew absolutely nothing about either candidate and was required to make up their mind based on that one single debate last night, President Bush's stammering and hesitation (sometimes for up to 8 seconds) would not have been viewed favorably.
His speech writers and coaches had better make him aware of this fact and he needs to spend more time listening to the feedback of those people if he is to come across with the kind of confidence a swing voter needs to see before they will vote for him.
Here, here! Send that advice to the President and the RNC
RNCommunications@gop.com
President@whitehouse.gov