Well, a Friend just E-mailed me a question as to how I thought it went, so I'll weigh in here by sharing my response to him with you.
>
> How do you think W did tonight
> I thought he was good...
> But I fear that Kerry lies with such a straight face that the voters may be fooled.
Well, it seems that "Prophet" Kim was blowing proverbial (if not prophetic) hot air up our skirts; I didn't see any miraculous manifestations or any such thing (O me of little faith; was not really expecting any, really).
El Presidente' was.... well... not nearly as bad as he was in his fist debate debacle, I suppose.
It took him a while to get some steam up in his boiler, but he eventually worked up enough pressure to toot the whistle a time or two, if not make significant headway.
He even managed to pronounce "Nuclear" in stead of "Nukeyoolar" this time. I was beginning to wonder if he was even capable of it.
His grey suit and yuchhy pasty/cyanotic grey-blue tie made him look like a necrotic snowman well dusted with wood ash, while Kerry was dapper and spiffy in his well tailored navy blue suit and complementary red tie.
My wife opined that I'm a fine one to be critiquing other men's attire or fashion statements, looking like a hobo as I do most of the time.
It probably helped Kerry that he does not have to wear a ballistic armor vest around all the time; no one wants to kill him nearly as bad as the leftist commie lunatics (not to mention the whackko Islammofacists) want to kill Bush.
The socialist poodle's hair looked like it was sculpted out of plastic and spray-painted; he seems to have lost most of the phony orange "canned tan" he adorned himself with before the first debate, but seemed almost overly made-up, giving him a rather plastic, superficial, phony look. Much like the "Joker" carachter in the "Batman" series.
How appropriate, eh?
And he was nearly as "slick" as Clinton; he must have been taking lessons from him before the heart attack.
Kerry paced and strutted around the stage like he owned the joint and gestured magnificantly, like a silver-tounged TV Evangalist.
Although he schmoozed 'em like a good used car salesman, by the looks of the audience, I don't think that many of them were buying his well- polished pitch.
Surprisingly, the questions were commendably unbiased (or at least reasonably balanced) and I didn't see any real softballs pitched to either Candidate. I had suspected that in that College setting, a lot of radical leftists would have lied to the screeners and infiltrated the audience to load the questions or cause disruptions like they did at the Convention. But thankfully, my concerns were unfounded.
Much to Bush's relief, I suspect, no one asked him about our porous borders or the hoardes of illeagal immigrant invaders (including Islammo-terrorists) pouring in to our Country every day.
Kerry, like a true Politician, danced around many of the questions and used them to launch into his boilerplate schpeil about how Bush lied about the WMD, went to war "Unilatteraly", gave "Tax cuts to the wealthiest 1%" and all that bileous crappe.
Unlike the last time (that was painfull!) GWB actually rose to the occasion and countered some of Hanoi John's whoppers - at least to some extent. I'm not sure that he really drove home the distinction of their tax plans, or how Kerry's proposed tax on "the rich" making over $200K a year would actually plunder about 80% of small businesses in America and raise hell with what's left of our economy... but he at least tried, God love 'im.
It seems that W. might have had a little chat with his much more articulate VP and got a clue about Kerry's Senate voting record (on those precious occasions when he actually showed up to vote), which he thought to mention a time or two, much to his credit.
Even though a reasonably intelligent High School Senior could probably out-debate our President (it certainly is not his forte'), he did project an image of transparent credibility, sincerity, personal integrity and passion which Kerry sorely lacks.
Mr. Bush demonstrated another quality that Kerry notoriously lacks; a sense of humor.
Did you catch the part when K. accused B. of owning a lumber mill that was "news" to Bush, the latter approached the Moderator and asked; "Ya want some wood?".
That seemed to break the almost palpable confrontive tension for a moment, and it seems that the audience appreciated it.
Kerry's primary emotions - and they showed loud and clear - were bitterness, hostility, and anger.
My wife commented that his responses to the questions were often "patronizing", and I concur entirely.
If he was trying to conceal his haughty, arrogant attitude, he failed miserably, and I don't think that it played all that well to either the live audience or the TV cameras, nor did it do him a lot of good.
I summed the debate up as essentially a contest of words and wits between a City-slicker Lawyer and a Humble-bumble Cowboy from Texas who somehow managed to stumble into celebrity, honor, history, and destiny. Almost as if by surprise.
The Pundits of course will claim "victory" for the Candidate of their favor and bias, using various critereon to support their assesments. A couple of them on FOX News called it a "tie", and I suppose that was fair enough.
From a purely objective standpoint, it could probably be said that Kerry decicively "won" the debate; he talks circles around Bush, and I think that Mr. Bush would be among the first to admit that. I would love to have seen Ronaldus Magnus in his prime take Kerry on; he would have cleaned Kerry's clock, eaten his lunch, and left him standing out in the rain holding on to his ass and wondering what the hell hit him.
If GWB lacks Regan's quick wit and nimble tounge, he does seem to be graced with a few of the former President's more useful and blessed gifts; a uniquely "American", albeit somewhat Western, natural, easy-going charm; a sense of humor, and a decent heart.
And he seems to appreciate where those gifts came from, too, and is graciously and humbly willing to give credit where it is due.
Now those simple gifts might not win him a lot of debates or popularity contests over in Europe...
But it might be just the ticket to lead a troubled Country .. and World ... through the next four very uncertain years.
Hope I've adequately addressed your question, my Friend.
for God and Country;
"Uncle Jaque"