"I'm not going to debate you, Jerry."
Immediate take on Prezlemania I:
Nice solid performance from Kerry. I didn't hear a standout soundbite on the order of "There you go again" or "Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy," but he was straightforward, resolute, spoke clearly and didn't go off on one of his usual highfalutin, somnolence-inducing stump speeches.
The President, on the other hand, looked and sounded even more deer-in-the-headlights than usual. In my lifetime, we've had plenty of Presidents with whom I disagreed politically (at one point or another, on one issue or another, that would be all of them). We've had Presidents I thought were scoundrels (Richard Nixon, a pretty bright guy with some decent ideas in certain areas, but completely undone by his rampant paranoia), scalawags (Bill Clinton, whom I liked — and still like — for his intelligence, his manner, and his efficient and effective governing style, but whose judgment in personal life was reprehensible), and well-meaning incompetents (like George Bush the First, a capable corporate vice president-type who ran headlong into the Peter Principle when he became CEO, and Jimmy Carter, a good and noble man who for all his goodness and nobility also had no business being President). But Bush 43 is the first President in my lifetime whom I truly and sincerely believe is a moron.
I don't mean that viciously. Not everyone can be Charles Steinmetz. I know plenty of folks who aren't especially bright, but who shine in other areas of life — wonderful parents, loving spouses, hard-working citizens, faithful Christians. I don't think the President is a bad guy. He seems, in fact, like a decent fellow. (As in: "You seem a decent fellow. I hate to kill you." "You seem a decent fellow. I hate to die.") But whenever I listen to him speak, I can't help thinking, "He's just not very smart, is he?" Again, that doesn't condemn him as a human being. It sure makes me nervous, though, that he's the most powerful man in the world.
Lots of us thought Ronald Reagan was an idiot when he first ran for office. As time passed, it became clearer that he was a smart enough man, just rather singularly focused and disconnected from reality, in love with the pomp and circumstance of his quasi-royal position but not especially interested in its nuts and bolts. After four years, I wish I could give the current President the benefit of the same doubt. On the basis of everything I've heard from him this campaign season, and tonight especially, I just can't.
Fortunately for Mr. Bush, the vast majority of the American people are, like himself, of mediocre intellect. To them, he seems like plain folks, and therefore likeable enough to be President. Kerry, clearly a man of keen intelligence, all too often — though not tonight particularly, which was encouraging — sounds like a pedantic, ponderous bore. Not unlike the last Democrat to bear the party's standard in the Presidential race. And we all know what happened to him.
I think Kerry "won" the debate, though debate it isn't, and winning is mostly not saying something stupid enough to lose. Was it enough to help him in the polls? Probably not. If anything, the stumbling, tongue-tied performance by Bush probably earned him enough sympathy points to maintain his narrow but incontrovertible lead.
If these are the two best people we can find for the highest office in the land, we're a sad society.
Nice solid performance from Kerry. I didn't hear a standout soundbite on the order of "There you go again" or "Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy," but he was straightforward, resolute, spoke clearly and didn't go off on one of his usual highfalutin, somnolence-inducing stump speeches.
The President, on the other hand, looked and sounded even more deer-in-the-headlights than usual. In my lifetime, we've had plenty of Presidents with whom I disagreed politically (at one point or another, on one issue or another, that would be all of them). We've had Presidents I thought were scoundrels (Richard Nixon, a pretty bright guy with some decent ideas in certain areas, but completely undone by his rampant paranoia), scalawags (Bill Clinton, whom I liked — and still like — for his intelligence, his manner, and his efficient and effective governing style, but whose judgment in personal life was reprehensible), and well-meaning incompetents (like George Bush the First, a capable corporate vice president-type who ran headlong into the Peter Principle when he became CEO, and Jimmy Carter, a good and noble man who for all his goodness and nobility also had no business being President). But Bush 43 is the first President in my lifetime whom I truly and sincerely believe is a moron.
I don't mean that viciously. Not everyone can be Charles Steinmetz. I know plenty of folks who aren't especially bright, but who shine in other areas of life — wonderful parents, loving spouses, hard-working citizens, faithful Christians. I don't think the President is a bad guy. He seems, in fact, like a decent fellow. (As in: "You seem a decent fellow. I hate to kill you." "You seem a decent fellow. I hate to die.") But whenever I listen to him speak, I can't help thinking, "He's just not very smart, is he?" Again, that doesn't condemn him as a human being. It sure makes me nervous, though, that he's the most powerful man in the world.
Lots of us thought Ronald Reagan was an idiot when he first ran for office. As time passed, it became clearer that he was a smart enough man, just rather singularly focused and disconnected from reality, in love with the pomp and circumstance of his quasi-royal position but not especially interested in its nuts and bolts. After four years, I wish I could give the current President the benefit of the same doubt. On the basis of everything I've heard from him this campaign season, and tonight especially, I just can't.
Fortunately for Mr. Bush, the vast majority of the American people are, like himself, of mediocre intellect. To them, he seems like plain folks, and therefore likeable enough to be President. Kerry, clearly a man of keen intelligence, all too often — though not tonight particularly, which was encouraging — sounds like a pedantic, ponderous bore. Not unlike the last Democrat to bear the party's standard in the Presidential race. And we all know what happened to him.
I think Kerry "won" the debate, though debate it isn't, and winning is mostly not saying something stupid enough to lose. Was it enough to help him in the polls? Probably not. If anything, the stumbling, tongue-tied performance by Bush probably earned him enough sympathy points to maintain his narrow but incontrovertible lead.
If these are the two best people we can find for the highest office in the land, we're a sad society.
SwanShadow was randomly pounding the keyboard at 8:08 PM
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