Going to the candidates' debate
I didn't spot Mrs. Robinson in the audience, but a collection of stouthearted Missourians was present last night as Bush and Kerry got their debate on for the second time.
Bush fared better in the pseudo-town hall format than he did in the stand-and-speechify affair last week, but he still sounded peevish and petulant. Kerry, conversely, was less in his element here, but he made a stronger showing than I had anticipated, frequently taking the point of his responses directly to the President. Kerry also showed a greater tendency in this format to resort to the convoluted rambling for which he has become notorious on the campaign trail, though he usually managed to get the cows back into the barn before his two minutes expired.
Both candidates frequently got stuck in recycling the same phrases again and again — I wanted to reach through the television and smack the Prez alongside his noggin every time he launched into the old "wrong war, wrong place, wrong time" business — to the extent that I feared their tongues might suffer repetitive-motion injury. And both stumbled over questions that they would just as soon not had to answer, if they'd had their druthers. Bush totally punted a query about the mistakes he's made in office, giving a borderline snarky reply that sounded as if he never thought he'd made a mistake ever, and certainly not in the Iraq debacle (the questioner didn't ask about Iraq specifically, and the fact that Bush went right to Iraq in his answer only served to remind everyone listening how blind he remains to those egregious errors). Kerry delivered a circuitous and windy response to a question about abortion that even I, with my highly developed language skills, had a difficult time following, and that I'm certain left most of the audience either dumbfounded or asleep.
Speaking of the audience, what's the point of having them there if they aren't allowed to respond to the candidates or engage them directly? You might as well have left the questioning to Charlie Gibson, and filled the seats with mannequins.
I still think Kerry came out ahead again this time — if there is such a concept as "ahead" in these things — but Bush managed not to hurt himself as badly as he did in Round One. The third "debate" reverts to the dueling-lecterns approach that generally favors Kerry. We'll see what happens.
Bush fared better in the pseudo-town hall format than he did in the stand-and-speechify affair last week, but he still sounded peevish and petulant. Kerry, conversely, was less in his element here, but he made a stronger showing than I had anticipated, frequently taking the point of his responses directly to the President. Kerry also showed a greater tendency in this format to resort to the convoluted rambling for which he has become notorious on the campaign trail, though he usually managed to get the cows back into the barn before his two minutes expired.
Both candidates frequently got stuck in recycling the same phrases again and again — I wanted to reach through the television and smack the Prez alongside his noggin every time he launched into the old "wrong war, wrong place, wrong time" business — to the extent that I feared their tongues might suffer repetitive-motion injury. And both stumbled over questions that they would just as soon not had to answer, if they'd had their druthers. Bush totally punted a query about the mistakes he's made in office, giving a borderline snarky reply that sounded as if he never thought he'd made a mistake ever, and certainly not in the Iraq debacle (the questioner didn't ask about Iraq specifically, and the fact that Bush went right to Iraq in his answer only served to remind everyone listening how blind he remains to those egregious errors). Kerry delivered a circuitous and windy response to a question about abortion that even I, with my highly developed language skills, had a difficult time following, and that I'm certain left most of the audience either dumbfounded or asleep.
Speaking of the audience, what's the point of having them there if they aren't allowed to respond to the candidates or engage them directly? You might as well have left the questioning to Charlie Gibson, and filled the seats with mannequins.
I still think Kerry came out ahead again this time — if there is such a concept as "ahead" in these things — but Bush managed not to hurt himself as badly as he did in Round One. The third "debate" reverts to the dueling-lecterns approach that generally favors Kerry. We'll see what happens.
SwanShadow was randomly pounding the keyboard at 11:20 AM
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