Bush got nuked... or is that "Nook-yul-ered"?
Shark's quick take: (Note: I turned off the idiot box before the talking heads started to punditize; ie. I'm to blame for everything that follows — including any original thoughts.)
Within about the first 2 minutes, I was thinking:
"Oh man, I've been waiting for this! This is the first time in 3.5 years Bush has actually faced good, unavoidable questions in a format where there is an opponent with time for rebuttal. Bush is screwed for the next 90 minutes."
...and so it was.
Seems that they prepared Bush with the standard "Polly wanna cracker" approach, except it was:
"America is safer with Saddam out of power." (rinse, repeat, repeat... repeat...)
"The Iraqi people just looooove freedom..." (rinse, repeat, repeat... repeat...)
"America is safer with Saddam out of power." (rinse, repeat, repeat... repeat...)
zzzzzzz....
Worst moments for George:
The general "replaying" of the tape loop about Saddam and "America is safer."
Referring too often to the Iraqi people, especially the 100,000 man "police force": (Implicit reaction of 55 million Americans: "Fuck the Iraqis, I'm about to lose my job and I don't have health care...")
[Mrs. Shark said that whenever Bush mentioned Iraq, all she could think about was the year and a half saturation of images of death, destruction, burning tanks, beheadings, and the "iraqi police" quitting to join the insurgents. Raise your hand if you had similar visions of "freedom reigning".]
THE JOKE: "I won't hold Yale against ya, heh..."
--Dead silence.
BUSH: "I know Bin Laden attacked us!"
(Implicit reaction of 55 million Americans: "Then why did we attack Iraq?")
BUSH: "I know how the world works!"
(Implicit reaction of 55 million Americans: You gotta "show", George, not "tell"!)
BUSH Using "Vladamir" over and over — instead of the more appropriate "President Putin" --
Article comments
1 - RedTard
I don't think there is any questions that Kerry ran rings around Bush on this one. Kerry's experience as president of the Yale debate team really showed throught. Bush performed particularly poorly, I thought Kerry really got to him.
As good as Kerry was I thought there was a couple of times Bush could have really got him. Once was when Kerry was asked what specifically he would do in Itaq. He then spent the whole time talking about Bush policies. This provided a huge opening to show that Kerry doesn't really have a plan. (Of course Bush coundn't think on his feet and only provided his usual canned answer)
Kerry also flip flopped on the Iraq issue several times during the 90 minutes. One minute the war was a mistake. The next minute our troops weren't dying for a mistake. Basically he changed position depending on the phrasing of the question. Again, Bush turned out a failure of a performance only managing to stutter out something about "mexed missages" over and over while smirking.
2 - Hal Pawluk
The mention of George's dad was a good touch, and I was hoping that Kerry would mention him at least once more, as I'm pretty sure that would have helped unravel George even more.
Kerry did make the mistake, as Eric said on another thread, of saying $200 billion for Iraq when that's the amount appropriated for both Iraq and Afghanistan, so I expect righties will jump on this as if it were significant.
Your mom said it all.
3 - Shark
Yah, Bush might seem stupid, incompetent, and inarticulate, but he just seems like such a nice guy...
And we all know that when looking for a CEO, one values 'niceness' over other traits such as intelligence, leadership, confidence, vision... things like that.
Oy.
WARNING: More of Shark Thinking Out Loud
Y'know, kids, I'm always amazed at the level of acceptance Bush gets from so many people used to dealing and/or admiring so many superstar American CEOs. You'd think that the 'big business' lovin' GOP would prefer an asshole who is effective, rather than a good ol' boy who seems a little light in the frontal lobes.
In public speaking, grasp of facts, coolness, etc -- Bush doesn't even reach the basic benchmarks established by a lot of American CEOs, (not to mention small business owners!) -- which I find incredibly ironic.
I can think of dozens of owners/presidents of very small companies that I've worked with whose leaders showed a consistent amount of confidence, understanding of the big picture, an ability to shoot from the hip, speak for hours in public, ad libbing on any subject related to business, answer tough questions with no hesitation, etc. In my some thirty years in business, I'd say virtually every CEO, top manager, president, etc, showed more intellectual and leadership 'oomph' than Bush has EVER shown during his entire life/career.
If you put George next to any famous CEO, (Iacocca, Trump, Welch, et al) -- he just doens't hold up.
Bush is one of those kinda guys who got left behind in lower-middle management, a regional sales director sent to Alaska or Bumfuque Egypt because nobody at corporate could stand him -- and they all thought he was an embarrassment to the company.
Sure, some say he's "likable" -- but almost to a man -- the smartest, most effective business leaders I've met were all assholes. As a matter of fact, the more brilliant and visionary, the more asshole.
When it comes to running our nation, do we seem to prefer Incompetent Nice Guy -vs- Effective Visionary Prick:
Another mystery of American taste.
4 - Eric Olsen
I came away with a more favorable impression of Kerry, Kerry "won" in absolute terms without much question, but the ABC poll was most telling: did it change your mind? 1% was added to each of Kerry and Bush from the undecideds, leaving it at Bush 51%, Kerry 47%, ie, no home run, no nuke, no change
5 - Hal Pawluk
As far as polls go (god, I hate polls), we need to wait at least a couple of days until watchers have had a chance to bounce their thoughts back and forth with others.
At that point, I think the siginificant indicators would be what happens on the questions about who would handle terrorism and Iraq better.
Strangely, in spite of what we see in the real world every day, Bush has had a massive lead on both. For Kerry to have "won" the debate, the gaps have to be reduced by at least a few points.
6 - Shark
I was a little worried last night, for as I've announced earlier, I'm actually FOR Bush as President -- only because I'd like to see him go down with in history with his unwinnable war in Iraq.
At this point, the election is a wash for me: Bush gets booted and goes off my radar forever (thank God!) -- or Kerry loses and Bush faces another four years of trying to explain why we're in Viet Na.. I mean..."Iraq".
7 - Hal Pawluk
Hey, folks, you need to head over to National Review Online, where the spin has started. There, you'll find insights like:
Maybe it was on a different channel than the debate I watched.8 - David Ben-Ariel
Bush and Condi the Zombie Rice are hypocrites in rewarding terrorism while supposedly waging a war against terrorism. Condi should fall. May folks demand her resignation.
Stop Welfare for "Palestinian" Terrorists!
Has President Bush Lost His Way?
President Bush Rewards Terrorism!