My call: Kerry dominated this one, mainly by just looking like he had his shit together. He was calm, collected and managed to answer questions without screwing up. Bush, on the other hand, spoke very poorly (even for a man famed for not being the best public speaker) and didn't seem to have a very good grasp of anything that wasn't directly on message. Also, he kept trying to get the audience to laugh, but they didn't bite at any of his usual pre-scripted joke points.
I'm not entirely sure what Bush or his handlers were thinking -- were they really so arrogant about their foreign policy stance that they let The Candidate improvise? I mean, we all know that Bush's weak point is improvisation, so why let him do it live on national TV? All in all, somebody at BC04 needs to be taken out back and shot for poor preparation skills.
That said, I was impressed by Kerry's performance. It wasn't a big showy firebrand thing like Howard Dean or Clinton would have given, but then that's not how Kerry operates. I think he did quite well in applying pressure and making his case to the general public. Kerry has a tendancy to build momentum quietly, and I think that's exactly what he was doing.
To wrap up, Kerry wins this one, Bush's rep as a master debater (insert joke here) goes into the dustbin, and we'll see you on Tuesday when John Edwards dismantles Dick Cheney.
Posted by the Fourth Man at September 30, 2004 07:44 PM