Target Centermass

Day: October 8, 2004

  • Post-Debate Aside on Defeatist Terminology

    While reading through other sites for their debate opinions, I came across this line from Blogs of War‘s live blogging by John Little:

    8:20pm CST – Is it just me or is “Win the peace” one of the most annoying phrases of all time.

    Well, I’ll rank it right up there with “exit strategy,” a phrase I’ve stated my opinion on previously.

    EDIT: Yes, you can plan to “win the peace,” you can plan on every single contingency. However, war is chaos and perfect planning for peace would require paralysis of action. The same with having an exit strategy short of absolute victory. Win the campaign, deal with the actual results; win the war, achieve the established goals and make the peace and exit strategy desired.

  • Bush-Kerry 2: The Awakening

    My thought after the first debate was style (Kerry) vs. substance (Bush). After the conclusion of this debate, I thought both improved in their weaker areas. I felt Bush’s style improvements were dramatic in that he seemed awake. Kerry held some more substance, but he’s still on the wrong side of too many of my views. I’m quite certain that Kerry has a plan to change that. If not, he’s got a plan to address the lack of the other plan.

    Slight Bush win, because Bush wasn’t just President Bush tonight, he was also Dubya. And Dubya plays well in the vast distance between New England and California. It should be noted that, at this point, a slight Bush win is a huge Bush win; it’s the equivalent of grabbing back homefield advantage in a playoff series.

    I typed up a few questions that I want to run against the transcript, so a more thourough look later.