As I had hoped, Vodkapundit live-blogged the debate. As expected, he made several points with which I agree, and I’ll quote generously from him later.
First, I didn’t actually live blog, but I did type up ongoing notes, punctuated with an occasional timestamp and comment. I’ve stripped out those portions from my notes to present my personal first debate skeleton.
8:04 — Initial thought: Kerry doesn’t look orange.
8:07 — Bush dodges a softball question, one where he had a golden opportunity to correct the misconception about Cheney’s statement.
On the other hand, Kerry misses a chance to take advantage of this in his rebuttal. [Left this in just because missed opportunities seemed a prolonged theme of the evening]
8:10 — Kerry states goal is Osama bin Laden. Wrong. It’s more than one man.
8:24 — So far no discernable important moments.
8:47 — So far Kerry’s performing better. But a performer ain’t necessarily a leader.
8:51 — Man, November 3 can’t get here fast enough.
9:02 — Just cracked my first beer. Went to the fridge, grabbed a Miller Lite, opened it and drank. Practically all during one of Bush’s pauses.
9:10 — Well, only twenty more minutes, and then the spin can really begin.
9:20 — All right! Last question.
9:30 — Initial final impression, no clear winner without the effect of spin applied afterward. Which means a win for Bush.
Now, to lift some greatness from the VodkaDude, all of which tie to some of my notes:
“Osama bin Laden doesn’t determine American policy,” or words to that effect. Not well delivered, but the words themselves were perfect.
….
7:45pm. Here’s what we have so far. Kerry is an impressive attack machine. Bush impressively refuses to budge. If I had to guess, the question most viewers will ask is, “In time of war, do I want the debate team captain, or the guy he can’t move?”
7:48pm. “I will hunt and kill the terrorists wherever they are.” That’s the second (third?) time Kerry has used that line, and it’s a loser. For Kerry, it’s a promise. For Bush, it’s a perceived fact.
7:50pm. Kerry is hedging, in a nuanced fashion, his promise to withdraw troops. It’s a MEGO moment, and even a junky like me is getting lost in his answer. On the other hand, I’m drinking.
….
7:57pm. We’re almost to the two-thirds mark now, and it looks like a draw. A draw is a loss for Kerry, for reasons I’ll get into around midnight or so Eastern Time.
….
I’m bored with both of these guys, and have been almost from the start. But Kerry just annoys me. And he thinks he’s going to win me over by complaining we aren’t TALKING to North Korea? What’s there to talk about? Clinton exhausted talk with them ten years ago. And what did it get us?
….
8:17pm. Methinks he doth protest too much. Kerry, for the umpteenth time tonight, has said he’s never wavered on Iraq. The record says different and, even if it didn’t, that windsurfing TV ad makes it the public perception.
….
Last question, and neither guy has flubbed anything.
Some other thoughts from my own hastily-typed notes:
- I’ll have to check a transcript but I transcribed that Kerry said, “We’ve got weapons of mass destruction crossing the border every day.” If so, where does that leave his no-wmd-wrong-war stance?
- Bush had an excellent line about knowing when to bring home the troops: “I don’t want to do so for the sake of bringing them home; I want to do so because they’ve achieved their objective. … Artificial deadlines won’t work.”
- Kerry repeatedly stated the war was wrong. However, when confronted with his “last man to die for a mistake” quote, he acted as if it wasn’t a mistake and we had to stay there. Well, which is it?
- Kerry is certainly a fan of summits. My impression is that Bush will have them as needed, but Kerry will apparently wallow in them.
- Kerry should not bring up his protesting of Viet Nam, especially not in a positive light. He is only opening himself up to the Swifties’ POW attacks.
- Another great Bush line (possibly paraphrased): “That’s totally absurd. You can’t expect to build an alliance when you denigrate the allies standing side by side with our troops in Iraq.’
- A third great Bush quote: “Every life is precious. That’s what distinguishes us from the enemy.”
- Another thing I need to check the transcript on: I typed that, as a means of bringing in more allies to the coalition, Kerry said he would’ve taken time to ask other nations what it would take, what he could offer or give to get them on board. And he condemned our current allies as the “coerced and bribed?!!”
- Fourth great Bush line (again, possibly paraphrased): “Trying to be popular in the global sense, when it’s not in our best interest, makes no sense.”
- On the question of greatest danger facing the U.S., Bush repeatedly tied WMD-proliferation to terrorists, Kerry merely repeatedly cited nuclear proliferation. A bit of the old unilateral-freeze peacenik shining through? The Bush campaign could exploit this, though it should be done delicately.
- Thank you, Mr. President, for publicly tying the Beslan massacre to the global war on terror.
- Kerry actually had the balls to say, “We always have to stand up for democracy.” Ask the victims of the fall of South Veit Nam about that. Ask the Nicaraquans, whose fight for democracy Kerry tried to impair. Ask the Iraqis to match that quote with Kerry’s wrong-war crap.
In summation, Kerry looked, acted and debated better. Bush was right. Style vs. substance, historical mistakes and newfound stances vs. established views and a track record of decisive leadership.
The American public has been fooled before, but I hope not this time. The stakes are too high.