Mixed feelings

I have mixed feelings about the debate last night. On one hand, Kerry did a great job. He throttled Bush and made him look like the blathering idiot that he is. Most importantly, he didn't let Bush's blatant stupidity frustrate him. Other politicians who've debated him were rattled by Bush's willingness to just brainlessly repeat his 2 or 3 talking points that were given to him beforehand. (You can just picture Karen Hughes patiently coaching him. "No, George--"re-so-loot" is how you pronounce it.) Ann Richards and Al Gore especially were no match for that sort of debating style--both of them are more interested in governing than politics and don't see the need to hammer endlessly as some meaningless catchphrase.

Why was everyone so afraid? Democrats do have a learning curve, you know. All it was going to take to get Bush flustered was to just throw even a smidgen of his methods back at him. Every time Kerry would drop a catchphrase and Bush would just reply with a catchphrase, that infernal huffing and puffing of Bush's would get worse.

Meanwhile, why Bush was being dumb, Kerry smiled beneficiently--it was a great choice. Gore irritated everyone with the eye-rolling and sighing. It was condescending to the people who thought, "Well, Bush can't be that bad if he's up there, can he?" Kerry's stance wasn't that Bush was bad--it was that he, Kerry was better. Smart, smart choice.

And the best was the way he hinted at the fact that the rules were tilted to favor Bush. When Bush would all but demand the last word to every single exchange by whining and pouting, Kerry acted like he would generously allow it. After all, he seemed to be saying, why not let him have the last word? It's clear that I'm the better choice. That was hard to do and he faltered a bit--it's really, truly unfair to give Bush every advantage because he's stupid and the urge is to even it out. Unfair to the voters, that is.

But Bush still pulled his act off, so that's upsetting. However, I have great hope that two more debates will do him in, especially if Dick Cheney loses his temper during the V.P. debate.

And I have mixed feelings, because while it was great to see Bush exposed for the dumbass that he is, as a Texan it's embarrassing to have him represent us to the nation and to the world.

Oh, and as post-debate spin is so critical, go help John Kerry. At CBS, he's around 85% of polled viewers saying he won. Ross has some other helpful links.

HA HA HA HA HA. USA Today is so scared that they don't even have a poll asking who won the debate--just if it's interesting.