Thief's Den

Town Hall Debate

Tactical Verdict: Draw.

Bush came back strong tonight, went on the offensive. (Probably got some advice from Cheney on that.) Attacked Kerry's Senate record while laying out his policies with that good-ol-boy charm of his, yet he still had his usual problems. Kerry was his usual stylistic self, on the attack but able to lay out plans, though his plans were notoriously mushy.

I thought Gibson was going to be a flaming liberal and slant all the questions like the town hall debate of 2000. I was surprised... the questions seemed a lot more balanced, and even got very pointed at times. (Kerry's wishy-washiness and taxes, Bush's spending policies). By my count, of 18 questions asked, seven were from a liberal perspective (Iraqi intel, world's opinion, the draft, drug importation, the environment, the Patriot act, and Bush's mistakes), five were from a conservative perspective (Kerry's wishy-washyness, lawsuits, tax promises, stem cells, and abortion), and six from a moderate/centrist perspective ("same plan" in Iraq, Iran, terrorist attacks, spending, American competitiveness, and judges) Charles Gibson broke the rules twice and asked followups (once on legal fees, once on spending), but I'd call both more centrist than anything. <Transcript here.) By contrast, in the 2000 debate, out of 15 questions, eight were liberal, six were moderate, and one was conservative. You can thank the pajamahedeen, methinks, for the change.

Strategic Verdict: Not much change, either way, in the polls. If it had gone poorly for Bush, he would be in trouble. But he held his own, and if the polls had him up before, they'll have him up now.

Line of the night (Duh): "Want some wood?"

Because that's what this debate was, a good ol' fashioned stickfight. Got in some good hits, got angry smacked each other around a bit, a good time was had by all. (Best of all, Bush took some wood, made a stake, and put it through the heart of these stupid draft rumors. And Kerry joined in too. Good for him.)

In the end, this was Fight Club. Nothing was solved, but nothing really mattered. But I do want some wood...

Posted by Thief at October 8, 2004 11:31 PM