Friday Night Fights
First thoughts, it was a good debate overall. Gibson did a good job choosing, but the folks doing the asking did a good job on the questions themselves. It makes me feel good that there are normal folks out there with the guts to stand up and ask our President, and a powerful Senator, direct critical questions. Patriot act be damned, I'd bet dollars to donuts that none of these people will be sent to the gulag for being impertinent.
Bush hit it out of the park only in the sense that if he hadn't done better than last time I would be thinking of changing my vote. To Nader. But he didn't bomb, and on the merits, he made Kerry sweat. If you had watched the previous debate you heard a little repetition from the both of them, but I think a little more from Kerry. If forceful is what you were looking for, Bush delivered, and he didn't seem to avoid any questions.
Where I think he did himself the most good was not backing down on abortion and stem cells. He could have finessed the stem cell issue better, but chose to leave it simple. I thought Kerry did a very credible job on stem cells for his leaners, and also with the abortion issue. I'm more familiar with what Kerry had to do with his position, as I'd have the same difficult time explaining mine (other than the partial birth procedure where I think I'm very mainstream in opposing it). Bottom line is that as much as I'd like to see extremely few abortions for extraordinary reasons, it's not my call. It must be a woman's choice, unless she's married and has an implied contract with her husband to reproduce. Then he should have a say in it, although, not the final one. Where I am closer to Bush is where government money is concerned. I don't want my tax dollars paying for someone else's botched contraceptive method.
I'm thinking that Bush's dip in the polls after the first debate had to do with people wondering if his performance was as good as it gets. This time out he stepped up to at least where we are used to seeing him. He earned big points after 9/11 for stepping up, and I think it was disappointing to see him come down from that. I'll posit that the pendulum has duly swung back after this debate, and he regains a few points in this week's polls, where I think he should be. In a do or die situation like tonight, he did.
It's up to events now and next week's debate, and whether or not Kerry can come up with a knockout punch, which he needs to pull ahead. His organization, including the DNC and MoveOn and the like will need to do better than shoot up local Republican campaign headquarters. Or manipulate polls.
