Your Reactions to the Second Presidential Debate

[Harry Tuttle]

Originally posted by laurentius
Kerry nailed Bush over and over again. Did you notice how he ended most of his answers with a nice punch line? Bush was just (again) completely out of his league, he even lost his temper.

Reagan lost his temper in the debates. It's regarded as one of the defining moments in the 1980 campaign.

[Boris Godunov]

Hey, look what Dick Cheney's favorite site, www.factcheck.org, has to say about Bush's indignation over his timber company ownership:

President Bush himself would have qualified as a "small business owner" under the Republican definition, based on his 2001 federal income tax returns. He reported $84 of business income from his part ownership of a timber-growing enterprise. However, 99.99% of Bush's total income came from other sources that year. (Bush also qualified as a "small business owner" in 2000 based on $314 of "business income," but not in 2002 and 2003 when he reported his timber income as "royalties" on a different tax schedule.)

So much for his indignation.

Kerry won, if by a smaller margin than before (how could it be any bigger, though, really?). Expectations for Bush were exceedingly low anyway. Bush's screaming at the audience in the first half wasn't particularly helpful either, nor his combativeness with Gibson at one point. He did recover though, and the 2nd half was much more even.

Overall:

Kerry: B+
Bush: C+

[Harry Tuttle]

Originally posted by MrFun
And plus we need to realize that I'm the exclusive author now of presidential debate threads.

Royalties?

[DanS]

Good debate. Bush's timber company was funny. Also, Kerry totally ducked the abortion issue and didn't pursue good answers by Bush on the environment.

The first hour was pretty action packed. Kerry stayed on the offensive, but I wonder what his plans are.

[Dis]

This is the first debate I have watched completely. So I can't compare.

Bush did pretty good, but so did Kerry. Kerry is definately a better speaker. He spoke clearly, and didn't have any weird moments like bush did (wood? )

I give the debate to Kerry by a very slight margin.

[Sava]

I didn't see it, but cable news is licking bush's ass

[MrFun]

Well, Ming and I are working on royalty arrangements even at this moment.

[Boris Godunov]

Originally posted by Harry Tuttle
Reagan lost his temper in the debates. It's regarded as one of the defining moments in the 1980 campaign.

Not quite. The defining moment was when he didn't lose his temper, i.e. the affably said "There you go again." That was what put him past Carter, not any temper. Reagan was not remotely known for a temper, he was known as the nice guy everyone could like.

[Koyaanisqatsi]

Originally posted by DanS
Good debate. Bush's timber company was funny. Also, Kerry totally ducked the abortion issue and didn't pursue good answers by Bush on the environment.

I kind of wonder why Kerry didn't mention the Union of Concerned Scientists statement on that one...

[Dis]

Re: Your Reactions to the Second Presidential Debate

Originally posted by MrFun
I think Kerry did a fine job in this second debate -- definitely better than Bush.


Also, when the last question of the entire debate was asked by someone in the audience about what three mistakes Bush made as president, Bush did not answer the question directly. Instead, he took the chance to gloat about the right decisions he believed he made.

Talk about dodging a question.




What is everyone else's thoughts and insights?

I agree about that last question. A very rough question to field the president . He was squirming a bit with that one. Cool.

But he saved himself partially by saying his mistakes were with his appointments (but he didn't name them)

[MrFun]

Am I the only one obssessively annoyed by Bush's lack of a real answer to the final question?

[Harry Tuttle]

Originally posted by Boris Godunov
Not quite. The defining moment was when he didn't lose his temper, i.e. the affably said "There you go again." That was what put him past Carter, not any temper. Reagan was not remotely known for a temper, he was known as the nice guy everyone could like.

I'll cite: "I paid for this podium!"

but anyways, let's talk about the 2004 candidates.

[Dis]

Originally posted by MrFun
Am I the only one obssessively annoyed by Bush's lack of a real answer to the final question?

Kerry was dodging the question how he was going to reduce the deficit. Of course so was Bush.

[asleepathewheel]

Did Bush mention Dred Scott due to the debates location? A bit too subtle, if so.


I thought it was a pretty even debate, both were bad at times, but the whole stem cell stuff was pretty embarassing, from what I recall, for the president.

[mrmitchell]

Oh yeah, and Dred Scott.

Thanks for the history lesson Professor Bush

EDIT:

And I forgot to knock Bush down a grade for what he said about stem cell research.

"Stem cell research involves the destruction of human life.

I was the first president to allow federal funding for stem cell research."

Jesus Christ!