Debate 2: Liveblog

Overall, this was the most engaging and interesting debate I’ve ever seen. Both men were very energized, rather good stylistically, and misleading. Kerry did well on not impersonating Jon Stewart’s impersonation of him as a dull and rather boring Joe “Joementum” Lieberman clone. Bush did well on hitting Kerry on campaign themes such as the $87 billion vote. As non-partisan as I can be, I think that Kerry won this one both on substance and on persuasiveness, although not as definitively as the first debate. Both men were extraordinarily weak in going for the jugular and using high-faluting rhetoric to denounce the others position as incompassionate and offensive to the common man. They mentioned it–but they were no Tim Ryan.

10:37pm – Bush closing statement. Bush is echoing a campaign ad going through the history of his administration: corporate scandals, recession, 9/11, tax cuts, Afghanistan, healthcare reform, jobs, energy plan that blows, and securing our nation. The theme of the closing is obviously leadership and more of the same if I’m re-elected. To Bush, the greatest threat to the world is hatorade–how can I disagree with that.

10:36pm – Kerry closing statement. It’s rather boring as it mentions alliances and plan multiple times. Kerry is going for all the points by going from Iraq, to the economy, the eduation system, and the environment. Very stale closing.

10:33pm – Bush follows through on my prediction, obviously, but does not follow through with it to the end by going off-message and talking about Saddam.

10:32pm – Kerry is not doing well on this question, although it is open for a crotch shot to Bush like no other. He continues his talk about coalition-building and whatnot while not attacking him on the areas named below. It’s getting better, however, as he is talking about the lack of armor for the soldiers and for the humvees, which will open him up to an attack on the $87 billion line.

10:31pm – Bush is questioned on mistakes. The questioner is making Bush angry. You won’t want to see him when he’s angry. Naturally, he is having a lot of trouble answering this question, but continues to assert that he is accountable for whatever mistakes he is not willing to admit. To him, mistakes have been made, but the little ones don’t matter only the big ones. He believes that going into Iraq was a good decision, but whether or not to disband the Iraqi army, to invade Fallujah, to take care of Sadr, to fix the intelligence community, to not alter the tax cut, to not respect fiscal discipline are simply irrelevant. Of course, he doesn’t name any mistakes, completely ignoring the question.

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