| Topic: |
Politics > Politics-USA |
| User: |
"Scaly Lizard" |
| Date: |
01 Oct 2004 01:54:02 AM |
| Object: |
Three debate details... did you notice them? |
Let me say this first: before the debate i didn't know who
i'd vote for, and i still don't.
Here are 3 things i noticed about the debate that so far
have been missed by the spin crews: Kerry's pen, Bush's
water glass and Mrs. Kerry.
1. Kerry's Pen. Sen. Kerry used his pen to write lots of
notes as the debate unfolded, and that's great, but i
noticed many times when Kerry made long sweeping
left-to-right motions with his pen, almost in an exaggerated
way. Perhaps he was waving his pen around on purpose,
trying to make viewers think he was "on top of the situation".
The other possible explanation for the sweeping motions
of his writing hand is that he was Crossing Things Out.
SO he was either making a show of his note-taking, or
was wavering "on-the-fly". Either one's disturbing.
2. Bush's Water. Bush took frequent sips of water, and
that's fine, but i didn't see Kerry do it once. Doesn't
Kerry need water when talking for 1 1/2 hours? What, is
he a silicon-based lifeform? But what i saw about Bush's
water glass was that he had at least two glasses on his
podium, because after he had emptied a glass, there
was still more water. The odd thing was that i saw Bush
pick up the *empty* glass and try to take a sip from it...
and this happened at least twice, maybe more. Each time,
he put down the empty and took a sip from the full glass,
but still... that's just disturbing. He just kept on grabbing
the wrong glass.
3. Mrs Kerry. After the debate was over, the spouses
came up on stage, and Bush's daughters too. As we've
seen repeatedly over four years, Mrs. Bush just holds
herself with dignity and moves gracefully, with a smile
that is (close to plastic but) always pleasant. Mrs. Kerry,
on the opposite hand, lumbered about the stage like
a wildebeest, her shoulders hunched forward and throwing
hand waves that looked like "seig heils" while clomping
about like she was wearing hiking boots. When the two
ladies met at center stage to exchange pleasantries, it
looked (from body language) that Mrs. Bush made a joke
about how similar their outfits were. Mrs. Kerry gave an
uncomfortable look like she was thinking: "i don't know
what's going on, but i don't like it." I'd suggest to Kerry's
campaign that they might want to keep Herr Missus under
wraps until after the election. If people see her heffalumping
about like i did tonight, it certainly can't help Kerry's chances
in November.
Kerry crossing out his own notes is disturbing, and lends
credence to the Republican charge of "waffler". Bush
repeatedly tried to drink from an empty glass, and that's
also disturbing. It lends credence to the Democrats'
charges that he doesn't really know what he's doing in
the big leagues. As for the wives, that's not something
that will swing my vote one way or the other, but now
that i saw them together... i shudder to think of a tromping
clodding beast as First Lady, but if her man does a good
job, then it's all good.
So my mind is still not made up. Kerry did what he wanted:
to look collected and sound strong. Bush did what he
wanted: look comfortable and sound reassuring. Kerry did
not get any personality points, and Bush did not get any
'on-the-ball' points.
If i had to score the debate, i'd give the slim margin to Bush
for two reasons: after a half-hour, he had Kerry repeating his
words, assimiliating into John's responses the very phrases that
the Prez had earlier fed to him, while in those instances where
Bush quoted Kerry, he did so in making a contrast between
their viewpoints.
The second reason Bush won? Kerry opened the debate
with nice thank-yous to the moderator and hosts, but seemed
like he was doing it because it was expected of him. But later
on, when Bush went into his string of compliments about Kerry,
he just seemed to Mean It More, and won the subsequent
ad-libs in the mini-debate about raising teenage daughters.
One debate doesn't make my vote; not such a close debate
as this one. I don't know who i'll vote for yet, but i already
feel like i wish i had another choice.
SL
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| User: "Gary" |
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| Title: Re: Three debate details... did you notice them? |
04 Oct 2004 07:16:19 PM |
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Scaly Lizard <scalylizard@nospampleaseyho.com> wrote in message news:<45rpl0p6uje4hv8q84mbb5nn9tnaasa5dr@4ax.com>...
Bush did what he
wanted: look comfortable and sound reassuring.
You've got to be kidding me. His constant blinking like he'd been
sucker punched? The faces? Trotting out his same old lines again and
again no matter what the question?
.
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| User: "Scaly Lizard" |
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| Title: Re: Three debate details... did you notice them? |
04 Oct 2004 11:49:48 PM |
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On 4 Oct 2004 17:16:19 -0700, (Gary) wrote:
Scaly Lizard <scalylizard@nospampleaseyho.com> wrote in message news:<45rpl0p6uje4hv8q84mbb5nn9tnaasa5dr@4ax.com>...
Bush did what he
wanted: look comfortable and sound reassuring.
You've got to be kidding me. His constant blinking like he'd been
sucker punched? The faces? Trotting out his same old lines again and
again no matter what the question?
He didn't spazz out, and though he stutter-stepped at
the beginnings of some responses, he recovered decently
and at times he actually sounded like he knew what he
was talking about. His handlers know he didn't hit the
home runs, but they weren't counting on that.
Bush stayed on-message, like he was told to do. The
worrisome thing is that his repertoire of canned messages
was less broad than Kerry's range of (also canned)
messages. It was as if Bush's handlers only thought they
could trust hime with four messages, while Kerry's handlers
thought he could handle six canned messages to hammer on.
SL
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