It's Hard Work
As you might expect, I thought Kerry won the debate.
But I remember thinking that about Al Gore in the first of his debates with Bush. It seemed then that because Bush didn't knock his lecturn over, he won, substance be damned. By the last debate, Gore seemed unnerved at being unable to do or say anything that the press wouldn't jump all over. Half an hour into it, somebody in the room with me muttered in disbelief, "My God, he's going to win."
So I was happy that Kerry looked and sounded like he knew what he was doing, and Bush looked and sounded like the high school kid who didn't study for the test and tries to fake it.
What annoyed me, though, was the spin afterward. Again and again I heard, "Kerry says he has a plan for Iraq, but he never says what his plan is." The idea being, I guess, that he doesn't really have a plan.
Even with only two minutes at a time to speak, I heard John Kerry talk about what he would do in Iraq that was different from what the president is doing. And if you missed that, Kerry said:
So the choice for America is, you can have a plan that I've laid out in four points, each of which I can tell you more about or you can go to johnkerry.com and see more of it; or you have the president's plan, which is four words: more of the same.
Seems pretty clear to me. Have no political commentators ever done that? It's not difficult. Just click over to http://www.johnkerry.com and go to the bottom where is says "the Kerry-Edwards plan," and click on Iraq. A page appears, titled Winning the Peace in Iraq.
Right at the top you'll find his four points, which are elaborated in simple English further down:
- Internationalize, because others must share the burden;
- Train Iraqis, because they must be responsible for their own security;
- Move forward with reconstruction because that's an important way to stop the spread of terror; and
- Help Iraqis achieve a viable government, because it is up to them to run their own country.
On a side note, I wonder what effect Fox's TV camera work had on the viewers' perceptions. They Or at least the NBC feed I was watching) used a split screen to show both candidates at the same time. In an effort to have both their heads at the same height, Bush's lectern appeared to be aboout six inches taller than Kerry's, and Bush seemd to be almost hiding behind it. But that's just my opinion, and I'm somewhat biased.
11:41:54 AM 
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