Josh Marshall, like many of the TV pundits I’ve seen so far tonight, is being way too kind: “My point isn’t that Kerry clobbered the president or anything. But for 90 minutes, Kerry held the initiative…”
Kerry clobbered Bush tonight. I’m not just saying that because I’m a Democrat or a liberal or Bush-hater. Throughout the campaign I’ve supported the political platform despite the milquetoast candidate. And I supported Gore despite recognizing his wooden performance in the 2000 debates; it wasn’t simply a figment of the media’s imagination or of the GOP “noise machine”. But I just can’t believe that Tim Russert comes on air tonight and says that both candidates were on their best game. What?!
What we had was one candidate that came across as knowledgeable, genial and conversational about the problems facing the U.S. and the world, and another that came across as petulant, huffing, confused and generally pulling answers to tough questions out of his ass. And for each specific, detailed charge we got a vague, watery response, even bald faced lies like Bush’s assertaion that nuclear proliferation has eased under his watch. Instead, drowning man Bush kept grasping at his life preserver catch phrases, which weren’t keeping him afloat.
I keep thinking of the Simpsons epidose in which Bart popularizes the phrase “I didn’t do it” only to find that the crowds get tired of it after over-repetition.
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