Official Presidential Debate Commentary Thread III

frigidmagi · Post by **frigidmagi** » 2004-10-13 10:43pm

Due to the debates, I find myself in the Kerry camp, before I was voting 3rd party.

jegs2 · Post by **jegs2** » 2004-10-13 10:44pm

frigidmagi wrote:Due to the debates, I find myself in the Kerry camp, before I was voting 3rd party.

Out of curiosity, who did you vote for during the 2000 election?

Raven · Post by **Raven** » 2004-10-13 10:45pm

jegs2 wrote:
frigidmagi wrote:Due to the debates, I find myself in the Kerry camp, before I was voting 3rd party.
Out of curiosity, who did you vote for during the 2000 election?

And do you live in a state that actually matters?

frigidmagi · Post by **frigidmagi** » 2004-10-13 10:45pm

I voted Bush in 2000.

jegs2 · Post by **jegs2** » 2004-10-13 10:46pm

frigidmagi wrote:I voted Bush in 2000.

It would be interesting to note how many others who voted for Bush in 2000 changed their minds because of the debates. I'm sure there's a poll out there somewhere that would answer that.

Lord Poe · Post by **Lord Poe** » 2004-10-13 10:49pm

Kerry did it again! He upstaged Bush by staying onstage last, to the cheers of the audience!

Veramocor · Post by **Veramocor** » 2004-10-13 10:52pm

ABC inst poll

N=566

Bush:41%
Kerry:42%
Tie:14%

Rep: 38%
Dem: 30%
Indy: 28%

Statitical dead heat though it favors kerry more if you weight the poll

Executor32 · Post by **Executor32** » 2004-10-13 10:55pm

I was already voting for Kerry anyway, but only due to the fact that he's not Bush. After seeing these three debates, I'm now voting for him based on his policies.

Did anyone else, when Bush made the joke about his wife speaking better English than he, just think "No shit, Sherlock. A brain-dead chimp has a better command of the English language than you do!"?

Alan Bolte · Post by **Alan Bolte** » 2004-10-13 10:56pm

It kind of irks me that Kerry was so vibrantly in favor of minimum wage increases. Because THAT creates more jobs (opposite) with better real income (ambiguous). It's just a politically correct way of looking like you support the poor because economic decisions that actually do something are too complicated for the (typ. undereducated) poor to understand.

The Cleric · Post by **The Cleric** » 2004-10-13 10:56pm

Executor32 wrote:Did anyone else, when Bush made the joke about his wife speaking better English than he, just think "No shit, Sherlock. A brain-dead chimp has a better command of the English language than you do!"?

Come on. He's not that bad. In fact, he's better than 90% of the students I attended high school with.

Agrajag · Post by **Agrajag** » 2004-10-13 10:59pm

Wow, what a debate. If Bush wins, I'm going to be VERY jealous of all of the next generation of children. NONE of them will need jobs and they're all going to have amazing college degrees! <grin>

Kerry again had a chance to nail Bush on several issues (especially flip-flopping and pointing out how major inconsistencies) but failed on most. However, I think clearly America saw Kerry be steady and Presidential in all 3 debates and Bush looked like 3 entirely different people in each debate.

Kerry REALLY blew it on the Congressional Black Caucus thing. I think we'll find out later he meant some other group and confused them, but that hurt. Bush killed himself by flat out not answering quite a surprising number of questions. Ask about jobs, get a reply about education. As if going to school is going to put food on the table.

Bush did nail Kerry a couple of times but overall, I think Kerry will be viewed as the winner here. It wasn't a knockout, but it was good enough.

Agrajag · Post by **Agrajag** » 2004-10-13 11:00pm

BTW, I think the moderator here did an exceptional job. I felt he was the best of the 4 by a wide margin.

Executor32 · Post by **Executor32** » 2004-10-13 11:04pm

StormtrooperOfDeath wrote:
Executor32 wrote:Did anyone else, when Bush made the joke about his wife speaking better English than he, just think "No shit, Sherlock. A brain-dead chimp has a better command of the English language than you do!"?
Come on. He's not that bad. In fact, he's better than 90% of the students I attended high school with.

True, true.

However, I still think the main reason the joke was actually funny was because it was all too true.

The Cleric · Post by **The Cleric** » 2004-10-13 11:10pm

Executor32 wrote:
StormtrooperOfDeath wrote:
Executor32 wrote:Did anyone else, when Bush made the joke about his wife speaking better English than he, just think "No shit, Sherlock. A brain-dead chimp has a better command of the English language than you do!"?
Come on. He's not that bad. In fact, he's better than 90% of the students I attended high school with.
True, true. However, I still think the main reason the joke was actually funny was because it was all too true.

Not denying that

. But some people take it to far, to the point of it being ludicrous

Joe · Post by **Joe** » 2004-10-13 11:13pm

StormtrooperOfDeath wrote:
Executor32 wrote:Did anyone else, when Bush made the joke about his wife speaking better English than he, just think "No shit, Sherlock. A brain-dead chimp has a better command of the English language than you do!"?
Come on. He's not that bad. In fact, he's better than 90% of the students I attended high school with.

90% of the people you attended high school with are not the President of the United States. We expect a bit more.

The Cleric · Post by **The Cleric** » 2004-10-13 11:15pm

Joe wrote:
StormtrooperOfDeath wrote:
Executor32 wrote:Did anyone else, when Bush made the joke about his wife speaking better English than he, just think "No shit, Sherlock. A brain-dead chimp has a better command of the English language than you do!"?
Come on. He's not that bad. In fact, he's better than 90% of the students I attended high school with.
90% of the people you attended high school with are not the President of the United States. We expect a bit more.

Of course. But comparing him to a trained monkey isn't even funny now. It got overused. Yeah, he can't speak well. Are you so childish that you can't look past that still, after 4 years?

Agrajag · Post by **Agrajag** » 2004-10-13 11:16pm

WHERE THE HELL did CNN move the voting to? I can't find it anywhere on their site and can't find ABC's but that's nothing new. CNN's was up front every time.

jegs2 · Post by **jegs2** » 2004-10-13 11:17pm

Agrajag wrote:WHERE THE HELL did CNN move the voting to? I can't find it anywhere on their site and can't find ABC's but that's nothing new. CNN's was up front every time.

Fox News stole it!

Joe · Post by **Joe** » 2004-10-13 11:18pm

No, I can't look past it. The President of the United States is supposed to have a reasonable command of the English language. I don't care whether or not he's a good President; I can't get past it either way.

The Cleric · Post by **The Cleric** » 2004-10-13 11:19pm

Joe wrote:No, I can't look past it. The President of the United States is supposed to have a reasonable command of the English language. I don't care whether or not he's a good President; I can't get past it either way.

Oh well. Not something I'm going to debate.

Agrajag · Post by **Agrajag** » 2004-10-13 11:22pm

One of the things I think spoke volumes about how this President will say ANYTHING to keep his job was when he had the gaul to criticize Kerry for getting the name of Lambau Field wrong. That's like a chimp being critical of Stephen Hawking's math skills.

This guy has been responsible for the creation of an entire cottage industry that has made a fortune off his gaffs. In fact, maybe we should re-elect this guy or else we're likely to bankrupt this whole industry. <grin>

Enigma · Post by **Enigma** » 2004-10-13 11:23pm

Joe wrote:No, I can't look past it. The President of the United States is supposed to have a reasonable command of the English language. I don't care whether or not he's a good President; I can't get past it either way.

Come on, us Canucks were able to look past our former prime minister's ability to speak in complete gibberish.

Spyder · Post by **Spyder** » 2004-10-13 11:24pm

Yeah, heads of state in most nations are generally expected to have a grasp of the official language.

My favorite exchange, paraphrased:

Kerry: The economy's gone to hell and Americans are out of work.
Bush: It's not that bad.
Kerry Yes it is.
Bush: ...You're a filthy lefty.

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2004-10-13 11:25pm

Well, it looks like I missed the whole debate, but from what you guys are saying, I didn't miss much.

Enigma wrote:
Joe wrote:No, I can't look past it. The President of the United States is supposed to have a reasonable command of the English language. I don't care whether or not he's a good President; I can't get past it either way.
Come on, us Canucks were able to look past our former prime minister's ability to speak in complete gibberish.

Chretien got away with it because English is not his first language and he also has facial nerve damage, so part of his speech impediment is a physical disability. Bush has neither of those excuses.

jegs2 · Post by **jegs2** » 2004-10-13 11:26pm

Is Texan not its own language?