Kerry fumbled around at points, but Bush came off as an arrogant yahoo - shouty, eye rolling, jumpy, didn’t have a damned answer for anything he’d done wrong.
I’d say Kerry, but not as much of a lead as the last one.
He didn’t answer the last question. Not nearly. Not even close. Totally went off onto a WAR IS RIGHT WE LIKES WAR tirade.
I missed the first one, but man… Bush was just terrible. Arguing with the moderator? Calling Kerry “Kennedy?” Completely ignoring everything Kerry said about the PBAB? Oh, and standing up in the middle of Kerry’s turn half the time.
Also, someone quick check the status of Bush’s timber company. I hope my gut is right that he owns one and doesn’t know.
I totally missed the moment. What was the joke?[/quote]
Kerry was talking about how Bush and Cheney have little corporations set up to save on taxes. He said Bush had a little timber company. Bush played stupid.[/quote]
“Wood” is Pauli Shore slang for an erection. I was laughing my ass off when he said that.
I don’t think Bush came off that badly, really. If I cared what I was talking about I’d be a bit passionate too. It was close to a tie IMHO. Nobody landed any knockouts. But I tend to give Kerry the edge because I thought he showed more cool and a better grasp of the issues.
And as always, I’ll wait and see how the truthsquadding sorts out.
I had real doubts about Kerry prior to this series of debates. Now, I can definitely see him as president, and a damn effective one at that. As a Canadian living in the US, I can’t vote but if I could, it would be for Kerry.
The last two questions were really designed to be hit out of the park by the candidate giving the rebuttal. How weird.
-Amanpour
Man, that “Need some wood?” comment had me in belly laughs.
I also enjoyed how Bush was caught TOTALLY off guard about the question of who he would appoint to the U.S. Supreme Court if he had the chance right now. “I ain’t sayin’!”
I felt reassured that Bush will not appoint a supreme court justice who favors slavery.
And how he couldn’t bring himself to name one mistake he made, let alone three.
From the DNC site
“Clare Gannon: President Bush himself would have qualified as a “small business owner” under the Republican definition, based on his 2001 federal income tax returns. He reported $84 of business income from his part ownership of a timber-growing enterprise. However, 99.99% of Bush’s total income came from other sources that year. (Bush also qualified as a “small business owner” in 2000 based on $314 of “business income,” but not in 2002 and 2003 when he reported his timber income as “royalties” on a different tax schedule.) [FactCheck.org]”
However, factcheck.org search is disabled right now, so I can’t confirm the citation.
Edit: Found the cite on factcheck.org. Here’s the direct link, which reiterates the above.
But at least we won’t see slavery again! Woohoo!
Didn’t anybody else find the Dred Scott remark terribly anachronistic? I see that one being punished dearly on the Daily Show, at least.
I couldn’t stand how they both ignored Gibson’s direct question however, my intelligence was insulted.
Oops
from factcheck.org:
President Bush himself would have qualified as a “small business owner” under the Republican definition, based on his 2001 federal income tax returns. He reported $84 of business income from his part ownership of a timber-growing enterprise. However, 99.99% of Bush’s total income came from other sources that year. (Bush also qualified as a “small business owner” in 2000 based on $314 of “business income,” but not in 2002 and 2003 when he reported his timber income as “royalties” on a different tax schedule.)
I’m depressed that National Review caught on to people reading their blog to spy on conservatives honest opinions; it was so fun. They were practically suicidal the last two debates.
What IRC channel is that?
I also liked this moment:
Bush: I’ve opened 22 stem cell lines for research. This is a good compromise between science and ethics.
Kerry: Every scientist in America says those lines are insufficient.
Bush: Those lines were already extracted from embryos! I decided not to destroy more life!
Bush: “I will not appoint a Supreme Court Justice who will remove ‘under God’ from the Pledge, nor will I appoint one who supports slavery”
That’s just crystal clear.
I think my favourite moment was (on Kerry’s supposed 98 votes for tax raising) “these aren’t just made up numbers”.
Either Bush was been prepped very poorly for this debate or he forgot all the coaching immediately. He was in a yelping tantrum from his very first answer. We even saw a return to the “L-word” tactic of 1992: “That’s what liberals do! They create government-sponsored health care!” And we got the “optimism” argument again: how can Kerry lead when he’s not optimistic about Bush’s success in Iraq?
Kerry was firm, cogent, and very forceful without getting mad. In this round even more than the first, I found myself thinking about Al Gore from time to time — specifically of what a stiff he was compared with Kerry, and of how he could possibly have failed to trounce someone who talks about rumors “on the Internets” and says Canadian drugs “might be from a Third World.”
Anyway…What’s this Bush was claiming about 75% of Al Qaeda’s members being captured? I hadn’t heard that one before. (Obviously there’s no shortage of non–Al Qaeda jihadis now, but where does the specific claim come from?)