A few random observations on last night’s debate:
Kerry: I thought Kerry got off to a slow start. Initially he seemed more concerned with getting in his buzzwords and pre-scripted talking points than he did in answering the questions. Consequently, I thought he missed several opportunities to gets some good shots in on Bush (e.g., why we are dependent on importing flu vaccine from Canada, yet are not supposed to import prescription drugs from there?)
Kerry clearly had a better command of the issues, as some of the exit polling showed. At times, it seemed like he knew too much on the issues; he should have presented fewer statistics and more vision.
Kerry did a pretty effective job at targeting his message at women, undecideds, and voters in the swing states–the people he needs to win over to seal the deal. Many men were allegedly watching baseball, so this was a great opportunity to re-establish the gender gap.
Some Republicans and several MSNBC talking heads were really worked up over the fact that Kerry mentioned that Cheney’s daughter is a lesbian. I agree that the reference was unnecessary, but is this really the great sin that some folks are trying to make it out to be?
Bush: His presentation was better than in prior debates. He wasn’t scowling or overly defensive/angry. If this Bush had shown up the first time, many in the chattering class may have awarded him the first debate. Funny how the media didn’t take up the “which George Bush will show up?” narrative that they attached to Al Gore in 2000 when he switched his debating style.
I was a little confused on who Bush was directing his message toward. People who like education, that’s for sure. But over the last few weeks he’s clearly adopted the “get out the base” strategy. But last night he had at least four missteps in shoring up the base: he (1) didn’t explicitly attack Roe v. Wade; (2) his answer on the Mexican border question was lame (the border is more secure than it was four years ago?); (3) didn’t label homosexuality as a “choice”, and (4) on the unemployment question he went through quite a list of government handouts programs. Were those answers the red meat the right wing wanted?
Moderator: Bob Schieffer did a decent job of managing the debate. The event flowed fairly smoothly and he didn’t make himself a focal point in the event. He threw a few softballs out there, but the discussion didn’t suffer too much. We got a few glimpses of the candidates unscripted.
The one major omission I saw in the debate was that there weren’t any questions on the environment. In fact, I haven’t even heard the Kerry campaign devote that much attention to environmental issues. Do voters not care about the environment this year?
Overall: Kerry got a lot of mileage from the three debates. Not only did he “win” them on the general substance/style scoreboard, but more importantly it gave him the opportunity to appear on the same stage as Bush and appear more “presidential.” There’s many Americans who are ready for a change in leadership but who haven’t yet embraced the challenger. Kerry hasn’t closed the deal on those folks yet, but I think he made some major inroads during these debates. If he finishes this campaign strong, I think victory awaits him on November 2.