Bush was the clear winner tonight. He was optimistic, hopeful, full of energy, funny, and articulate.
If Bush loses now, it will be the media that did him in. The media has been out to get him and, even now, is saying that the debate was a draw. Some on CNN even declare it a flat out Kerry win -- which is disproved by the look of dread on the faces of Kerry's advisors. When the main stream media calls the debate a draw, it is a Bush win.
Regardless of who wins the election, the loser will be the mainstream media, which has been eager to destroy Bush. The mainstream media has lost its credibility and will not soon get it back.
Posted by Erick at October 13, 2004 11:22 PM | TrackBackI concur. The media are a bunch of homophobes.
The more distance I get from it, the more it dawns on me just how badly Bush was beaten last night. Bush told all the unemployed swing voters in Ohio they're out of work because they're morons. All he could offer was "community college" and the reassurance that No Child Left Behind is a, um, jobs creation program. Yeah, that'll help the 43-year-old mill worker who got laid off because his job was shipped to Thailand. WEAK.
As substance goes, it might have been even weaker than his first performance.
Posted by: Rusty at October 14, 2004 07:47 PMBush, like Cheney, only looked good if you believed their statements. In the following days, we found out that Cheney lied about nearly everything he said, except the FMA. This morning, we find that that Bush's lack of concern for bin Ladin wasn't an "ex-ag-er-a-shun", but an accurate quote, yet the debbil "media" has been out to get him. Please, all I hear about is how Kerry shouldn't have mentioned poor Mary.
Posted by: Jim at October 14, 2004 06:43 PMIt was a great time after the debate last night in Bank One Ballpark in downtown Phoenix. I enjoyed the atmosphere of 44,000 supporting the President. Kerry only had about 20,000 in another venue after the debate. This bit of anecdotal evidence shows a typical trend. When I was building statewide grassroots in West Virginia recently, Kerry had to give away tickets to get people to come to his events there. Getting a ticket for Bush was very difficult, and the state party headquarters there was swamped with requests.
I couldn't see much of the debate last night because I was in a one mile line waiting to get through security (I arrived at my seat for closing statements).
The media are not able to crush the momentum I see out there. Their only hope to trounce Bush is with some sort of smoking gun of which we know nothing now.
Be assured, the whole media environment has changed. Fox, Drudge, NRO, and bloggers like us (i.e.www.opiniontimes.com if I may plug myself) are changing the face of the debate. This and reporting like that at CBS is where the media is failing. They have already lost the battle. It's just a matter of time until we can take the spoils.
Posted by: Jim Pfaff at October 14, 2004 03:47 PMPut down the pipe man. Kerry killed Bush in Debate 1 and they were about even in Round 2.
Tonight Kerry clearly had it all over Bush. Obviously someone pounded it into G.W. to keep smiling, and that's about all he did. Kerry outdebated him and looked more Presidential.
That's not "spin" for Kerry, that's the truth, finally being told by the Conservative (not Liberal) Media.
Posted by: PG at October 14, 2004 04:28 AMIt was vintage 2000 Bush, and I don't mean that as a compliment. He deflected, deflected, deflected. And when he couldn't deflect, he resorted to namecalling. His second debate was the best, in that he gave substantive answers. Kerry's answers were not sharp, but at least they were answers.
Posted by: Rusty at October 14, 2004 01:16 AM