Kerry used the words 'this President' 68 times according to a CNN pundit.

He gets the repetive award this week. Bush was awake during the debate which was nice.

steve,
check out the "apres debate", where the candidates try to leave the stage, and tell me what you see happening.

The daily tracking polls indicate the U.S. public's verdict: Bush won, decisively, on substance and style (I didn't know if the former were possible until I saw Kerry's cadaverous performance). Unless the president drops the ball badly Wednesday, the Democrats will begin to focus on the senate races (while going thru the motions in the battle for the White House).

The president probably has won at this point, not because of the debates but in spite of them.

I've been parsing the poll data over at my blog for the past several days. Conclusion: Bush's stumbling performance in Debate #1 pulled Kerry even with him; but Cheney's stellar job against Edwards turned it around, and Bush's much-improved performance in Debate #2 has brought him back up to about a 4-5% lead nationally. The internals of the polls suggest he has decisive support in areas that count most. This baby is now his to lose, and it looks as if turnout will decide the race: Who'll be more motivated to show up and push the levers on November 2? We'll see...

You know, I thought Kerry made a minor gaffe when he talked about how King Abdullah of Jordan thought Iraq couldn't hold elections any time soon.

Since when do we solicit the opinion of a king about democracy?

I haven't seen this point made elsewhere, so I guess it's just my continued hang up over British rule. ;)

LOL! Lovely review! It almost sounds like...you know, wouldn't it be nice to "MST3K" these debates? LOL!

If the stakes weren't so serious, this would be the funniest presidential race since...well, since...Heck, they'd be the funniest presidential races ever!

"8. OK, Matt and I are sitting here watching the debate, and he says, "Kerry looks like a muppet?" So we paused the TiVo and hashed it out. In profile, Kerry does indeed look like a muppet. A cross between Beaker and the non-round old guy in the balcony from the Muppet Show."

I always thaough he looked like Sam the American Eagle:
http://www.kermitage.com/html/characterindex/tms/characters.html

Without doing the google thing, I think the two old guys from the balcony are Waldorf and Stadler. Not sure which one is which but I would vote for either before their fellow muppet, Kerry.

Bush reminds me of Fozie: good heart but funny only unitentionally, a little thin-skinned, and generally better suited to fill a supporting role.

There are 290 million citizens and these clowns are the best the oldest democracy can do? *Sigh*

(Wink to Britain. When did you guys become a full-fledge democracy anyway?)

Stephen, if you're bugged about the deficit, consider this. The original projections for the Bush deficit were on the order of $700 billion. The deficit for this year was under $400 billion. Bush has, in effect, managed to cut his own deficit by very nearly half in just three years.

Now who do you trust more to handle the federal budget?

useless... I'd prefer something else than replaying false "live blogging" comments... You were late (not a reproach), so what's your cool head opinion?

Question. Has anyone yet slammed prescription drug re-importation as "outsourcing socialism?

Like buying stuff from China. Or is that outsourcing slave labor?

Let's deal with the terrorists first, then we can worry about a balanced budget.

Budget wasn't really balanced under Clinton, there was a lot of financial shinanagans that would make Ken Lay blush. Things like taking money out of social security (leaving a whole bunch of IOUs). I agree, let's get the terrorist, and shore up the economy, then get the budget balanced.

"...guy talks about making the country 'safer'"...

This line has always bothered me too, along with the variant "We're making more terrorists by being in Iraq, than we would have if we'd stayed out."

This is logic based on spilled milk, water under the bridge, un-ringing a bell, or whatever other cliché one might use. One cannot know the conditions one would have encountered on a path that one chose not to take.

You can't look back to make your decisions. You must look forward. The only thing that matters is how to best win this war, not how it was fought up to this point.

Like buying stuff from China.

No, that is exporting capitalism.

"Let's deal with the terrorists first, then we can worry about a balanced budget."

Amen brother.

I think that Bush needs to raise a number of red flags concerning the Clinton Admin on bringing the market down with a crash. Does anyone remember that it was Clinton's appointment that permitted Enron to trade futures without the same regulations as the boys on Wall Street. It was Clinton's regulators that failed to react to the changing telco world of cheap switches that help create the Telco crash. Rubin was in the thick of all this. Where was the Clinton Admin on the LTC crash that was a precursor to Enron? Didn't he send a signal as long as you donated you were safe? Didn't Lay and others do there part in the game Bill created?

All this needs to be woven into a nice story as to the mess he inherited and the great work that he did to avert a great depression. I think that he deserves GREAT credit for this one. He slogged through the mess without getting many of us very dirty. He must also stress that while he is not satified with the 5.4% unemployment rate, it is one of the lowest in the world.

In answer to your question, I did in fact compare Kerry's "I have a plan," to "I have a dream," over at Dean's World.

MSTing the debates would be good, but what I really want is...well, you know the "Pop-Up Video" that was on VH-1? I want "Pop-Up Presidential Debates."

I want, every time Kerry says, "I have been consistent..." to get a little "pop-up" on the screen, complete with sound effect, that says, "Senator Kerry has changed position on this issue N times," with a little "flip-flop" icon next to it. Of course, Bush would get his share of "pops" as well...

Does anybody from Spin The Bottle Inc. (the company that produced "Pop-Up Video") read these comments? :-)

Kerry wouldn't need to keep saying "I have been consistent" if Bush would stop distorting Kerry's record on Iraq. But since that's about the only defense Bush has on Iraq -- the GOP-constructed fantasy of Kerry as a flip-flopper -- of course Bush can't get off it. If Kerry seems a little repetitive talking about his consistency, well, the rest of us have had to listen to the GOP's repetitive prattle about flip-flopping for months now, and that's been getting old, too.

Steve,

"Culture of Life" is a Catholic term. Bush is speaking language that Kerry should know. That phrase has been used for years now. I think the current Pope coined it. Google the phrase and numerous catholic organizations pop up.

In part, the President's use of this phrase explains his enormous support among Catholics, who historically have been evenly divided or slightly pro-Democratic. But I think that among Catholics who regularly attend Church (as opposed to those merely born Catholic, but in truth are agnostics or lapsed), Bush has a clear majority supporting him.

An article below (http://www.insightmag.com/news/2004/09/27/World/seismic.Catholic.Shift.To.Bush-733882.shtml) summarizes this support:

----------
"Seismic" Catholic Shift to Bush
Posted September 28, 2004
By Uwe Siemon-Netto

President George W. Bush has suddenly acquired a commanding lead among Catholic voters over his Democratic rival, Sen. John Kerry, according to the latest survey of the California-based Barna Research Group.

Barna called this finding a "seismic shift." In May, Kerry led Bush 48-to-43 percent among Catholics. Today, the ratio has changed to 53-to-36 percent in Bush's favor, reports Barna, an organization researching opinions and behaviors of the religious communities in the United States.

I wonder how many times in the debate Bush tried to blame things on others? Clinton, the generals he commands, the dot-com bust, etc. etc.

As for the "Need some wood?" joke, the joke's on anyone who cares about the truth.

I hate it when I flub the dramatic parts, don't you?

As for the "Need some wood?" joke, the joke's on anyone who cares about the truth.

Kerry wouldn't need to keep saying "I have been consistent" if Bush would stop distorting Kerry's record on Iraq.

Kerry wouldn't need to keep saying "I have been consistent" if he'd actually been consistent.

After watching The Excoricist Friday night, I've come to the conclusion that Kerry (especially 1971 Kerry) looks less like a muppet and more like Father Karas.

After watching The Excoricist Friday night, I've come to the conclusion that Kerry (especially 1971 Kerry) looks less like a muppet and more like Father Karas.

Do you even read your sources, lonewacko? Bush made $84 from his partial ownership of a company that owns a partial ownership in a timber company.

Using that logic, anyone invested in a mutual fund "owns" half the corporations in America. Factcheck.org acknowledges it as a mistake to have reported the income as coming from a "timber company".

Is that the best you can do?

I also found it interesting that no one has commented on Kerry's assertation that the only people in the room effected by Bush's tax cute would be Bush, himself, and the moderator.

Isn't that a little arrogant? He automatically assumed that the debate crowd was a bunch of middle class nobodys. Maybe there was a successful doctor or lawyer in the bunch, or business owners.

Did the candidates have access to the demographic info about the audience, or was this just an off the cuff assumption by Kerry that the two politicians and the guy on TV were the richest ones there?

Typical. And a little sad after all the faux populist nonsense he was pushing all night. Yeah, the billionaire who's worked for the government his whole life will stand up for the working man...

John Kerry paid 12% on his income taxes last year. Bush paid 28%.
Kerry favors taxing the rich. But he didn't tell his accountant that. I wonder why?

mike m -

you have not been on LGF have you?
(for the uninitiated Little Green Footballs); they had liveblogging of Thursday night's debate and there are no less than 3 threads dealing with comments. it was dealt with several times on those.

Do you even read your sources, lonewacko? Bush made $84 from his partial ownership of a company that owns a partial ownership in a timber company.

Apparently you completely missed the point.

Bush claims that Kerry's tax plan would affect 900,000 small businesses.

The problem is how Bush defines "small business." It includes people who, like Bush, have received any kind of business income no matter how small.

In other words, Kerry's plan would affect 900,000 small businesses, as long as we assume Bush, Cheney, etc. are "small businesses."

Let me spell that out again: if you believe Bush when he says that 900,000 small businesses would be affected, then you also have to believe in a rather creative definition of "small business." If you want to delude yourself, have at it.

OK, so I'm even later than the TiVo blogging, but I have to ask: How is it unfair to tag Kerry as a liberal? You might debate whether Kerry is the most liberal Senator, but he is, by the accounts of ADA, ACU, National Journal, and just about anyone you can name, a liberal.