My opinion - 1 debate between Bush and Kerry and Bush is all done

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

He can't even make it through a mildly hostile interview - imagine what a debate will do!!!

[LuminousX]

1. Remember the Bush v Gore debates

Gore wiped the floor with Bush, but because Gore sighed into the mic, he was declared the loser.

[cjbuchanan]

8. I think it had more to do with the post-debate spin

The first reaction to the first debate was overwhelmingly for Gore. However, the Gore team did not get out their side of the story as well as the Bush team. By the next morning, the media were talking about all of Gore's sighs and 'lies'.

I don't think the Kerry team will do the same.

[jobycom]

10. Gore won according to the polls, but then they pulled out Kailey Ellis

Gore won according to all the after debate polls in the first debate. Returns showed that people who saw the debates overwhelmingly though Gore won, and that included half the Republicans polled. I watched Bill Buckley trying to explain that debate skills didn't equal leadership skills.

But the next day, the media created the whole Kailey Ellis story to claim Gore had lied, and this played back into the whole slander attacks of the Republicans, and the poll results started showing that Gore slipping.

AFTER it was proven that Gore had told the truth on Ellis, and that the Repubs had lied, the media started up with the sigh nonsense, to convince anyone who missed the debates that Gore had lost. It worked, and in the next two, Gore was proclaimed the loser before, during and after the debates, even though, again, all the post debate polls showed Gore mopping the floor with Bush.

So don't count on Kerry beating Bush in the debates. He clearly will, but people don't judge for themselves. They wait for the media to tell them who won. And the media will declare Bush the winner no matter how badly he flubs it.

Our only chance is to make the voters realize they can't trust the media. Which is why Moore's film is such a big deal.

[hlthe2b]

27. exactly.... there are variables we just can't predict.....and the

moderators/questioners have a lot of power to influence the perception....

[daveskilt]

2. thats what I thought with Gore

but the expectations were so low that gore's failure to eviscerate bush was a triumph for president potatohead.

[trotsky]

4. Um, wouldn't that be potatoehead?

Thank you, Dan Quayle.

[Grown2Hate]

17. I have a repuke boss that tells me Gore LOST those debates...

and HANDILY so! My jaw hit the floor... (my boss couldn't POSSIBLY be THAT brain dead, right? NOONE can be that retarded, can they!?). I couldn't believe anyone could say that with a straight face... but it just goes to show how deluded these people are. One debate is all that's needed (unless it's moderated by GODDAMN Brit "F"ume) for anyone out there who's paying attention, or anyone who's IQ is higher than that of a soggy roll of toilet paper. Let's hope that can amount to enough votes.

[zbdent]

23. Tell your boss that he's lucky that the economy sucks

or else you would quit working for such a fucking idiot.

That would be like saying that God lost a Jeopardy match against Pee-Wee Herman when PW Herman kept giving "I know you are, but what am I?" as the question.

[JuniorPlankton]

3. Kerry will look to smart

to run this country...
Sheeple don't like that...

[LittleApple81]

5. I am convinced that MANY AMERICANS feel closer to *'s "literacy" level

and therefore believe he represents them better. They don't look at his money... they look at pictures (even in MM's movie) of him cutting trees and clearing brush, talking about his dogs... PUKE!!!

These Americans are afraid of the "liberal thinking elite," "eggheads," the "ivory tower," words of more than two syllables, books, and good English in general.

[lapislzi]

6. The media will pronounce Bush the winner

as long as he doesn't drool onstage.

However, I think Kerry needs to keep working the "snippy" angle. Bush can't seem to control his smug, condescending, snippy remarks, and cumulatively, they will damage him.

Kerry has enough dignity to rise above bush's level of petty meanness. Let us hope that it rings forth.

[Malva Zebrina]

7. the media will give it to him no matter how much of an ass he makes of

himself. I watched only one debate and though Gore surely had all the facts, presented them well and the frat boy was rambling without anything coherent to say--I was shocked when the media gave the debate to Bush. No way was that the truth.

[GreenPartyVoter]

9. We can only hope!

[Davis_X_Machina]

11. In 2000...

....people who watched the debates scored them a 70-30 Gore win. People who only watched the coverage of the debates, not the debates themselves, scored them a 70-30 Bush win.

[seabeyond]

12. i dont think kerry is good at debate.

will be happily surprised if he is, just dont feel it. doesnt inspire me with sound bites, and that is what debates and most interviews are. he is much better in my view to be let go and just talk

and if he isnt good at sound bites or debates, doesnt matter to me, not indication of smart or whether he will be good president, just is with some

any others feel that way, or opposite, curious

[Davis_X_Machina]

15. Kerry debated in prep school...

...and for four years at Yale.

In the March 21, 2004 edition of The New York Times, John Kerry's roommate, Harvey Bundy, remembered Osterweis saying that John Kerry was the finest debater he had ever coached, other than Bill Buckley, who had been one of Osterweis's earliest and finest debaters.

Yale Daily News, 3/30/04

[seabeyond]

20. ooooh well that is cool to know

thank you

[kentuck]

13. And then they can spin it however they like....

Just like they did with the Gore/Bush "debates". Gore kicked his ass. But even to this day, there are DUers that believed Gore somehow lost the debate to George W Bush.

[Nite Owl]

14. Unfortunately the American

people seem endeared to his 'folksy' style. All they have to do is give him some quips that people will think are funny or cute and substance won't matter. Kerry needs someone like Jon Stewart to prep him.

[cmf]

16. Probably not

Bush has a history of stepping up to the challenge (so to speak) during debates. I remember that during his campaign for governor we all thought that Ann Richards would kick his simian butt during the debates. But that didn't happen. Same in 2000.

I think that a lot of it has to do with low expectations. People expect Bush to do poorly, so when he does ok, it's this grand achievement.

My friend hypothesizes that since his typical behavior is that of a dry drunk - he probably empowers himself with a stiff drink or two before debates, which would account for his calm demeanor and quick thinking.

[jab105]

26. That's the problem...lowered expectations...

everyone here and everywhere is saying that Kerry will wipe the floor with him, that Gore did wipe the floor with him...but if Bush can pronounce his name correctly, he will have exceeded expectations, and therefore will win the debate...

I keep saying it, and no one listens, stop setting the bar so damn low for the idiot...set the bar as high as you should for the freaking PRESIDENT of the United States, and he will fail miserably...don't say that he will get a 3% on the test, and have him exceed expectations by getting a 10%...

How bout this, Bush has been president for 4 years, at this point, he should know policy backwards, forwards, and upside down...if he doesn't, and if it doesnt come across like he does in the debate, THEN he has failed...

Geesh, my gas used to cost $1.50 then it went up to $2.09...now its down to $1.94, should I be happy that its down, or pissed that its up so high, BLAH!!

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

18. Kerry will appear knowledgeable and smart. So they'll call him arrogant.n/

[info being]

19. But Kerry doesn't take positions on anything

I don't know what Kerry will be able to say.

[emulatorloo]

25. Kerry makes policy statements everyday - look at yahoonews

or in the news section of the Kerry website.

Just because they don't show him on TV and Karl's Cable Shock Brigade says "kerry has no positions" doesn't mean it is true.

[Yupster]

21. That's just what Anne Richards people said

He loves being misunderestimated.

[MrSlayer]

22. Well it's not going to be a real debate, that's the problem.

The questions will be presubmitted and Chimporoony will have the answers prepared. If they had a free and open debate where the candidates ask questions and talk off the top of their heads Chimp would get crushed. These cheesy Q&A sessions can hardly be considered debates.

[truth2power]

24. I hate to rain on your parade but....

After the 2000 debates someone opined that no matter what Gore said, the pundits would point out that Junior wore his tie on the front of his shirt that day, so he must be the winner. The bar is so low for Bush that there's no way he would be seen to lose.

[merh]

28. A Boo Gareff, Aboo GAreff - Abbuu Greif ....................(n/t)

[truth2power]

29. LOL!! Maybe that'll do it. n/t

[NightOwwl]

30. He has his talking points and that's all.

I hope he reacts like he did during his interview with Carole Coleman. He'll look like a total ass.