Chimpy's Debate Performance: It's not fatigue or needing to go potty...

[Infomaniac]

I listen to the talking heads spin about Shrub's performance last night and all I hear are "dog ate my homework" excuses. For example, somebody said he was fatigued. Somebody else said it was angst over the hurricane victims. I think maybe those Chinese-Indonesian chants might have worked. At various points last night, Bush looked like he was fixing to go potty. Those are just excuses. A bunch of us were talking about the debates tonight and one of my colleagues made an exellent point. He said, "After watching Bush grimace and look annoyed when he was challenged made me understand why he was incapable of drafting a broad coalition to go into Iraq. The man does not like to be challenged. When the French and Germans challenged Bush on Iraq intelligence, Bush made fun of them. He just doesn't know how to deal effectively with the demands of his job. For the first time, I think a lot of Americans saw just how not up to the task of governing George Bush really is." So it's not just his bad performance at the debate. It's his bad performance at his job. We just got a glimpse of how George Bush operates in the real world and it ain't a pretty picture.

[MichiganVote]

1. How about he's just an incompetent. We've all worked with them.

[Cha]

2. bush could give a big fat shit over

"the hurricane victims"..and the media knows this Or they are almost dead from imbibing too much KoolAid!

[kokomo]

9. probably praising the Lord that he gave him some more photo ops

[Cha]

10. You got it Ace!

bush.."must get more spectacular photo ops!" :+

[AlCzervik]

3. It's the stupid, stupid!

plus the incompetence, arrogance and all around assholery.

[pretzel4gore]

4. he's perfect as representative of rightwing america...

and he's ruining the very thing they depend on....

[PA Democrat]

5. I agree that Bush cannot stand being challenged let alone losing

His family has always placed too high a value on winning at any cost. The Bushes are notorious for being mean and vindictive toward anyone they feel has slighted them.

Bush will NEVER be able to work with former alliances who failed to give in to his demands for their support of the Iraq war. This is a very deep character flaw and one that should make Americans wary of giving him a second term.

[Cha]

11. Reminds me..I bet Kitty Kelley was

really enjoying that "debate" last night:P

[Deja Q]

6. And after * wanted to keep the temperature high, wear high heels to look

taller, getting the debates in the way he wanted them most.

Presinut Bush's followers are dolts.

[peacetalksforall]

7. We're always isolating him when he's the focus. It's time to talk about

his handlers.

They had an agreement written up that would provide the invisible marionette strings to operate the deficiently educated front man.

They protected him for several weeks from hecklers, serious questions, and dissent in any form.

He may have been instructed to go easy on laughing and sniggering while letting out with the shoulder shaking jerks.

And Petulant George probably grew tired of the prepping and said he wanted to go shake some hands (if they weren't going to let him play video games)

Rove and Cheney are too blame. George is only as good as his string pullers.

Bush didn't fail. Rove, Hughes, Cheney, Bartlett and the cast didn't do their job. They lost the election. He is only in their hands.

I think he recognized that the truth was hitting him in the face and he wasn't prepared for all of it. Stump messages weren't working. It was their fault.

[Philostopher]

8. Ah -- he's a narcissistic shit.

With a 'love me or f*ck off' attitude. He's derisive if you disagree with him and, because he thinks the whole universe revolves around him, flat earth and all, he's inconvenienced by having to tax himself by appearing on the same stage as that Kerry guy who isn't him. Nobody who isn't Bush* is worth a shit to him. He cares about nothing that isn't him or his. I've known lots of people like this over the years -- many of them have been Republicans, though by no means all.

[sffreeways]

12. Kitty Kelly's book captured

his truculence and it was on full display last night. He really did show his true colors. This is exactly why he can't do a press converence. He losses his temper. He must have exploded after that debate.

He's horrible when he's challenged. To me it looked like he went into the debate intimidated by Kerry. He was scared. He was afraid Kerry was going to call him a liar and he did. Psychologically Bush can't cope with being called a liar. His handlers told him Kerry was going to make him out to be lying to the American people. They knew this was where Kerry was going. So Bush knew he would call him on all of his deceptions and he was uptight about it. He is either lying or incompetent. Kerry had him boxed in.

I don't think they were ready for the way Kerry handled Bush's lying. It's hard to go after the juggular of a sitting president without sounding disrecpectful but Kerry pulled it off. All of that frustration was coming from his urge to really mouth off. They prepared him to condesend to Kerry when Kerry challenged him on the war but he wasn't at all prepared to for Kerry's focus on strongly implying Bush was a liar.

It was so pathetic. I know I'm not objective but I've watched it three times now and I can't believe what a piss poor performance that was.

The press can try and spin it all they want but no spin in the world can make that look anything better than what it was. Lame !

I have a hard time believing Bush will show up for these other two debates. Maybe one more but not both. Especially if he gets pounded again or if Cheney gets pummled by Edwards. I think that debate may surprise everyone too. Like Bush was so much worse than I ever could have imagined I'm having the feeling Cheney may suffer from the same syndrome. The scared shitless syndrome. I bet Bush's defeat digs into Cheney's confidence. It sure puts the pressure on him.

[Lisa]

13. well put ...

He's gotten into the habit of personifying everything, because it's the only way he's been able to focus on a task for any length of time. It has to be about HIM, or he's not interested. I don't think it ever occurs to him, to do something primarily for somebody else.(Example -- when he was taking Don Evans up in that Cessna back in the 1970s, he acted just as if he were alone in the cockpit -- taking silly risks -- he didn't bother working out how to fly the thing before taking a passenger along!) He's made plenty of verbal slips that indicate this -- e.g. "I'm proud to be the country" -- he's managed to convince himself that what's good for George is good for America, and you'd better shut up and learn to like it.

The downside to this approach is that it becomes very difficult to back off and distance yourself when things go wrong. Any criticism, however constructive or impartial, is viewed as a personal attack. Al Hunt and Adam Clymer both learned this firsthand -- they published articles which merely quoted other people's perceptions of Bush, and his response was vicious, obscenity-laced, and way out of proportion. In the 2000 debates, Bush got all buggy-eyed and nearly lost his temper when he accused Gore of "questioning my heart" -- Gore hadn't made a personal comment at all, but was commenting on Bush's political platform. But Bush chose to interpret it as a personal slight.

[shanti]

14. i agree with most of your post

but not the part about big dick. he is NOT chimpy and although he is also a liar, he won't stutter, stumble or put on the same performance as the chimp. edwards is going to have to tread carefully here. i think edwards should provoke big dick into forcing his ugly side out. the contrast will be amazing!

[MGKrebs]

15. Yeah, they're going to need better drugs next time.

Up the Ritalin dose or something.
The problem is, the drugs they USUALLY give Repubs makes them kind of rabid. They don't have much experience with the drugs that calm one down. Somebody needs to hand Shrubbie a big ole SPLIFF, but what're the chances of THAT happening.

[RedSock]

16. and now he has to defend his domestic policies ...

oh man he's nervous because he knows he blew this one --

when he has to defend what he's done in the US in one of the next 2 debates, we may see that meltdown we've been waiting 4+ years for.