BBC Analysis (Friday): No knockout blow

[Jack Rabbit]

EDITED for typing and clarity

From the BBC Online
Dated Friday October 1

Analysis: No knockout blow
By Rob Watson
BBC correspondent in Miami

The stakes in this debate were always higher for John Kerry. He is after all the challenger.
What he needed to do was show that intangible quality - to come across as being presidential.

He also had to make a critique of President George W Bush's foreign policy.

Mr Kerry was able to strike some serious blows against the president in his handling of the war in Iraq.

This is a fair appraisal of the festivities last night. There was no "knockout", but there was a clear winner.

Contrast this with the US corporate media desperately trying to spin this into a draw and looking as foolish as the dismembered Black Knight in Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

For decades, the BBC has been a reliable source for news and information for those living in places deprived of a free and independent press. That is why in the age of Bush and corporatism this American turns to the BBC Online.

[ET Awful]

1. LOL As foolish as the black night in Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Hehehehehe

[bogey18]

2. I am with you Jack Rabbit

I love the BBC - also listen to NPR and PBS. Have no use for major media outlets.

Since the Iraq war have started going to Al Jazeerah web site periodically - just to get an idea of what the rest of the world is seeing about the United States. Not even a remotely pretty picture.

I would hate to have the kind of burden Kerry has on his shoulders. This isn't just a presidential election - this is the presidential election, and the rest of the world IS watching.

[Demoiselle]

3. It's a fair analysis..

I'm never sure what they mean by "Knockout Blow." Kerry's power was cumulative, I think. No splashy sound bites...but splashy sound bites are inappropriate in foreign policy discussions. (It IS complicated folks!) While Kerry was standing straight up, resolute, calm and knowledgeable, baby Bush was disintegrating. Kerry was the most Presidential candidate I've ever seen, and I'm old enough to remember (barely) Truman.

[mac56]

4. Kerry wasn't aiming for a knockout blow.

He's a statesman. Glancing blows, cumulative over time. This is the right approach.

[Jack Rabbit]

5. Overall, I thought Kerry did very well last night

I will fault him for calling Saddam a "threat" and not clarifying that. If Saddam had no weapons and had no ties to al Qaida, then he was not the kind of threat who needed to be dealt with militarily, if he was any threat at all. As my son said, "Saddam was a psychopath without a gun."

On the matter of pre-war intelligence, Bush just runs up and down saying that Kerry saw the same intelligence he did and approved the invasion based on that. Kerry could have done a better job of driving home that the intelligence was wrong (and the bucks stops you-know-where) and that before Congress saw the intelligence reports they had been cooked by the neocons -- in other words, the intelligence was bad because that's the way Bush and his people wanted it.