Another reason the lack of friendly faces hurt Shrubby...

[nyhuskyfan]

The applause and "four more years" chants give him the opportunity to regroup after the challenging task of completing a sentence. He is incapable of remaining coherent and articulate about any issue for a two-minute span without a significant breather -- the time limit was clearly too long for him.

If you'll notice yesterday, he had a lot of trouble in the middle part of his answers stringing enough thoughts together, but when the yellow light came on and he was down to 15 seconds, all of a sudden he would refocus and get down to one simple and basic message -- often something he had already said earlier in his two minutes. On his stump speeches that's all he needs, one little 15 second or 30 second ramble and then he get sit back and bask in the glory of the applause for a little bit, while he tries to move on to his next 15 second bit.

Yesterday, he was like a boxer accustomed to getting three-minute breaks between rounds who suddenly was asked to keep fighting. And yesterday, he suddenly found someone punching back, too.

[crispini]

1. Nice analogy

[fudge stripe cookays]

2. Bingo!

Good analogy.

FSC

[ProfessorPlum]

3. I like the Rocky and Apollo Creed analogy, too

the GOP was way too cocky for this one. They won't make that mistake again, but the nervous flop-sweat for the rest will not be a pretty thing.

They will go down like wusses, howling, if they (God willing) go down at all.

[RevCheesehead]

4. Those blank moments have usually been filled with "4 more years"

Ain't it amazing what happens when you remove the propaganda? You find out your "emperor" has no clothes.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

5. And Bush is getting worse over time

He's less coherent than he was 4 years ago, and much less capable of expressing a thought than when he was running for Governor. If we have the misfortune of seeing another 4 years of Bush, what will he be like in another 4 years? He'll be reduced to making primitive gestures and grunts at his press conferences.

[dave123williams]

6. Yes, I like the boxing metaphor...

I don't think Kerry knocked Bush out, but he sure rung the guy's bell.

TKO.

[Catfight]

7. Yes, he has the sound bites mastered. I totally noticed this too.

It was like he went into 4th gear when the yellow light came on and then the nod at the end. He really is a robot and his followers little zombies.

[GeorgeBushytail]

8. This has got to mess with *'s mind

Losing the debate on his "strongest" issue. He'll have even less to say about domestic issues.

[beaconess]

9. "regroup after the challenging task of completing sentence" - LOL!

That is REALLY funny!