Debate 2 - Verdict

I watched this entire debate, this time, and have decided I like this format. Debate 1’s format might be good for shorter debates but it got boring very quick. However, many will say that I liked this format because President Bush did much better.

Unlike the first debate, the President appeared energetic not having to strain to fill his allotted time. I noticed Kerry jumped up prompting the moderator to have a one-minute “elaboration”, which of course was suppose to be at the moderator’s discretion; this did not intimidate the President he too took charge of the moderator.

Kerry’s appearance seemed fine to me; however, in this format he could not use his “matter of factness” from behind a podium making the facade appear less genuine. He did not falter and stuck to his story (the current one anyway). Kerry did beat around the bush on a few issues like abortion, which is understandable since the “battleground states” seem to be pro-life and he wanted to avoid that bombshell; reminiscent of Clinton’s ability to avoid big set backs even when it appeared he was “down and out”.

President Bush missed some opportunities to land some blows. For example, when Kerry touted the Air Force General from the Persian Gulf War; Bush could have said, “he did do a good job but would not have had the opportunity if you had gotten your way, you did vote against that war didn’t you”? The best point all night, in my opinion, one that Bush missed in debate1, was when Kerry criticized not providing adequate equipment to our forces and Bush pointed out Kerry voted against the 87 billion dollar bill. Further, I applaud the fact that the campaign has finally gotten Kerry’s 20-year senate record to the Nation “you can run but you can’t hide”!

I give President Bush the nod in this one although not by much. Kerry did not get flustered except maybe about the 87 billion “I voted for it before I voted against” zinger. I believe Kerry is too good a speaker to beat himself by saying something stupid (sound bite material) in these debates.

With this said, I am sure as far the MSM (Main Stream Media) goes Kerry will be a big winner in this debate. Already, he was a winner before the debate even finished as I stated in my previous post “MSNBC Debate Poll”.