Debates

While I'm thinking about it....

The presidential debates are starting to be discussed. We already know what's going to happen afterwards: supporters of each side will try to play up how their guy did and to play down how the other guy did. Those already committed to a candidate will have their opinion of him, and of his opponent, reinforced. Rare and hard to find will be the impartial analysis, though mainstream media will be rife with the pretended impartial analysis.

Specifically, Bush will have been misunderestimated, again; and, Kerry will have been misoverestimated, again. (It's like we're all in a big rut, isn't it?) I say this partly because Bush is a lot smarter than folks give him credit for being, and partly because I think Kerry is a lot not as smart as folks give him credit for being.

I strenuously doubt that Kerry is the debater that he supposedly has the reputation for being since his college days. Like so much else in his life — such as "heroism" in Vietnam — though it may have a kernel of truth at its core, it's mostly puffery. Even if he was a great debater — once upon a time back in the ancient days of black-and-white TV — two decades in the Senate, consorting with the likes of Chappaquiddick Fats and the Grand Kleagle, have seared Kerry's brain as much as Christmas in Cambodia Vietnam Southeast Asia ever did.

And I'm saying so now: those counting on Kerry to clobber Bush in the debates — and they are legion, no? — they are going to be shocked. Look for lots of them to be in denial about how poorly Kerry does. Right through Nov. 2.

At the very least, whether you agree with him or not, Bush can make a point. Kerry can't, mostly because he has spent most of his adult life jumping through hoops to avoid making a point as much as possible. And, he doesn't even know that's what he's been doing.

P.S. I saw an infobabe — a supposed newscaster in a supposed newscast — on a local TV station mention that John Kerry is reputedly the best debater ever nominated for president. I don't recall anybody saying that during the Democratic primary debates — do you?

Ha! Keep on talking him up like that, boys & girls, and he'll just look that much worse in comparison.

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Tue. 09/28/04 06:41:36 PM
Categorized as Political.