from Tom Shales's review of the debate

[winterbadger]

One longtime political observer -- among the friends canvassed by this critic -- was more irreverent about the debate and how the two debaters came off: "It was Andy Griffith meets Barney Fife," he said, with Kerry in the Griffith role -- solid, sanguine, sensible -- and Bush as the nervous Fife.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A64102-2004Oct1.html

I couldn't have said it better. :-) Bush didn't drop his notes on the floor or turn puce, but he dried up, tripped over words, and made faces that the cameras caught. He failed to come up with effective responses on a number of occasions, often stringing together pat phrases with (as Doreen put it) his own very nebulous and incohernt thoughts. He repeated catchphrases his campaign had trained him in, often when they made little or no sense at all. He didnot look presidential. He looked, as Curtis and Elton put it, like a monkey that's been put in a suit and strategically shaved. And this was the debate on his strongest subjects. If he doesn't improve in later debates, roll on November!

Comments

[liatha.livejournal.com]

sadly, the polling results are skewed and in many cases contradictory... and the comments I have seen so far are downright scarey. The number of people who feel that Bush's ignorance, self contradiction, and obvious complete lack of education or preperation just goes to show that he feels strongly and speaks from the heart... it's just mind numbing.

[meepeek.livejournal.com]

What's really frightening is how many of these people didn't even watch the debates and are going by what the RNC and Ghouliani tell them.

After a few weeks, they'll be convinced that they are as informed as if they *did* watch it because they have all the information they're told, and have seen the clips shown on TV

I'm finding it frightening to see exactly how truly stupid and arrogant my fellow americans ~are~. I thought it was bad with Reagan, but this tops that by miles.

[flewellyn.livejournal.com]

Polls can't be trusted these days, what with the corporate media being a mouthpiece for the GOP.

As for comments...yeah, I wasn't exactly sure how stumbling, staring like a panicked deer, and squirming in discomfort while stringing together statements that were sentences only in theory was "speaking from the heart".