A win, a draw, whatever

[EarlG]

In my opinion the most important thing that came out of tonight's debate was not whether Edwards won, lost, or whether it was a draw. (Full disclosure: I think Edwards won, and Cheney embarrassed himself by blatantly lying.) The common wisdom going into tonight was that Kerry killed in the first debate, and as a result the campaigns saw a momentum shift. Team Bush was suddenly on the defensive after the thrashing he received from Kerry.

I don't believe Edwards did anything to harm that perception tonight at all. Whether you thought it was a win, a draw, or a loss, I don't believe that the media will call a momentum shift after this debate. (Although time will tell of course.)

However, what tonight's debate DID do was raise the bar for George W. Bush on Friday. After last week's debate I was worried that because Bush performed so poorly, all he would have to do on Friday was show up and the media would declare him the winner. But tonight's debate clearly demonstrated to the public that of the four men on the two tickets, Bush is BY FAR the weakest link. I think Friday's expectations have been significantly raised for Bush after tonight's performance. He now has to perform up to Cheney's standard, and I honestly can't see that happening.

[leftofthedial]

1. very good point about the little bushturd being obviously the weakest link

cheney can't kepp his energy up for 90 minutes sitting and talking

he'd die in a crisis.


the little turd is incapable of leading the line at the urinal

Kerry-Edwards are so obviously preferable to run the country

[Name removed]

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[cheezus]

2. I think Cheney made Bush look bad

even though he barely held his own against Edwards tonight, he still showed that he was the one of the two with the greater command of what's going on in the world.

[WindRavenX]

3. good point

Which is why this was harder than Thursday; Edwards was going up against a vastly more intelligent and verbally clever opponent.

[cheshire]

4. Cheney's task tonight was to get * out of his mess last week. He failed.

In that alone we won.

[chaska]

5. Yes, exactly. And the Kerry "Mo" rolls on.

Stop for a moment... Do you smell it ..., that air of inevitability?

We are unstopable!

...But don't get cocky.

[incapsulated]

6. I felt it would be called a tie

No matter what happened. Just the media being predictable. But it's all we need going into Friday. The fact that most viewers favored Edwards just gives Bush more pressure to hit a homerun on Friday, which he is incapable of doing.

[welshTerrier2]

7. Cheney's Ultimate Mission tonight

was to clear a path for bush to follow ... if he could establish the "flip-flop" or the war or the economy, bush could just use "Cheney's winners" during the next debate ...

the problem for them is, though, that Cheney didn't have any winners tonight ... how are they supposed to coach bush now ???

how can they defend the job losses?? outsourcing?? record deficits?? Iraq-Al Qaeda ties?

all I can say is, I hope there was a huge TV audience tonight ...