The Debate - Recap

I judge this debate to be a tie. As I said previously, in some ways a tie is a win for Bush but certainly not enough to knock Kerry out of the race. I think Bush did very well at showing he is steadfast and a strong leader and also did well showing his compassion and his understanding of the seriousness of going to war. On North Korea Bush did far better than I expected, I think he won on that subject. Explaining the six party talks and why we need China's help was perfect and I think John Kerry's idea for bi-lateral talks won't sell to the American people. John Kerry I think managed to be both be stong and anti-war which will probably keep his divided base with him. I don't know that his plan for a 'summit' and more training of Iraqi police being his key peices will sell to the American people. I think he did a fairly good job fighting the flip-flop allegations but I don't know how well the complex way he uses to explain his 'consitancy' will sell. I also think he failed to score any points on the homeland security topics, such as port inspections and what not. He did hit this topic but as kinda a part of a laundrey list and it failed to have much impact. Kerry made one faux paus that I think may come back to hurt him in the post debate spin when he talked about pre-emptive policy and passing 'the world test.' I think Bush missed an oportunity to hit back hard here though. He should have said something like this: Around twenty years ago another country failed to pass the world test when Israel bombed the Osirak reactor in Iraq. The world roundly condemned this action at the time, but we are all glad that they took such action now. Transcript and videos here