Town hall debate thoughts

I'm told "prognosis" isn't the right word, so it's just "thoughts" from now on. This time I took notes during the debate so I could write my original thoughts without having to liveblog, and without having to watch the debate a second time all the way through.

During the first debate, I honestly didn't notice the "peeved" attitude that was attributed to Bush after the fact. I thought it was close to a draw, with a slight edge for Kerry. On the other hand, Bush seemed clearly annoyed this time around. Was always speaking in a very loud voice, verging on yelling. Sounded constantly frustrated. I get the feeling that Bush, though right on the important stuff, has a difficult time understanding the mis-understandings of others. He doesn't really know how to figure out why someone would ask or say something that doesn't jive with the knowledge he's developed in his office over the past few years. He has a hard time taking the need to persuade others seriously. I can sympathize with him, but it is his job to communicate.

Kerry, however, didn't have nearly the same presence that he had in the first debate. Maybe it's the need to engage with the audience, which shifted the format from the one-on-one debate setting that he's so proficient with, and it brought him down to a more personal, real level, which he has a harder time connecting on. He also spent more time complaining about Bush, and basically whining.

I was very surprised when Bush interrupted the moderator, Charles Gibson, and basically demanded to respond to Kerry, even though Gibson was going to give him a chance. It reminded me of Al Gore's constant sighing, stalking, interruptions, and out-and-out disdain for the rules in 2000. While I had a preference for Harry Browne in 2000, and saw no substantive difference between Bush and Gore back then, the series of debates between them really clinched at least a preference for Bush over Gore, given those two options. Bush just seemed more honest and more respectful.

On the other hand, Bush seems to have lost some of that respect for the rules this time around. He would routinely immediately respond to Kerry as soon as Kerry finished, before Charles Gibson even got in a simple "President, your response?" Perhaps in Bush's rehearsals, the moderator kept a lower profile, so he just got used to responding right away rather than waiting for the prompt from the moderator, but it came across as slightly disrespectful. So I had to really cringe when Bush basically shouted down the moderator and demanded a response right then and there. I was sure that scene was going to be replayed many times on TV, as a major blunder during the debate. I even ran to my computer to see if there was a small down-tick in Bush's price on Intrade (there was none).

While MSNBC did replay that scene, to my surprise it was offered as an example of Bush's aggressiveness! The pundits all liked it! They thought it showed that he was exercising his privilege as "commander in chief", and was confident and on the offensive! All the pundits on MSNBC have called this a victory for Bush, much to my surprise. While I certainly agreed with Bush content-wise on the important issues, maybe I'm just cynical about the ability of viewers to recognize substance over style.

Other bloggers, at least in my circle, seem to also think it was a Bush victory. On the other hand, Bush's contract fell from 59.5 just before the debate, to 54.5 just after. He's back up to 56 as I write this.

Final thoughts: Kerry stole the term "fuzzy math" from Bush's 2000 debates. Also, some on the left contend there's only one Internet. But this is a classic case of unilaterally disregarding the Internets of alien civilizations. They should be ashamed.

UPDATE: I just re-watched the part of the debate where Bush demands to have a chance to respond to what Kerry just said. It's not as bad as I originally interpreted it, because Gibson was asking him to respond to the issue of the draft, but Bush wanted to respond to Kerry's assertion that Bush was acting unilaterally, without alliances.

Also, on the more general issue of persistently piping up a little too quickly when it's about to be your turn, well, that's nothing compared to the total lack of respect that Al Gore showed in 2000. I hope I didn't imply otherwise.