September 30, 2004

Post-Debate Spin

I'll try to be as objective as I can even though I'm a big Bush backer who has already called the race for him.

The only winner tonight was the American voter who got to hear the differences between Bush and Kerry. Since this debate was on foreign affairs one would have expected the President to dominate. That didn't happen. John Kerry talked tough and pointed out the contrasts of the candidates. While looking Presidential he made some outrageous statements. He called the Iraq War a "colossal error of misjudgement." Kerry said Bush "made a mistake in invading Iraq" even though he voted for the war. He insulted the Brits, Aussies, Poles, and other members the alliance in Iraq.

Kerry has a plan to "win the peace" in Iraq. The only specific part mentioned was a summit to get allies to commit troops and funds. He still has the delusion that France and Germany will go into Iraq after some Kerry sweet talking. It won't happen, Kerry knows it, but has no Plan B--which should really be Plan A. And he complains of the Bush administration's lack of planning.

There was substantial back and forth on North Korea. Kerry practically blamed Bush for North Korea new nuclear weapons. No mention was made of the Bill Clinton's and Jimmy Carter's failed agreement. A difference between the candidates was Bush's multilateral talks versus Kerry's bilateral talks (along with multilateral).

Kerry criticized backing down in Fallujah, but you know he would have been the first to complain had the marines gone in and suffered tremendous causalties along with the deaths of untold Iraqi civilians.

Kerry did some pandering by mentioning Ohio, Iowa, and Wisconsin (twice).

He talked about tax cuts for the rich even though the debate was about foreign policy. He said, "We didn't need that tax cut." If Kerry Edwards wants to stop talking about Iraq and talk about taxes, fine by me.

Kerry had some weird moments. Only one of the candidates made reference to Ronald Reagan, and it wasn't President Bush. I guess Kerry thinks there are some disgruntled conservatives out there who'd want to vote for him if they could be convinced Kerry was strong on defense.

There was an obligatory Halliburton reference that only kooks and hard-core Bush haters would understand. Also kooky was was the claim that the U.S. is building 14 permanent bases in Iraq. Where did that come from?

The Massachusetts Senator mentioned weapons of mass destruction crossing borders but didn't say which borders. Iraq? The U.S.?

Kerry also announced the President had the right to engage in pre-emptive attacks. Deaniacs and Kerry's anti-war supporters must have just cringed when hearing that. I bet the wish the Dean Scream never happened.

But the strangest comment from Kerry was his idea of U.S. military intervention passing a "global test." Does that mean France has veto power over future wars that are in the U.S. interest? Does that mean U.N. Security Council is needed before U.S. troops step foot in a foreign land? Does Kerry really care about national sovereignty? Those two words bring up a whole host of questions. Kerry's goal was to sound firm and steady, but such a nebulous concept sounds like a foundation made of sand.

The slouching President did a fine job of reiterating his stump speech points. If you heard his acceptance speech at the GOP convention earlier this month or been to one of his campaign rallies you know what he said. "Steady leadership" and "hard work" were mentioned over and over and over. Too much for my blood, but then the President wasn't trying to win over a Bush-backing political junkie like me.

The President defended his Iraq War decision by saying that in a post-Sept. 11 world a leader can't sit back and react to an attack. He said he went to the U.N. to give Saddam one last chance. In the President's mind Saddam failed his last chance and had to go.

To use a football analogy Bush played a soft zone not allowing Kerry to make the big play. The President could have blitzed more often and hammer at Kerry for voting for the $87 billion military package before he voted against it. He only mentioned it once allowing Kerry to reply that he sometimes messed up his words. The problem wasn't the words, it was the action of voting against the aid. Bush go after him for that.

Another example is when Kerry offered Iran nuclear fuel and a test to make sure it was only being used for peaceful purposes. Bush should have went after him by questioning why a petroleum-rich country needed a nuclear reactor. A country with a history of sponsoring terrorism cannot have a nuke. Bush just let the comment pass.

There was something that bothered me about both candidates. When asked what the #1 foreign policy issue is Kerry said nuclear proliferation while Bush said WMD in the hands of terrorist networks. They're both wrong. The #1 issue is defeating the Islamist ideology. WMD are just tools to attack. Like Communism Islamism is an America-opposing ideology. Islamism is the root of al Qaeda and the Sep. 11 attacks. Destroy (or marginalize) the Islamists and WMD proliferation becomes less consequential though still important.

The final result is a draw which prolongs Kerry's campaign. If Bush was trying to make a final kill it didn't happen tonight.

The MSM spin is Kerry looked Presidential, that he energized his base by going toe-to-toe with the President on Bush's top issue, and the polls will narrow because of the debate. Well, the polls will narrow if the MSM decides a closer race would get viewers more interested in news coverage. Recall the newly-named TAM's first rule of thumb of news consumption: News is entertainment.

Allah is collecting blogospheric reaction and expect updates when I find interesting post-debate commentary.

UPDATE:

• Taegan Goddard declares Kerry the winner.
  
• Judicious Asininity wrote, "Kerry did better than I expected and concealed his lies and deception well."
  
• Most of the time I find live weblogging (I refuse to call it "liveblogging") a waste of time. Daniel Drezner is the entertaining exception.
  
• I'm not going to beat on Kerry for this flub, but it's funny. Oh what can happen on live tv.
  
• Read the transcript to your heart's content.
  
• The Chinese think Bush is right and Kerry is wrong.
  
• Oliver Willis claims the President had a moment that was "childish, mean, and nasty." Since he didn't say anything mean or nasty nor did he look childish I guess he thinks Kerry didn't win.
  
• Erick Erickson calls Kerry the "Urban Legends Candidate." Why didn't Kerry mention the draft? Bush was waiting for it.