Last political post of the night, I promise

The first presidential debate I called a push, with Kerry the marginal winner. The veep debate I also called a push, with Cheney the nominal winner. For the second presidential debate, a town hall format, I felt Bush had to come out and give the best debate performance of his life. He did that. And Kerry topped him in almost every way imaginable.

It's not that Bush screwed up--he didn't. He was personable and articulate, and kept his emotions in check. But Kerry had a devastating counterpunch ready for every Bush right cross. Were this baseball, I'd be convinced Team Kerry was stealing signs. Kerry was poised, charismatic, and ready at every turn with a Republican criticism of this administration's policies, or concrete facts and stats to bring his points home. Simply put, he came off as much more presidential than Bush.

There were only two spots where I thought Bush came out ahead of the game. The first was Bush's environmental record. This is Bush's single biggest vulnerability on the domestic front, and his claims were ludicrous. The equivalent of a hanging curve ball, to continue the baseball analogy. And Kerry went down swinging wildly, babbling generalities about the Kyoto Treaty rather than nail Bush to the wall with specifics about global warming, "Healthy Forests," the gutting of the Clean Air Act, or this administration's insistence that Pacific northwest salmon species aren't endangered because of the vast numbers of genetically engineered fish in farming operations. The second Bush highlight came on the abortion question. Bush answered with a confident swagger, playing to his conservative religious base. Kerry, on the other hand, gave a convoluted answer that sounded like he was trying to pander to all sides of the issue. The pro-choice crowd is going to vote for Kerry no matter what, but it was still painful to watch. I wonder if the national polls will reflect my perceptions, or if my views (which I consider moderate) are outside of the mainstream.

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