Aaron's Blog - Archived Entry

Man, those debates were something. All of a sudden, Bush's vaunted "clarity" looked a little cheap, seeing as he couldn't string together a single cohesive thought. To my surprise, even the conservative punditry agreed:

(from DKos):

Mort Kondracke: "This is the President's turf, this is the place that the President is supposed to dominate, terror and the war in Iraq. I don't think he really dominated tonight. I think Kerry looked like a commander-in-chief."

Kate O'Beirne, National Review Online's the Corner: "I thought the President was repetitive and reactive."

Jonah Goldberg, National Review Online's the Corner: "The Bush campaign miscalculated on having the first night be foreign policy night."

Bob Schieffer: "The President was somewhat defensive in the beginning"

Mark Shields: "The President showed a few times obvious anger"

Bill Kristol, Weekly Standard: "I think Kerry did pretty well tonight, he was forceful and articulate."

Bob Schieffer: "Kerry got off to a very good start."

Joe Scarborough: "It was John Kerry's best performance ever...As far as the debate goes, I don't see how anybody could look at this debate and not score this a very clear win on points for John Kerry." (MSNBC)

Andrea Mitchell: "This is the toughest we've ever seen John Kerry. He attacked the very core of the President's popularity. He's basically saying, who do you believe?" (MSNBC)

Tim Russert: "Tonight he seemed to find his voice for the Democratic view of the world."

Fred Barnes on FNC: "Kerry did very well and we will have a Presidential race from here on out."

Kerry did a fine job-- he was superbly clear and well-spoken-- and the real surprise was how incredibly bad Bush was. Kerry could of been a cardboard cut out and looked more presidential that Dubya. The guy was awful. He looked like spoiled prep school kid who got caught tp'ing his teacher house. John Kerry would criticize him and he'd get these expression where I half expected him to blurt out "Your momma's a colossal mistake! Wah!"

God I can't wait until Nov 3rd, waking up to President Kerry.