I’m glad I’m not the only one thinking I got lied to last night.
Overall I think Kerry did a good job, not only staying on message, but delivering that message a few different ways. I liked that he got in outsourcing – referring to the capture of Osama bin Laden – without talking about outsourcing. There were times where I felt his point could have been more effective if he didn’t use the full time, but in all it was a good show. Particularly favorite part was when Kerry told the de Gaulle story about the word of an American president being enough. I thought Bush started out stronger, but he kept repeating the same words in every single answer, and in my mind was clearly getting frustrated. Bush didn’t seem to understand the details of policy, and was in a state of denial about Iraq. He was throwing out borderline ad hominems, and really didn’t seem to draw any distinction between Iraq and AQ. Finally, I think it’s interesting that Bush said sanctions will work on Iran and North Korea. If they didn’t work against Iraq, why would they work against those two?
Finally, this blog is supposed to be about Muslims and Islam. Both Kerry and Bush seemed to conflate Arabs and Muslims. I know on the fundraising side of things, and I suspect on the policy side, such a conflation goes pretty deep in the Kerry campaign. I’ll post more on that in a separate entry, hopefully later today.