Debate - Round 1

The wife and I watched the debate on FNC. I was also reading some bloggers who were live blogging. I was also in a chat at the Command Post. It was fun to see impressions of people all over the country while it was happening.

General impressions

Senator Kerry - The new tan is gone. So were the wrinkles on his forehead. Hmmm. Seemed focused most of the time. The hand gestures were annoying.

Preident Bush - Looked a bit tired. Did his usual stumble that I've come to love. Seemed to hesitate too much at times. Didn't go for the kill shot when he had the opportunity.

Specifics

Kerry

He was in Viet Nam
Mentioned several times that he has plans but when pressed for details
they never came out
He was in Viet Nam
Unknowingly insulted the US Special Operations Community (not that they would vote for him anyways - too busy killing bad guys) with the bin Laden/Afghan warload line. Does Kerry know so little about the Afghan theatre to realize that it was a small number of SpecOps warriors that
ran the Taliban out by working with the warlords?
He was in Viet Nam
Lied about the NY City subway being closed during the entire RNC
He was in Viet Nam
Insulted Poland - the lousy b@$%@#d. Polish Special Forces rock!

Bush

Seemed bored at times
Brought up the 'love' thing again
Seemed to lose composure at times
Had his first 88 minutes been like his last 2 minutes the race might just be over
Made it clear that being a leader is everything and that you can't insult other countries or your own soldiers

Outcome

In my opinion Kerry 'won' the debate. But he was factually deficent. I think that the Bush team played this one too safe. Kerry's attacks were not rebutted as strong as they could have been. On the other hand Kerry seemed to go out of his way to insult many of our allies in the Global
War on Terror. The global test Kerry is pushing seems like a bad idea for him.

Round 2 should be interesting.

It's funny (not really) how the media talking heads are declaring this as a grand victory for Kerry. Even stranger how the DNC is bending the rule about debate video. It's not to be used in campaign commercials but they have it on the web... The RNC will probably do the same.