Please accept my apologies for being completely wrong yesterday. I bought into the spin that the debates were fake and didn’t matter — a viewpoint which was strengthened by the inadvertent release of rough drafts of a debate wrap-up by a prominent news source hours before the debate itself. For the record, it is an open secret that news writers often pre-prepare likely news stories (e.g., obituary of public figure battling deadly disease) with room to fill in the details.
The New York Times put it most succinctly: “In the end, it was a real debate….”
It turns out that average Americans think Kerry won, even though NPR this morning proclaimed that it would be days before “public opinion gel[led]” and we know exactly what happened. Um, yeah. Oh, and if you’d like an outside opinion about what was said, The BBC has a nice wrap-up, with a PDF of the transcript available for download.
Many things have been said across the Greater Blogosphere about what was said and what it means. I will leave you with the one most important thing I heard. I know it was important because President Bush said it several times: “[Kerry says] It was the wrong war at the wrong place at the wrong time.” This attempt to hearken back to the “risky tax scheme” meme that Clinton and Gore beat senseless in the ’96 debates backfired. Instead it sounded like he was making his opponent’s point for him. By the third time, all I could think of was “Quick! Don’t think of an elephant!”
Thinking of an elephant, aren’t you? Not me, I’m thinking of the next debate. It will be interesting to hear what these guys have to say about domestic policy.