will the debates be a repeat of W vs. Gore?......I doubt it

[mopaul]

there seems to be two schools of thought concerning the upcoming presidential debates.

1. Kerry will trounce bush handily.
2. bush will repeat his glorious defeat of Gore on Kerry, using only
his natural charm and gee whiz likability.

the debate debate rages on.

[Kierkegaard]

1. I doubt it as well.

I just hope people are more aware of the issues this time instead of fawning over the 'golly, gee' good 'ole boy shit. They'll need to actually listen to what this asshat is saying. If that is the case, Kerry will chew him up and spit him out.

[DemBones DemBones]

2. A C-SPAN caller said Bush* is good in these things because

(wait for it)




of his "home-downing" persona.

ROTFLMAO

What a maroon.

[Spinzonner]

3. Bush has a national record now

His inconsistencies, flip-flops, hypocrasies, and betrayals need to be pointed out by Kerry.

Bush must be made to defend these issues and any evasions, dissemination or lies must be pointed out by Kerry.

Either he will be shown to be a liar or he will be provoked into frustration and possible anger.

And Kerry's fact checkers need to jump all over any Bush mistakes in the post-debate echo chamber to counter the Republican whores who will be all over the media.

[Democat]

4. The media decides who wins, so I wouldn't count Bush out

If the media tells people that Bush win, they will probably believe it.

Bush owns most of the mainstream media.

Get ready to get angry!

[goclark]

5. You are so right

You can see how down and dirty they are getting right now.

CNN this morning was waaaaaaaaaay over the edge. And they will get even more so.

This is a battle not a play pen.

[NewJeffCT]

7. Agreed

This is how I see the debates going.

1) Pre Debate - media plays up Kerry showing highlights of his great debates against Weld or him vs O'Neill in the early 70s. Bush will be downplayed and will basically cede the debates to Kerry beforehand ("my opponent is a master debater and I welcome one of the biggest challenges of my political career on Oct XX")

2) Bush spits out patriotic platitudes that are light on facts and full of feel good phrases.

3) Kerry gives long, nuanced, intelligent responses that are well thought out, well formed, well spoken and full of facts.

4) Media declares Bush the winner because he didn't drool on stage while shrieking "Red Rum. Red Rum." and because he seems more personable and down-to-earth. Kerry is criticized for being a boring & out of touch elitist.

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

6. I pray Kerry goes for the jugular

and doesn't let up for a second. I believe he has what it takes to extract points even from the expected softballs, and he shouldn't worry about being too nice about doing it. He needs to study the shrub's history and be ready to make good use of it.

And if the shrub attempts to use an earpiece, Kerry should loudly insist he remove it. On camera.

[Jim__]

8. Gore kicked bush's ass in the debates

Then the press said Gore lied and bush won.

Same press today. Why would we expect them to act differently.

[Warpy]

9. It depends on whose advice he takes

Gore was apparently hamstrung by a bunch of DLC twits who thought if he answered Bush's blatant lies he'd come off as a big bad bully picking on a nice li'l feller. We all know what happened. Bush's lies went unanswered and Gore was reduced to heavy sighs of frustration, and that lost him votes. It sure lost him my vote (no, I didn't vote for Bush or Nader).

Kerry's got a long history of not giving a rip whether he comes across as a beer buddy or not. He's a helluva nice guy in real life, but I don't think that's going to be what he sells in the debates. Only if he's hamstrung the way Gore was could he possibly lose the debates.

The convention and the debates are the only places a Democrat has a shot at getting the point across. Kerry used the convention extremely well. Let's hope he gives us fireworks at the debates.

[Rainbowreflect]

10. Kerry & his people need to review the "West Wing" shows

where they are preparing for the one debate in the second election as well as the debate itself.
The guy Bartlett was debating (sorry can't remember his name) was very bushish.