Thursday, October 14, 2004
Woo, free time
So it turns out that Lincoln's argument for the Civil War was that slavery was economically inefficient... which is strange, but how about it? A security council for the WTO instead of the UN would be rather interesting, and then we'd get that representation for China et al.
Anyway, a proper reflection on the debate: Kerry did win, Bush did look slightly stupid, and Kerry did respond to most of what he said pretty well, although Bush may well succeed in hamstringing him by the "global test".
Bush seemed to have been briefed on Education, Education, Education, which was interesting: No Child Left Behind was big, but I've never really thought he was into it. I'm trying to work out how this will work, it ought to appeal to women, one of Bush's weakest groups (60-40 against or something), in traditional terms of kids. Now if Kerry has them sown up then he's wasting his breath, but if he can sway some then he'll do very well. Kerry appeals in a much more self-interested way, promising nice healthcare, better jobs, etc. He brushed aside Bush's education comments to answer questions slightly more directly, but mainly to go on about healthcare, on which his pitch is rather good, despite the Bush campaign's ads. He mentions every time that NCLB wasn't properly funded, which works pretty well, but I'd say he could do with a more personal line on education, more "I was in the classroom..." and "This teacher is prevented from..." type-stuff. Still, being Democrat and articulate probably insulates him sufficiently that anyone for whom education is dominant is going to vote for him anyway.
So Bush's strategy was interesting: doing a kind of "but it's all about", especially with education being his jobs answer as well. Kerry had an answer on everything instead, he should probably do better out of it, although by not screwing up, Bush has probably done enough.
Interestingly, there were no split screens that I saw, the odd shot with both candidates, but not the juxtaposition that we saw before of the same perspective on each at the same time. Did the candidates complain about them breaking the rules before, or was Bush too well-trained in the meantime for those shots to be so interesting as they had been?
Laters,
Anyway, a proper reflection on the debate: Kerry did win, Bush did look slightly stupid, and Kerry did respond to most of what he said pretty well, although Bush may well succeed in hamstringing him by the "global test".
Bush seemed to have been briefed on Education, Education, Education, which was interesting: No Child Left Behind was big, but I've never really thought he was into it. I'm trying to work out how this will work, it ought to appeal to women, one of Bush's weakest groups (60-40 against or something), in traditional terms of kids. Now if Kerry has them sown up then he's wasting his breath, but if he can sway some then he'll do very well. Kerry appeals in a much more self-interested way, promising nice healthcare, better jobs, etc. He brushed aside Bush's education comments to answer questions slightly more directly, but mainly to go on about healthcare, on which his pitch is rather good, despite the Bush campaign's ads. He mentions every time that NCLB wasn't properly funded, which works pretty well, but I'd say he could do with a more personal line on education, more "I was in the classroom..." and "This teacher is prevented from..." type-stuff. Still, being Democrat and articulate probably insulates him sufficiently that anyone for whom education is dominant is going to vote for him anyway.
So Bush's strategy was interesting: doing a kind of "but it's all about", especially with education being his jobs answer as well. Kerry had an answer on everything instead, he should probably do better out of it, although by not screwing up, Bush has probably done enough.
Interestingly, there were no split screens that I saw, the odd shot with both candidates, but not the juxtaposition that we saw before of the same perspective on each at the same time. Did the candidates complain about them breaking the rules before, or was Bush too well-trained in the meantime for those shots to be so interesting as they had been?
Laters,
