kerry did a fine job, making clean and forceful points and betraying no nervousness. bush stuck to his message, perhaps simplistically so, while allowing kerry to get under his skin a few times but in general appearing affably confident if not particularly presidential. we all know bush is no rhodes scholar but he didn't exactly embarrass the u.s. with his idiocy, he seemed at least to have a magazine reader's command of some issues. but clearly after all the latest polls and the swift boat lies kerry had the hardest job. just showing up and cruising may have been ok for bush at this point in his campaign but would have been disastrous for kerry. the senator needed to correct a few misperceptions of the waffling/shifty/wimpy variety and he did that and more. he was bush’s superior intellectually (no big news there) but he was also something else: he was bush’s dominator, quietly leaving the president with little room but to rehash the same weak anti-kerry republican slogans. the ones that have always been suspect, but seem doubly so coming out of the mouth of a commander-in-chief of the most powerful country in the history of the world while standing within arms’ reach of the man he’s been vilifying for months and frankly not measuring up. i just couldn’t help knowing this man lacks the strength to lead the planet. that after all the prep, all the staff meetings, all the eyes-only cia and fbi reports, all the white house inside information, after four years in the oval office and all the recent debate practice, i was asking "is that all you have within you mr. president?" while hearing what i hope to god was the sound of double digit leads evaporating away.
- js.
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