Gokul43201 said:
Here's some of the points they were battling over :
Kerry wanted the temperature below 70F, Bush, above.
Kerry wanted transparent podia (or whatever the things are called that they hide behind), Bush wanted opaque ones.
Kerry didn't want the timing lights to be visible to the people, Bush did.
I can understand the first and last, but the second point makes me raise an eyebrow.
So, anyone know what temperature was agreed upon? Did Bush want to sweat visibly throughout the debate? Raise the temp above 70, plus all that stage lighting, and they'd both be sweating and looking nervous.
I don't know about transparent podia. Though, Bush does have a tendency to lean on the podia, and who knows, maybe Kerry knows of some fidgeting Bush does that we haven't seen through podia before? Then again, I heard Bush wanted some sort of pitcher's mound thing behind the podia to offset the 5 inch height difference between him and Kerry, so maybe Kerry anticipated this, so that's why he wanted transparent podia, to show that Bush had to stand on a crate to reach the top of the podium
That last one is funny...I can see why going into the debate they'd each want it that way, but then Bush wound up being the one going over while I only saw Kerry run overtime twice, and then only by a few words to finish up a sentence. On one question, I thought Lehrer was going to have to cut Bush off since they already started blinking the red light at him and he was still talking. Bush also would just start extending the debate without waiting for permission from Lehrer as he was supposed to. Some times he did have an actual rebuttal, but other times it was stupid...he would just restate what he said the first time that Kerry already knocked apart, so Bush came across sounding like a child who just has to keep repeating himself to try to make his point rather than actually giving an effective argument.
There still seem to be a lot of Bush supporters in denial. They are all saying he'll do better in the next two. But, this first was foreign affairs, this was supposed to be his strongest debate. I think the next debate is domestic issues, which Kerry already was stronger on. I can't recall what the third debate topic is.
One of Bush's statements struck me as especially funny. He was replying to Kerry's comments regarding better homeland security (x-rays of cargo on flights, inspecting containers arriving at our ports, securing mass transit, such as the NY subway system that had to be shut down to make NY safe enough for Bush to visit for the RNC, securing chemical plants, increasing funding for police and firefighters, and securing loose nuclear materials in the former Soviet Union) in lieu of tax breaks for the rich. In response to this, Bush said, "I don’t want to get to how he’s going to pay for all these services. That’s...like...a huge tax gap." From a President who has taken us from a surplus to a deficit and thinks he can continue to cut taxes while continuing to fund war in Iraq, that struck me as amazingly absurd. The only thing that kept me from crying was that I was laughing too hard at the way he said it. He sounded like a teenager arguing with a parent: that's...like...so unfair!
