It's uncanny how Slate anticipates the topic I want to blog on - like they did with, "Daydreaming About Dean - Would he have fared better than Kerry?"
Yesterday, just before the debate, I was brooding that no one would have been in doubt as to where Dean stood on Iraq, 32 days before Election Day.
However, after seeing Kerry debate yesterday, I understand the Kerry Seems More Presidential argument a little better. A consensus is forming that Kerry emerged as the clear winner. Even editors at the Weekly Standard offered faint praise to Kerry on the Fox News panel. And of the 27,507 readers who had participated in the Wall Street Journal poll at 6pm EST, 68% thought Kerry won, 24% Bush, and 9% called it a tie.
My friends were inundated with Howard Dean propaganda for much of last year and new acquaintances think politics is an awkward subject to bring up, so no one has yet directly asked me how I intend to vote.
That changed two days ago in LA. Bored and frustrated with the congestion on Santa Monica Blvd and 40 minutes after he picked me up at LAX, my Armenian cabbie turned in his seat and surprised me by asking me whom I intended to vote for. I told him Kerry. Mildly disappointed, he explained that he had nephews in Iraq and that the media's version of chaos and anarchy was completely off and therefore he supported Bush. I asked him if he was afraid for his tip from passengers who disagreed with him. He said that some people had become angry but he continued to do it and shrugged.
For the record, I tipped him a standard 15%.
My favorite politics site is The Note from ABC News. The site surveys media coverage and has a gossipy, insider flavor to it. The Note cites an article by Thomas Oliphant of the Boston Globe (Kerry's hometown newspaper), which captures a pivotal moment in the debate: "Bush's costly gaffe: IN THE MIDDLE of a disjointed, subpar performance on an evening when he could have locked away a second term, President Bush made an unusually silly attempt to link the terrorists who attacked the United States on 9/11 with the dictator who used to rule Iraq. Saddam Hussein's Iraq had to be invaded last year, said Bush in a feeble summing up, because the enemy attacked us."
During this campaign, that's the question I've wondered about the most - Does Bush know who the enemy is?
As usual, the Daily Show was at its best in mocking the media and its particular obsessions . . . I really enjoyed Samantha Bee's piece on the undecided voter.
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