Who did?
What debate?
The debate won’t be shown here until after some stupid ball game,
and after the after-game sports gab show!
Can you believe how screwed up our national priorities are!
It seemed to be a tie to me. Neither one of them seemed as presidential as Chaney or Lieberman, just IMHO.
Do you live in an area where there is only one TV station? Do you have a radio? There were ample opportunities to watch the debate.
That said, I was watching the baseball game.
I though both of them disimproved over the second debate, and I didn’t like the format much either.
As in the first debate, Gore came off as willing to break the rules–since one of the big questions in this election is his character and whether he was willing to break laws, this wasn’t the image he wanted to project. And his ripoffs of Ronald Reagan sounded stupid.
Bush, meanwhile, fumbled several times, and gave me the impression that he was playing not to lose rather than to win–and I think that’s premature. He did get in one good shot when he answered the question about apathy and political disinterest among young people–saying that an honest man in the White House would help. (That was one time Gore shouldhave broken the rules and jumped back, but he didn’t.)
Overall, except for the apathy question, I had Gore ahead on points. With the question, I’d call it a draw–I doubt it changed anyone’s mind, and I doubt it impressed true undecided voters. Under the circumstances, that means Bush benefitted more than Gore.
I won…I took a nap and slept through the whole thing. Big Improvement.
Question is…why don’t we learn something from the WWF? Quit making believe that politics is real and start treating it as entertainment. Instead of two bozos bloviating over nuthin’ of significance you could have Joe Lieberman dress up like a chicken and jump off a ring post onto Pat Buchanan. That’d be a lot more entertaining and the BS factor would be much lower.
I’ve got the debates on and I have to watch it until midnight on a school night, excluding watching with my children.
I’m in the S.F. Bay area, with 50 broadcast channels, but NBC wanted to hog both the game (and gab) and the real future of our country.
And if you prefered the game, then you are part of the problem. NBC is catering to you. Shame on both of you!
I thought it pretty much came out a tie.
If Bush hadn’t descended to whining about Gore’s rules violations he would have probably come out ahead.
There was a moment early on where Gore wanted to press Bush on the patients bill of rights. He was so anxious that while Bush was talking Gore left his stool and walked right up to Bush. Bush finished his statement and then did a double-take at Gore as if to say “what the fuck are you doing over here?” It was pretty funny. Then on another one, Gore answered the question and finished with a direct question to Bush (against the rules). Bush looked at Gore for a moment, looked past him at the questioner and said “thank YOU for your question” and completely ignored Gore’s question. Perfect response. Unfortunately, by the end he just started to whine to Jim Lehrer about how “some people don’t follow rules.”
That was pretty much the worst of it from Bush.
The worst of it from Gore was that he was that he was practically hugging the questioners because he was trying so hard to show that he liked them.
Otherwise they both did pretty good at making the point they wanted to make (Gore: There are real differences between us and Texas sucks; Bush: I can bring the parties together and Gore is nothing but a big spender).
Worst from Jim Lehrer (or whoever selected the questions). There were two questions that were pointed directly at (and accusative of) Bush. The one that I remember was along the lines of “you seemed to be overly happy at being the leading death penalty person.” The moderators should have selected a more generally worded death penalty question. Why did Al Gore get to respond to this question, it had nothing to do with him?
I think George Bush missed two slam dunk opportunities (and I think this shows his lack of a debaters instinct):
- Question: How would your tax plan affect me, a single 39-year-old woman with no dependents?
Al Gores answer: If you put money into a savings account we match, if you made less money we help more, if do x we do y, if you do w we do q.
George Bush’s answer should have been: Notice how every sentence from the Vice President started with the word “if”. That is because he is not providing tax relief he is deciding who the good and “worthy” people are. Let me make this simple, under my tax plan everybody earning less than X amount would pay NO taxes, you personally would see approximately a Y% tax reduction.
- Question: What makes you the person to be leading us in the Middle East?
George Bush’s answer should have been: Simple, I am a good executive, I can make decisions based upon input from my advisors. Fortunately, I will have some of the best advisors imaginable on these issues: Colin Powell, Condeliza Rice, and Dick Cheney among others.
When they were asked a ‘violence in media’ question, Bush started saying how he thought parent’s should take a more active role and find the ‘off’ button on the remote. Gore stepped in saying how if they didn’t clean up their act, the (his) administration would step in.
I’m getting a wierd urge to vote Republican…
Personally, since I am a Libertarian, I kicked back and watched “Copy Cat” on UPN then proceeded to fall asleep or a couple of hours which is why I am still awake at 3:50 am.
I have known for a long time who I was going to vote for so the debates are useless to me until the third party candidates are allowed into the process. Currently it’s quite a yawn session if you ask me.
I just got to hear part of the debate on the radio tonight, but I did enjoy hearing Gov. Bush fumble around the question "how do you feel about “affirmative action.” It was easy to tell that he was OFF SCRIPT. Don’t ever remember hearing so many uhh’s.
Who won the debate?
If you are a decided voter, the answer is most likely going to be “The person I am voting for.”
If you are an undecided voter, your might choose one candidate over another but then be just as likely to say that it didn’t do too much to sway you one way or the other because they both had good and bad moments and their answers were so full of rehearsed sound bites that your cynicism was on red alert the whole time.
If you are voting Libertarian (or on of the other 3rd parties) you probably enjoyed a good bowl of popcorn while watching a movie.
As for this
Hello Captain Sweeping Generalization.
Since when did they let these bozo’s walk around when answering questions? I thought that sucked. It seemed much more cordial and professional when they were both seated.
And BTW, it was a great game!
Perhaps, as someone has pointed out to me, this belongs in Great Debates. See you over there!
MysterEcks, I noticed that too! His saying “You ain’t seen nothin yet”. (Al Gore that is).
Gosh, what a person to copy yourself after!
Also, I learned, 3 times, that Texas is a big state. I hadn’t known. ALso, do you know it actually borders a foreign nation?
Gore said he would “do something” about television violence, but he didn’t say what…ominous.
Bush has my vote. It is about time we had a candidate who unambiguously defended the interests of the rich against the mob. I’m sick of politicians pandering to the middle class. So refreshing.
I confess, I gave up watching, because I thought they both came across as incompetent.
Gore, IMHO, came across as arrogant and rude, interrupting, having to get the last word in, like a high school debater.
Bush came across as contradictory, stupid, and totally without executive abilities.
I’d say, shoot both of them. I’ll be voting for the policies, not for the man.
Hey! You stole that line from Bush!
I kinda LIKED that Gore crossed the line a few times. After all, Bush made the crack about “not caring about the rules” at last week’s debate and got a laugh from the audience, so it was nice to see him squirm and whine last night.
I may be a yellow dog Democrat, but I can’t believe that anyone could have watched that debate and decided that it was a “tie.” Bush was completely out of his depth, not recognizing bills that Gore quoted, not able to respond to the affirmative action question (clearly unfamiliar with the Supreme Court statement), giving meaningless answers about how he was going to bring all factions together in some great grotesque group hug, repeatedly attacking “Washington” and the “Federal Government” as if he were running for El Paso Dogcatcher instead of the motherfucking HEAD of the Federal Government in Washington…
Frankly, I thought that Gore won (this is also the conclusion that news reports I have seen so far have reached, though I decided it before I saw any of them). He was energetic and, yes, he did interrupt, but he at least showed that he wasn’t the wooden statue of his caricature.
Bush did a poor job of articulating answers, avoided several (like the affirmative action one) and seemed whiny. He looked so uncomfortable that I half-expected him to glance at his watch the way his father did 8 years ago. And, as usual, he didn’t really want to deal with facts. When Gore brought up something, Bush would just try to ignore it or blow it off (such as when Gore pointed out that journalists had found his numbers to be inaccurate, and Bush essentially said “Who cares what they think” or words to that effect).
I also got sick of Bush talking about how he would bring both sides together, yadda yadda yadda. Give me a break.
One part where I cringed was when Gore kept referring to the recently-deceased governor of Missouri. I think he should have kept his name out of it, to avoid the appearance of trying to score political points because of his death.