Wednesday, October 06, 2004 :::
 
If any further evidence is needed concerning the sympathies of the old-line establishment press, consider the way that polls are, or rather are not, being reported this morning. After President Bush's poor-ish performance last week, you couldn't hit a webpage without seeing polls extolling Kerry's performance. As of 9:30, I can find none, except a CBS poll of uncommitted voters which gave Edwards a victory, although many called it a tie. Interestingly, CBS's similar poll of such voters last Thursday was a minute-by-minute poll of answers, whereas this was just a post-debate survey. But the general "who won, who lost" surveys have yet to appear. Hey, Washington Post, your website down or something?

However, Democrats around DC last night were wincing at Edwards's style, particularly his habit of going back to the previous question before answering a new question. At least, that was true of the Democrats whose paths cross that of a certain pudgy, balding English teacher. This seems like overreaction, just as happened among Republicans last week. Kerry is again falling in the polls, so the first debate may well have been as without meaning as it was without substance. And that may be true here, as well.

And, yes, in formal English, Edwards is supposed to get 's as a possessive.

It's hard to think that the public is going to change opinions of Mr. Cheney overnight, with four years of Saturday Night Live parodies, Jay Leno monologues, and nasty sniping from the Left. It seems the public's perception in this debate will be more over the issues. See further discussion below.

There is a new, comprehensive report coming out saying that there was absolutely no current WMD threat in 2003. We will see if conservative commentators actually face the music this time. A year has been lost Dr. Kay revealed this was true, and there performance has been intellectually shoddy at best.

On the question of Mr. Bush's character, two things are interesting. The first is his inability to address an issue on which he has been wrong. This does not mean apologizing, but rather going back and rearguing the case given the facts as they are revealed. Just as interesting is his way of handling it: he has made sure that all relevant reports come out before the election. Either he trusts that he will be vindicated, or that the truth will not be too hard for the American people to accept and they will still trust him. He cannot be accused of stonewalling, but one hopes that some member of the "town hall" meeting on Friday night asks him to say clearly what we are doing in Iraq.


::: posted by A Mind That Suits at 9:35 AM


0 comments

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

What doesn't kill me, makes me laugh... usually.