The Debates - My Opinion

No, there's no links off of this - it's strictly my opinion, with nothing to try to justify it.

In all of the debates, I doubt that there was much to sway anyone. If you were looking for someone with a pure formal debating style, then Kerry would have won hands down. On substance, I think Bush won. There's no way that Kerry's tax cuts will pay for his plans and balance the budget. On "mis statements", fact check has something about both of them.

In last night's effort, I think Kerry stepped on himself when bringing up Cheney's daughter. I also thought his continued referring to his religion was, at best, cynical.

But if you were looking for a candidate who was human; who has human strengths and human foilables, then I think the hands-down winner was the incumbent. For the most part a robot programmed in debating techniques could have replaced Kerry and no one would have noticed the difference. President Bush, however, showed his passions in what drove him - but also showed that he wasn't above pointing out some of his weaknesses, and making them a point of humor.

I'm biased - not because I particularly like Bush, but because the thought of Kerry as President scares the hell out of me - so like most folks I looked for what I wanted to in these "debates". But to me, Bush won hands down on both substance and style.

Of course, that's just my opinion, I could be fucked in the head. In fact, I'd almost guarantee it!