The Person Ahead In The Polls Gets To Determine The Format Of The Debates*

[DemocratSinceBirth]

*If Kerry has a nice lead going into the debates he has leverage in determining the format.....


Wouldn't it be great if Kerry demanded three Lincoln-Douglas type debates with the boy king....

[NewHampshireDem]

1. "Sir, I say Sir.. I accept your challenge ..."

"Pistols at dawn."

:)

On edit:

Seriously, The Atlantic had a nice piece about a potential */Kerry debate. They said it would be an exercise in "asymmetrical warfare."

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/prem/200407/fallows

[Pale_Rider]

3. The Little Boy Coward ...

... would probably shoot Kerry in the back.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

10. Bush's Debate Tactics....

Bush is going to try to be everyman and portray Kerry as an effete snob.....


I think Kerry will be prepared.....

[MikeG]

2. My suggestion: No debates. They only help Bush.

Even if Kerry clearly wins them, the whores spin it that Bush won,

Remember 2000. No debates.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

5. He Will Clean Bush's Clock...

It will be worse than the Superbowl where the Bears beat the Patrioys 46-10....


It will be worse ....

All the spin in the world won't help....


Think Socrates against Archie Bunker....

[MikeG]

9. Lets ask President Gore. The media doesn't play fair.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

13. Gore Wasn't Blameless In The Debates....

A new Al Gore showed up for every debate and Gore was practically laughing at Chimpy's answers....


I know Chimpy is an idiot and I ooze contempt for him but if I had my party's nomination for president and was debating him on t v I'd go out and kick his ass without being stupid enough to show my contempt for him by laughing at him .....

[buycitgo]

16. a new gore?

nice talking point, Karl

and who WOULDN;T laugh at that ignorant, ill-prepared idiot

the media couldn't WAIT to trash Gore, while IGNORING the serial LIES that ahole spewed, over and over and over

give me a BREAK

[DemocratSinceBirth]

18. Gore's Own People Made Gore Watch The Saturday Night Live

caricature of himself and that's why there was a marked difference in his demeanor from the first to second debate...


I hope the "Karl" shot wasn't serious .....


Kisses



Brian

[buycitgo]

6. I've said the same thing before

he's better off not doing it, just for the reason you state

no win situation for him

just as it was the speech of Kerry's life....make or break, it'll be the low expectation excuse for the chimpspeech, even though he's the freaking PRESident.....well, sorta the pRes

[acmavm]

8. I don't know, I think that the American public should be given a little

more credit than that. They're already starting to wake up. Bush without a microphone in his ear would be totally defenseless. And I believe that people would recognize that.

[NMDemDist2]

11. JK will crush * in the debates and that's one of the things the

"apathetic" voter will watch (at least one of them)

most part time voters missed the convention and will try to catch part of a debate

it's a must do and JK will rock chimpy's world

[buycitgo]

4. according to the dickheads I watched on CSPAN, the format is

already determined: one will be a town hall deal

another will be a face to face, with questions asked by one moderator

can't remember if the other is the same as the second

they claim it's already determined, as long as dumbo accepts, which he CANT do, til after he's actually nominated

actual details, like the actual number of debates are open to, uh.....debate, if chimpsimp balks, like he did last time

Kerry's fine with the setup as is, but will accept more

notice how he hasn't been agitating for weekly debates, like Gore

bet that's cause he KNOWS the media is going to insist dumboid wins, no matter what, even if he doesn't SHOW UP! he's SO strong! so busy fightin terra. no time for that little pipsqueak Kerry; he just whines and complains alla time, anyway. Plus....he LIED about his Vietnam service, unlike the brave JET PILOT, who flew dangerous JET PLANES all over the southwest, Caribbean, and South America

[DemocratSinceBirth]

7. The People Usually Get The Debates Right...

They didn't miss the fact that Cater outpointed Ford and Reagan destroyed Carter.....


They didn't miss the fact that Mondale beat Reagan in the first debate and Reagan made a nice comeback in the second...


I could go on....


I can't wait to Kerry undress Bush on national tv

[buycitgo]

12. gore lost at LEAST five points as a result of those debates

people DON'T think for themselves at certain points; the debates were one of those, cause the media went NUTS over what a mean, exaggerating guy Gore was, with the funny suntan

it was OVER for him at that point, far as I thought

the other obvious time was during the recount, when the media was full hardon against Gore, telling him to GET OUT right away, even though he was "behind" by five hundred votes

whadda think they'd have said if Bush had been behind?

They'd have INSISTED we wait til the flowers came up to get the vote totals correct: that's what they'd have done

[DemocratSinceBirth]

15. He Was Practically Laughing At Bush.....

We can laugh at Bush here but it was poor form for Gore to do it on national tv....

[John Q. Citizen]

21. Except that he won the popular vote and was cheated out

of Florida.

[MikeG]

14. Then watch Tweety give all three to Chimpy.

No matter what happens.

Mark my words.

[buycitgo]

17. democrat since birth wants Kerry to be a robot, like Gore wasn't,

apparently

ANY sign of emotion is disapproved

course, that's EXACTLY what they NAILED him for

the perfect conundrum for dems: damned if you do, damned if you don't

[DemocratSinceBirth]

20. I Don't Want Him To Be A Robot.....

And most folks regardless of their political orientation think it's bad form to show disrespect for your opponent...


That's why most folks deplored Mark Gastineau's sack dance....

[spanone]

19. Ya know what troubles me, Gore trounced W* in their debates yet...

the media called most of them a draw. It was horrifying.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

22. Gore Destroyed Bush....

but folks harped on the fact that Gore openly showed his contempt for Bush......

[opihimoimoi]

25. Gore had no practice in the months coming up to the debate, Bush did.

Now, its the other way round...Kerry has had 1 year to hone the razor...Bushy is dull from too much vacations and it shows. No keen edge, only a dull edge ,......

[DemocratSinceBirth]

26. Gore Destroyed Bush

To use another colloqialism... He fucked up by laughing at him...

[TryingToWarnYou]

27. What hurt Gore was his ....SIGH... at everything Bush said

He sighed all the time and it became very tiresome for people to watch. I was literally screaming at the TV for him to stop because I knew he was blowing it.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

28. The Sigh....

He really didn't "laugh" at Bush but the sigh was imho correctly interpeted as a display of contempt or exasperation like a parent sighing at a naughty child...


Look... Bush is a cipher but Gore screwed up by mocking him....

[opihimoimoi]

29. SOME IDIOT musta told him to do it...prolly a mole or two in the camp.

[libbygurl]

23. I don't think Kerry will display the same contempt for W on TV, though.n/t

[DemocratSinceBirth]

24. That's My Whole Point....

There's emotional intelligence and academic or scholastic intelligence....


An emotionally intelligent doesn't mock his opponent when he knows that most ordinary folks find it in poor form...


To use a crude colloquialism people don't like to see a retard picked on.....

[salin]

30. Imagine how hard that would be... really... imagine

trying (without sighing) to seriously debate an issue and have him answer with something like: we know the economy is improving because of the evidence of improvement that shows that the economy is improving...

How does one not react when the response of one's opponent is nonsensical?

on edit - sighing - not sighting... oops!

[DemocratSinceBirth]

31. The Way Carter Debated Ford...

Carter was textbook perfect in those debates...

Quietly confident....


When Ford would say something Carter would just smile and you could just see his brain formulating a response....

[salin]

32. Big difference between Ford and W, though.

Ford didn't come off as a verbal, dyslexic, simpleton.

I would need hours and hours of coaching which would involved really absurd statements from bush - monitoring my reactions...

[DemocratSinceBirth]

33. Ford "Liberated:" Eastern Europe In His Debate

when he said that Poland wasn't under Soviet domination...


Carter just smiled quietly and pointed out the major gaffe...

[salin]

36. forgot about that...

and Carter was always composed. Still think that at about the fifteenth such ridiculous statement - if the response was composed pointed out the mistake - the opponent (be it Kerry or anyone else) would be viewed as condescending or framed in some other sort of negative terms trying to convey the "fancy pants" (bush's term) intellectual tag. I just think it would be really hard to debate bush and not come off as having a bit of a superior attitude. The guy says a gazillion inane, incorrect and stupid things in rapid succession.

[uconnyc]

34. No debates please

I hope Kerry's staff maneuvers tactfully to not have debates. It is a no win situation for Kerry.

Maybe a joint PR with the * campaign stating that the candidates would like to spend time meeting voters.

It will look like * is ducking the debate much more than Kerry.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

35. HaveFaith ....

Kerry will destroy bush...