So, who won the first Gore/Bush debate four years ago?

[UrbScotty]

Most people say Bush won, but Bill Schneider said Gore won.

He was referring to the first debates in 1984, 1988, 1992, and 2000, which he said Mondale, Dukakis, Perot, and Gore won, respectively.

[Still_Notafraid]

1. Gore won

But the media played it down by concentrating on Gore's facial expressions and sigh's they did it so much that people who didn't watch the debate was saying bush won.also Bush down right lied in his answers he painted him self as a moderate conservative when in fact hes a neocon.

[TomClash]

2. 1996, Clinton v. Dole . . .

...was conveniently skipped.

[RoyGBiv]

3. None of those are comparable ...

None of these were so clearly commanded by either individual as the Kerry/Bush debate was. I remember the Dukakis/Bush debate clearly, and while I thought he won it, opinions among the media and political analysts were all over the place. In no case do I remember hearing a hardline Republican claiming he got the upper hand.

The notion that Perot "won" anything is laughable. Yeah, yeah ... I know it got played that way by a lot of people. That was a very strange election cycle. Perot is an idiot, and nothing about that debate made me think otherwise.

Mondale/Reagan? Is he serious? Mondale was so outclassed on the personality scale it was painful to watch.

Gore/Bush was similar to Dukakis/Bush. Both Gore and Dukakis won the debate on substance, but the intangible elements took that victory away. Immediately after the first Gore/Bush debate, pundits were talking about his nerdiness, how he spoke above, rather than to people, how Bush's message was simpler and clearer and would play better to most (dumb) Americans.

In short, I dispute the premise of the analogy.