1st presidential debate tonight

[Neo]

at 8pm CST. John Kerry vs George W. Bush. Watch and enjoy.

[Dark Samurai]

Cant wait to see it on The Daily Show.

[The Germanator]

I'm very much looking forward to this. Most of my campus is going to be crowded into one of the three places with TV to watch this.

BTW, 96% of the campus is registered to vote and about 90% plan to vote for Kerry. :)

[TheGame]

BTW, 96% of the campus is registered to vote and about 90% plan to vote for Kerry. :)

O.o

Anyway, I'm interested to see this debate too... I tend to fall asleep when trying to listen to John Kerry speak, but maybe a debate will make him more interesting. :p I hope he takes some solid sides on issues too. Right now, the only reason I see to vote for Kerry is not liking Bush, which isn't quite good enough.

[The Germanator]

O.o




Yeah, I know, the numbers sound strange, but keep in mind that we only have about 800 students here at a VERY liberal arts type of college, so it definitely makes sense.

[TheGame]

Hehe, I'm not used to a school being that biased. I know here at my college (based off of a poll from voters in the library) its about 40% Kerry, 35% Bush, 25% undecided. :p There are replublican and democratic clubs that have meetings and crap.

[BreakABone]

Well, I'm going to watch it in the school's movie theatre.

I need to for my American Politics class.

But I was looking over some of the facts, and this doesn't seem to be much of a debate.

I mean there are so many friggin rules that it's not but canned responses to pre-approved questions. :(

[DeathsHand]

I actually wanna watch this for some odd reason (never been big in the politics), but I plan to be at work... Drat... Hopefully I make it home into for the daily show tonight...

[Bond]

The debates are really just a big media event. I hope Kerry does exactly what Al Gore did in 2000.

[GameMaster]

I will watch it. I wish it didn't take the cover story of cnn.com though. I get tired of seeing about it when I already know when it's going to be on.

[Typhoid]

I wonder if Kerry broke his foot.....you know...because he was dropping so many names at the beginning.



And this isnt a debate. Its too organized. In Canadian debates (as far as i know) the other candidates freely interject and ask questions.

Now, i have never watched an American debate, so I ask one question, is there a period (Hopefully, or else it would be lame) where they can question eachother?

[Blackmane]

I wonder if Kerry broke his foot.....you know...because he was dropping so many names at the beginning.



And this isnt a debate. Its too organized. In Canadian debates (as far as i know) the other candidates freely interject and ask questions.

Now, i have never watched an American debate, so I ask one question, is there a period (Hopefully, or else it would be lame) where they can question eachother?

No, I think they setup rules so there wouldn't be arguements breaking out between them.

It is very highly organized indeed, so it is hard to actually call it a debate.

[Xantar]

The terms of the debate are negotiated between the two campaign groups. In my opinion, that's one of the major problems with election procedures in America today. Theoretically, if both sides agreed to it, there could have been just one debate in which the rules were "Do not actually discuss anything and just say nice things about each other." It won't happen because the people would never stand for it, but there's nothing illegal about it either.

That's also why debates look like a set of canned responses. The candidates don't want to be surprised and look like they've been caught in headlights (I suspect that this is a concern more for Bush than for Kerry. Bush has been showing difficulty putting his thoughts into words for this debate).

[GiMpY-wAnNaBe]

w00t,just watched it. I think its fair to say that Kerry got the upper hand in this debate. It was weird seeing Kerry on the offensive, Bush spent the majority of the time defending himself, and not having enough time to attack Kerry. Bush's comment on "They attacked us" toward Iraq really killed him, and i loved John Kerrys analagy: "Invading Iraq after 9/11 is like Invading Mexico after Pearl Harbour", great stuff.

[Acebot44]

Yeah, I felt that Kerry definetly won this one. He didn't bore me at all and sounded so sure of what he was saying. A smooth orator that man is.

[GameMaster]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v449/synthoid/General/debate.jpg

Seriously though, John Kerry led tonight's campaign. I'm not one of those people that always is harping on Bush. I mean, I could never do what he's doing probably. But he was having trouble tonight. Whether you support him or not, it was evident he wasn't performing up to par. I think it was because he was taken off guard by John Kerry's suprisingly good performance. People's complaints with John is that he doesn't relate with the people well but tonight many think he did. It's hard to talk about these things with other people though because most people enter viewing the debate with an opinion or a favorite and that obviously effects how they think both guys did.

[Seth]

Imagine both of the candidates' nerves.

I watched clips of it cuz it wasn't on my TV or I was away when it happened but from what I saw, Kerry was doing a bit better of a job.

Bush is a little better with debates then at the normal press conference. I mean, the guy doesn't have to read off of plaque cards now. He strings together words 10 at a time now.

but ya, I neve saw the Al Gore vs Bush debate back in the day so I was somewhat surprised about Bush's debating skills.



Anyway, I'll be looking forward to watching the daily show tomorrow(i d/l the episodes every day off of suprnova but they are put up the day after....I don't have TV anymore).

[mickydaniels]

The terms of the upcoming debates can be found here:
http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/09/20/presidential.debates/

Last night's debate was way too friendly. Watching it on C-SPAN was very good, because it showed both guys at all times on a split-screen.
But who won?
John Kerry(especially when he brought up de Gaulle needing only the words of the president).

Who do I agree with more?
George Bush (it's better to be on the offensive over there intsead of the defensive over here).

Who am I voting for?
Neither. F@ck 'em.