Second Presidential Debate - Quick Take

Bush regained some of his lost footing, purely on a style basis, but actually said nothing new in comparison to the foreign policy discussion held in Debate One. Bush also managed to use the “townhall” format to good effect, although he did come off sounding strident and looked somewhat chastized here and there while Kerry was making his points.

Kerry was not stiff or wooden, and in general carried himself in an open and engaging manner. Given that the townhall format was to have aided Bush the most, anyone listening to that pariticular pre-spin will walk away from the debate thinking that Kerry did very well indeed. The science of setting expectations low… politics 101.

Bush was on target and on message in terms of continuing the attack on Kerry’s record (flipflop, what did you do as a senator, Senator?) however Kerry was very adept at coming back with details and examples of why he took past action. It appears to this observer that people with open minds will be questioning the attack ads the Republicans have been putting out, since Kerry did an effective rebuttal. This can be particularly dangerous to soft Republican support – once you start to question a party or its leader, support wanes expoentially.

In short – I have to give a moderate edge to Kerry, on balance, for this debate when appealing to the secular undecided, a slight edge to Kerry when appealing to the humanist religious undecided, and a slight edge to Bush when appealing to the more fundamentalist born again / pro life undecided.