Debate:

One thing that strikes me is that Bush is actually hurting from his all-supporters-all-the-time faux-town-hall style of “meetings”. The problem is this: In these scripted, fake events, he’s being asked by supporters to reinforce their idiotic beliefs. So when a person gets up and asks, “Have you made any mistakes in your administration?” his answer is, “No.”

That’s fine and dandy, in front of a room of zombified dittoheads. But when someone whose agenda you *haven’t* written comes up and asks you, “Have you made any mistakes so far?” it’s poor debate strategy not to realize that this is a loaded question. This person has the opportunity to ask you anything in the world they want. There’s a reason they’ve asked this question. They know you’ve made a mistake – they’re wondering whether *you* know you’ve made a mistake.

So when Bush gets up there and says that his worst mistake is, “appointments,” when there’s the war in Iraq, and the so-called catastrophic success, or his admitted miscalculations, or any number of other things, he sounds stupid. Stupid to the questioner, stupid to the rest of us. The only people he doesn’t sound stupid with are the people stupid enough to believe him, and those are stupid people, indeed. Kerry at least understands this dynamic, and understands how to address it.

So it weirds me out that a lot of insta-polls are calling this one a draw. I’d expected that Bush’s “nothing’s wrong here,” responses would have shone some light on how delusional or propagandistic he is. I think Bush got walked all over tonight, and Kerry’s really shoring up the notion that he is as “Presidential,” as anyone, and far moreso than the Chimp-in-Chief. I’ve rarely seen a worse debate performance.

Oh, and this is a brief note to Bush – in regards to your timber company? You’re *fucked* sucker.