Presidential debate

By kate on October 1st, 2004

I watched the debate last night with some friends, and we all felt that Kerry had a definite edge. He managed to state his position consistently, while phrasing it in different ways. Bush merely repeated stock phrases. Kerry addressed every question, and I counted two that Bush completely ducked. I was glad Kerry got a chance to confront the “flip-flopper” issue, which I think he did well. I appreciated his resolute stand on nuclear proliferation – his answer to a question about our greatest threat, to which he could have waffled and tried to cover more bases. Admittedly, I’m biased toward Kerry and agree with him on most issues.

So, I was interested in how the coverage played out in today’s paper. I read all the articles with interest, but one of them pissed me off: a public-reaction piece about two young, single women who are still undecided.

I was fuming when I finished reading it. All they could talk about was how the candidates (and their families) looked! They never got to any real issues, just how things “felt” and “sounded”. They barely mentioned any issues by name, except to admit their ignorance on them.

In the end, they both concluded that they liked Bush best because they felt he was talking right to them. Ack! I don’t want people thinking that all young women are this fucking shallow!


Filed under: current events, media
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One Response to “Presidential debate”

  1. yruugrrl Says:
    October 1st, 2004 at 4:51 am

    I read that article and I totally agree. I actually e-mailed Erik Lacitis with these comments:

    “I certainly hope that these two women are not representative of women in Washington state as a whole. An entire article about the debate and all they can talk about is how the candidates LOOKED? My goodness. I watched the debates with several friends, and while we did discuss the relative body language of the candidates and how they came across (i.e. Kerry seem confident and firm to us, Bush seemed angry and uncomfortable) our main issues were with…well…the ISSUES. Would it really have been that hard to find two single women who were actually informed on the issues at hand? I’d hate to think the election will be decided on who wears a nicer tie. “

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