Who won the 1st debate?

Who won the 1st Presidential debate?

  • President George Bush

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Senator John Kerry

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • It was a tie.

    Votes: 1 100.0%

  • Total voters
    1
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Chaos Turtle

Guest
Tonight the two Presidential candidates held their first debate. Who, in your opinion won the debate. Please be encouraged to share your reasons. Please keep your comments limited to the topics covered in the debate.
 

Oversoul

The Tentacled One
Having been involved in debate in high school, that is the sort I am used to. In such debates (and other debates that I am familiar with) the "winner" it is determined by a judge. As far as I know there is no judge for this type of debate...

I guess one could say "if you were the judge..." but that presents some problems. I never judged debates myself. There's generally a certain amount of experience requisite for that. Aside from that though, in high school debate, I remember that judges for events are never from the same school as any of the students in the event. That way the judge is neutral. People who have already made up their minds who they are going to vote for are pretty likely to pick the candidate they are going to vote for. If you put up a poll that said "If you live in the U.S. and are planning to vote in the upcoming election: who would you vote for?" the results would, I'm almost sure, be very close to the results from a poll that said "If you live in the U.S. and are planning to vote in the upcoming election: who won the debate?" A Bush/Kerry supporter is not going to usually admit, "well, Bush/Kerry lost the debate, but is really still the better candidate."

That said, if I were for some reason the judge of this debate (and I think I've already made it clear that I feel I am unqualified), I would give the win to Kerry. I think that I'd generally anticipate that outcome, because Bush is (for a president) a poor speaker (and I think even Bush supporters agree that is not his strength).

My reasoning though is...

Both men sidetracked and generally wasted time (something I'm nitpicky about). Bush did this a bit more.

Bush failed to address more of Kerry's contentions than the other way around (this is integral from a judging standpoint in all styles of debate that I'm familiar with).

To conclude, I'm not impressed with the performance of either of them for this debate.
 
I

Ivotekerry

Guest
It was nice to see that they were respectfull to each other. What was wrong with Bush? At times he seemed he did'nt know where he was at. Kerry won the debate but it still bothers me that he don't explain his plan(how he is going to do certain things) same for Bush always same lame speech stubborn stay the course. I think Kerry carry came off good when he said you can be certain and be wrong. If Bush did'nt win the debate on what he is supposely good at he could be in trouble. I think he will be better in the last debate.

Kerry won the debate
easier to understand and explaination
Bush won on likeable and believeable
That is what a poll said.

Why is Bush so likable he pisses me off just with his smurk and arrogance?

Kerry is nice talks nice to people down to earth. I understand were people don't believe Kerry he promises things with plans but don't explain.

Which Bush promised things and failed his four years.

Kerry may have won the debate but it will take more to have a chance. Bush is still in the driver seat.

Who do yaw think will win the vice-president debate?
 
N

Notepad

Guest
Kerry won, but only by a small margin. They both did waste time. Bush wasted more, and he wasted it repeating the flip-flop thing most of the time. Okay, so Kerry has done an about face, raise it, and go on...but Bush thinks folks'll forget it if he doesn't bring it up every five seconds.

Two downers for Bush:
-Interrupting part of Kerry's speaking in order to ask for time to respond to Kerry's comments.
-Mixing up Saddam and Laden in an otherwise strong point for himself. During a laundry list of his good deeds he said something to the effect of "Plus we're getting closer to catching our big enemy Saddam Hussein...er, um, I mean Osama bin Laden."

Plus, he said nu-CU-lar, I'm pretty sure. When will he finally figure out how to say it right? CNN even had to do a piece on Nuclear vs. Nucular this morning.
 

Killer Joe

New member
I thought Sen. John Kerry was very well within his element in the debate. You can tell he's done it alot of times.

Pres. Bush, however, did not look comfortable at all. But in his defense, that's not the kind of person he is, you know, scholarly. His dogged-ear determination to stick to his crystal clear and boiled downed ideas are actually his bane for this type of event. You have to have the ability to expand, improvise and intrigue an intellectual audience. One-line campaign quotes don't cut it. He's a very passionate person and when he's pissed he doesn't hide it but so are most non-educated people in this country and THATS' who is supporters are. They say BUSH won the debate but they would've said that even if he picked up the podium and threw it at Kerry (which I'm sure that's why they had the 10 ft. distance between them :)).

I'm voting Democrat anyway and this debate had no bearing on me. I'm a centrist (always have been), I don't like welfare for the uninitiated, and I don't like higher taxes for that reason. I'd rather pay higher taxes for things like Education, Rehabilitation programs and strengthening of our military. In fact, I'm not that big of a Kerry fan. If Hillary Clinton would be running, she'd have the election in the bag already.
 
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Chaos Turtle

Guest
Thanks for replying. I realize this is obviously an unscientific poll and that there probably wouldn't be any "qualified" debate judges posting...not that what was televised was really a "debate" at all. I was just curious about first impressions, and frankly looking forward to some entertainment from some of the right-wingers (who seem to have grown curiously silent here recently) spinning the results in favor of their President. On that last count I have so far been disappointed. ;)

Senator Kerry did leave me bewildered a couple of times. His emphatic "No" in response to Jim Lehrer's question about whether he believed soldiers were "dying for a mistake" seemed to contradict his previous assertion that the execution of the war was in fact a mistake. But generally -- and refreshingly -- he managed to be both clear and concise (for him) in his responses.

The President, on the other hand, annoyed me by repeating some of his replies almost verbatim to different questions, on a couple of occasions not even answering on-topic. I got a good laugh when he interrupted the end of one Kerry's responses -- prompting Mr. Lehrer to grant an extention to the discussion -- then stood silent for several seconds, apparently trying to remember just what the hell it was he had wanted to say.

Overall, I'd have to say that to my surprise, John Kerry walked away with this one. He did not win overwhelmingly, but handily.
 
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