Alright gentle readers, the last Kerry-Bush exchange of talking points has begun. And at this point I would like to mention that I, too, have a plan - and I will even talk about its specificties: I will try to occasionally update this post with my impressions - as this is what really matters ;). Nick Barlow is blogging the event over on his nicely redesigned blog “What you can get away with“.
Update: Do they really discuss whether homosexuality is a choice? I am not sure that politics is the appropriate place to decide this question. Of course, this has a rallying issue for Bush and one that clearly corners Kerry. Interestingly, Kerry somehow tries to get out of offending anybody by making roughly the same point Mr Buttiglione made in the European Parliament a couple of days ago (personal opinion vs. public action). Let me just say to this argument that law is evidently much more than reason without passion.
Update: It seems the candidates are sticking to the subject agreed on. Only the first exchange was related to Mess-O-potamia.
Update: Bush: “Our health-care system is the envy of the world?” Which world is he talking about?
Update: If as many voters in the US as in Germany are able to understand the subtleties of pension system reform schemes, a lot of them will have switched to baseball by now. Kerry’s body language is energetic, Bush is always smirking. But he’s not as bad as I expected he would be. That must mean he won the expectation game.
Update: Border control? Kerry doesn’t know the borders? Much more equipment there? Not sure if it’s correct, but I saw a documentary on US border controls in Oregon (quite a long stretch of pacific coast) recently. It was one guy and his car… But surely, what the US needs is databasing fingerprints of European visitors and students.
Update: Minimum wage issue. Kerry makes some valid point that raising it (from current US levels) would not reduce employment. It’s always a tough call, but I think as productivity is often so hard to measure, I think he’s essentially right, but I haven’t really followed the US debate on this. Bush is getting somewhat more aggresive and changes the issue more often.
Update: Nice. Kerry using Bush rethoric: You measure by whether you get the job done. Bush smirks as always. Did he get a botox injection?
Update: 4:06 CET, Iraq is back on the agenda. Kerry, we’re overextended, let’s ask Peter Struck for a hand. Bush: It would be best if we succeeded in Iraq. Now really? Kerry rephrases the “Global Test” to “truth standard”. Not bad.
Update: Great Bushism: “The international world”
Update: Second Amendment (right to carry a weapon). This is the American Foxhunting issue, only with bullets. I think the best summary of the issue comes from Ainsley Hayes of “The West Wing”. It’s not just that many Democrats don’t like guns. They don’t like people who like guns. Is this debate going anywhere, ever? Probably not. And certainly not tonight.
Update: Given the political importance of organised religion in the US, particularly evangelical Christians, I am not sure the way both candidates answer to the “importance of religion in your decisions” was sufficient. But Kerry for one mentioned the right not to worship. But then he’s the most liberal everything after all.
Update: Bring the nation together? Bring evangelicals from the Bible Belt to participate in the annual San Francisco Masturbate-A-Thon? Somehow I think it might be easier to “win the war on terror”, and I’m not even sure what that means.
Update: Republican spin preview: Why was Sen. Kerry’s dying mum’s last advice to his son: integrity, integrity, integrity? Did she have reason to doubt it? Was she concerned he might be a flip-flopper?
Update: Final statement John Kerry: the world hates us because of the guy at the other podium. that’s easy to fix. Oh, and I’ll be a better president, too. Because I have a plan.
Update: Bush final statement: We’ll continue to do the great job we have begun. I’m optimistic that we’ll win the war on terror even though I’m no longer too concerned with Osama Bin Laden.
And now… open the curtain to the last, and probably most undignified spin-spectacle of this electoral campaign.
Update: Alright. Kerry wins again. Bush was defensive for most of the time, looked stressed, even botoxed as I mentioned above, and tried to save the day by reciting numbers in the same way he recited the names of some foreign policitians in the first debate.
Update: German ZDF’s correspondent Eberhard Pilz also calls the debate decisively for Kerry. Back on CNN Karen Hughes talks to wolf Blitzer. She should be on the Republican ticket, she is able to speak. But she doesn’t have a lot to work with tonight - she’s stuck with Bush’s ability to emotionally reach out (or something like that). Mary Beth Cahill from Kerry’s campaign knows her candidate won and that Bush was on the defensive and did not break Kerry’s debate momentum.
Last Update: CNN has convened a panel of voters in Ohio and is dealing with a mystery. How can anyone at this point be alive and at the same time undecided with respect to the upcoming presidential election? Maybe it’s because CNNs pundits are trying to avoid answers on “who won” so they don’t look stupid until they have checked the blogs later on. You can’t be on tv and read your blogs at the same time. But they, too, say “Kerry looked strong”. I say Kerry won, and actually got himself a fair chance to become the next President - it’s up to the marginal voter now and she won’t speak for a while. Thus, gentle readers, I conclude tonight’s afoe’s live coverage of the third US presidential debate.
Feed: A Fistful of Euros