President on Stage

 

I had planned to write about it on the night of the debate, feeling almost obliged, as a political commentator, to say something about the massively pre-publicized event. But the noise was simply too loud and I wanted my meal to settle, literally.

Because I saw the debate at my friend Katherine’s house after helping her to prepare and consume a fine repast before sitting down with other friends to watch the show on tape a half-hour after the event was over. This was particularly useful because we could pause the tape and comment on what we’d seen.

Overall, despite the non-debate format, we found the ninety minutes very exciting. America saw a clear choice.

Kerry did exceptionally well, though it shouldn’t have been a surprise to those who have been watching him closely over the years. After all, he was captain of the Yale debating team. More to the point, he knew his stuff and he spoke effectively.

The Bush Boy, on the other hand, did exceptionally badly. He proved that there are limits to how he can be programmed and those limits are severe. He might have won had he appeared serene and humbly confident but that was less likely than sending Tammy Faye Bakker before cameras without makeup.

Most significant to me in the coverage was the fact that the right-wing bloggers were going nuts from the get-go, owning up to how their candidate was blowing it from the opening bell. Conservative commentators followed, clearly discouraged about the performance of their weak-minded, venal president.

We watched on CSPAN which showed us the two candidates in split-screen. The balanced the shots with the top of the candidates heads instead of using the podium as the bottom of the frame. The close-up shots of Bush were very telling; he’s a small man in so many ways.

This debate, watched by more than 60 million, may be viewed as the turning point in the campaign. John Kerry showed America, on both an intellectual and visceral level, that he is presidential in stature and character, much more so than the man with whom he shared the stage.

And that’s SetonnoteS...I’m Tony Seton.

 

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