The Second Presidential Debate

Posted on October 10, 2004

Meh.

A draw. Bush did better than he did in the first debate, but that’s not exactly a high bar to clear. Kerry turned in another good showing, but missed some opportunities to deal Bush a knockout blow.

The big story is that Kerry is increasingly looking and sounding Presidential in these things — more so than Bush. That’s going to reassure a lot of swing voters who are dissatisfied with the way things are going but who are scared that Kerry’s not up to the job. Bush’s whole strategy so far has been to convince voters that Kerry is, in the words of the Swift Boat Liars, “Unfit for Command” — and that’s an assertion that is seeming more hollow each time the two men meet in debate.

It’ll be interesting to see what Bush & Rove come up with to try and seize back the initiative in the next couple of weeks.