Post-Debate Thoughts

Actually, my post-debate thoughts aren't exactly about the debate, but about the post-debate spin. For one thing, the blogosphere echo-chamber is, on the left, proclaiming Kerry the hands-down winner. On the right, it's not exactly "Bush won" but more like "Kerry didn't score." I think that speaks for itself.

Meanwhile, The Daily Show was decidedly calling the debate for Kerry. Jon Stewart's interview with Rudy Guiliani was harsh on the Republicans pretty much from start to finish -- Guiliani was trying to spin it that Kerry believes the world would be better off with Saddam Hussein in power, but Stewart was having none of it. Over and over again, Stewart repeated what Kerry actually said: that the way that President Bush went about disarming Hussein was itself dangerous and inimical to American interests abroad. Giuliani didn't have a good rejoinder, but just kept repeating the mischaracterization. At the end of the interview, Stewart signed off with something to the effect of "we'll let you go now, you clearly have a lot of work to do tonight."

And finally, compared to the post-debate splash pages (page one of the website) CNN.com and Foxnews.com, MSNBC was positively glowing for Kerry. The headline on MSNBC.com was "Face Off on Iraq: Kerry Rips Handling of War; Bush Says U.S. Must Stand Firm" Off to the side, the subhead read "Democrat says Bush made 'colossal error'; president accuses Kerry of sending 'mixed messages' to troops, allies." (And yes, "president" was not capitalized on the site.) By contrast, CNN and Fox News were tame: CNN had "The Debates: Highlighting the Differences" (no subhead), while Fox had "Bush, Kerry Spar on Iraq", with a subhead that read "At first debate in Florida, candidates argue differences over the War on Terror". Fox News. Tame. Imagine that.