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October 1, 2004
Information, Ideas, and Debates
"...The biggest need we have here is information of the right sort. When I put the U.S. Constitution (in Arabic) in the hands of the Iraqi citizen who had asked me about it previously, tears filled his eyes. He shook my hand and held onto it for a long time with his head down and then looked at me and said thank you. This is the man who two weeks ago was warned not to continue working with the Americans. The man whose wife is 5 months pregnant. He is one of the people here, desperate to learn and to influence the process of political development..." Joe Kane - Baghdad
The theme of last night's debate was foreign policy and as such the topic of Iraq was center stage. At the conclusion, my initial impression was that it was basically a draw with Bush coming out slightly ahead. Judging from reactions of friends on both sides of the political spectrum, along with the media analysis, it's clear I'm in a small minority.
Hat Tip for Quote: TIA Daily
I thought Bush got the better of Kerry on both the Iran and North Korea exchanges while he made a decent case for Iraq. Yeah Bush stammered and was not as articulate as Kerry in the process but that's what I expected.
Possibly the problem I have is that I "misunderestimate" the guy (i.e. I set a pretty low bar). The last image I have of Bush answering questions on Iraq was at a hyped press conference back in April. During this Q&A I thought he looked so bad that it made me wonder if posts like this had some credence.
The general feeling I got from people was that Kerry sounded professional and presidential. Bush the other hand:
1) was perceived as emotional (I though this would be a plus in the eyes of the viewers as it showed that, right or wrong, he has conviction in his beliefs... I was mistaken)
2) looked like he was running out of material as he kept falling back on the same lines "Wrong war, wrong place, wrong time..." and "Iraq is hard work" (I was waiting for Kerry to look him in the eyes and say: "It's not work Mr. President... this is a war.")
and 3) Bush wasn't providing enough specifics to back up his accusations
But while commentators after the debate kept referring to the fact that the candidates had just laid out a "clear choice for voters" I fail to see the difference. Neither candidate made it clear to me in how they differ from their opponent in terms of exiting Iraq. Nor did they distinguish themselves in how they would deal with future threats. Bush prefers diplomacy along with 30 some odd countries. Kerry likes the same approach but he would throw in France and Germany.
Bush got us into Iraq, but neither Kerry nor Bush is going to take a radically different approach in getting us out. What the debate did make evident was that the success of Iraq is ultimately going to be determined by brave individuals armed with ideas like those in the quote that starts this post. I'm crossing my fingers.
Posted by Peter Mork at October 1, 2004 5:24 PM
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