I saw Jimmy on the Today show this morning and I must say, I hope someone gets him some Crest White Strips for his birthday�

~~~

*ahem*

�John Kerry won the first debate and with it a shot at reinvigorating his campaign for the presidency, an ABC News poll found. . .�

�A poll of uncommitted voters. . .gave Kerry the edge. . .�

�. . .[of undecided] registered voters who watched the debate, most said Kerry did the better job and almost half said the debate made them think more favorably of Kerry. . .�

�Kerry gets edge in instant media surveys of public. . .�

�Among uncommitted voters, a CBS News poll found that 43 percent thought Kerry came out ahead while 28 percent said Bush was the winner. . .�

Personally? I thought John Kerry kicked George Bush�s ass, wiped the floor with his battered body and then stepped on his gullet on his way off the debate floor, while the rest of us laughed.

But, admittedly, I�m a tad biased.

So I called my Dad, a died-in-the-wool Republican who has never voted for a Democrat for president (although he�s not voting for Bush come November. I don�t know if he�ll vote for John Kerry, but he�s not voting for Bush). He said he thought John Kerry won the debate, but didn�t think either one of them were very impressive. The Little Big Man, who straddles the fence politically, basically said the same thing (as convincing as I can be, LBM just doesn�t see the inherent logic in voting the way I tell him to vote. Dammit.).

It should be noted, though, that neither of them watched the entire debate. My dad switched to the Angel game and the LBM watched while he was working out.

(I have the theme song from the old �C&H, Pure Cane Sugar, from Hawaii. . .� commercials running through my mind. WTF?)

I was happy for John Kerry. I thought he did a great job over-all (much better than I�ve seen him do before), and I expect he will do even better in the next debate. He was calm, cool, collected, strong, thoughtful and intelligent. He spoke plainly and pointedly about what his real positions and plans are. No, he didn�t have time to go into great detail about his plans for Iraq, but who are these numb nuts who expected him to be able to do so in a ninety second answer and a thirty second follow-up? Go to johnkerry.com, like he said to, to read the complete details of his plan for Iraq. He did say a lot more than ever before and he said it in a straightforward manner, unlike his past pattern.

I thought Bush came off as a whiney baby-man who fidgeted and drank a lot of water out of nervousness. And I mean � if you�re confident in your actions and ideas, why would you be nervous at all?

I think he must have run straight for the urinal after the debate was over, too, after inhaling all of that water.

And he said �It�s a hard job� about eight thousand times. And said the words �wavered� and �mixed messages� (or "mexed missages") another six thousand. That was pretty much the extent of his vocabulary (side note: although he apparently figured out how to pronounce the word �terror�, he still says �nucular�).

Did he not have anyone assisting him with what he should say and how? Because he was seriously less than impressive and not in the least Presidential. Mostly, he just stood there stammering, making strained faces and trying to figure out the English language.

I loved how they showed the debate (at least on CSPAN) in that split-screen format, so you could watch both of them at all times, and see their reactions to what one another said. Their reactions spoke volumes.

I loved that Kerry came right out and said that Bush was �less than candid� when giving us all his reasons for going to war in Iraq. I loved that Kerry said flat out that we neglected to do a complete job with Ossama bin Laden and Al Qaeda, because we rushed to war in Iraq instead. I loved that Kerry talked about Halliburton sweetheart deals. I loved that Kerry talked about how we have dropped the ball in not securing nuclear materials in the former Soviet Union. I loved that Kerry pointed out that there were 20-45 countries farther along in acquiring or building weapons of mass destruction at the time we invaded Iraq, and yet we invaded Iraq instead. I loved that Kerry had ample opportunity to explain just why he voted initially to support military action, then voted against additional funding once he figured out Bush was making a mess of the whole thing and that he�d lied to us about the reasons we were there.

I especially loved the following:

KERRY: Jim, the president just said something extraordinarily revealing and frankly very important in this debate. In answer to your question about Iraq and sending people into Iraq, he just said, "The enemy attacked us."

Saddam Hussein didn't attack us. Osama bin Laden attacked us. al Qaeda attacked us. And when we had Osama bin Laden cornered in the mountains of Tora Bora, 1,000 of his cohorts with him in those mountains. With the American military forces nearby and in the field, we didn't use the best trained troops in the world to go kill the world's number one criminal and terrorist.

They outsourced the job to Afghan warlords, who only a week earlier had been on the other side fighting against us, neither of whom trusted each other.

That's the enemy that attacked us. That's the enemy that was allowed to walk out of those mountains. That's the enemy that is now in 60 countries, with stronger recruits.

He also said Saddam Hussein would have been stronger. That is just factually incorrect. Two-thirds of the country was a no-fly zone when we started this war. We would have had sanctions. We would have had the U.N. inspectors. Saddam Hussein would have been continually weakening.

If the president had shown the patience to go through another round of resolution, to sit down with those leaders, say, "What do you need, what do you need now, how much more will it take to get you to join us?" we'd be in a stronger place today.

If you didn�t watch the debate, you can find a transcript here.

~~~

Word of the Day for Friday October 1, 2004

enunciate ee-NUN-see-ayt; ih-, transitive verb:
1. To utter articulately; to pronounce.
2. To state or set forth precisely or systematically.
3. To announce; to proclaim; to declare.

intransitive verb:
To utter words or syllables articulately.

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