It's clear that Bush places more importance on speaking to voters than speaking to any figure of his opposition. Tonight, he was relaxed and confident. No doubt about it.
While his answers were just as misleading as ever, he delivered them well. A cynic might say we're getting “more of the same” from both of them but I'm honestly pleasantly surprised to see Bush fight back without his trademark childish smirks and oratory incoherence.
He seemed to be off a beat on finishing his answers on many occasions but that really doesn't diminish the fact that he exceeded some pretty low expectations. How he bounces back from stupid mistakes and how people actually like this guy despite the facts is a mystery to me.
Perhaps people admire his disregard for anybody else's opinion. Perhaps it's his decidedly Southern style of speaking. Kerry has a more nuanced, rational argument on any given subject but Bush wins in actually connecting with others. Kerry strikes me as a professor that can't rip into the student he's talking to. Bush strikes me as the kind of guy that isn't going to strike you… for now.
Cappellini and I saw John Kerry in March here in Lake Worthless. Kerry is dynamic. He knows how to work a crowd. But Bush does also. They are both Yale punks locked in their glorified student government race. Here's the problem I have with both of them: They're both Republicrats. At the end of the day, they'll make the same choices. Perhaps Kerry will avoid blatant “we'll be greeted as liberators” nonsense. Clinton managed to get us into highly suspect military excursions but he was quite sophisticated at convincing everyone otherwise.
Bush hasn't let terrorism stop this presidential tradition and he hasn't let his inability to lie convincingly get in the way. Afghanistan was already on the docket before 9/11 because the global heroin industry needed to be saved from a theocracy. Most religions don't like drug dealing. We needed to fix that problem. Iraq is the prize. It's more than vengeance. The Bush administration actually believes they can do to Iraq what the Marshall Plan did for Japan.
Usama doesn't factor anywhere. If Gore was president, Usama still wouldn't factor. If Kerry becomes president, Usama will be forgotten on January 21st.
Until we have a government that operates with the purpose of doing the right thing, every president will be just like Bush. They'll just make you feel better than he does to you.
