Conservatives Sour on Bush Performance
By Byron LaMasters
From the National Review:
ABC INSTANT VIEWER POLL [John Hillen]
Kerry 45
Bush 36
Draw 17
[...]
TONIGHT'S WINNER [Andrew Stuttaford]
John, that's dead on. Over at Joe Scarborough is saying Kerry wins on points. I think that's right.
[...]
"TONIGHT HE SEEMED TO FIND HIS VOICE" [Ramesh Ponnuru]
Russert on Kerry.
[...]
DEBATE BOTTOM LINES [John Derbyshire]
John Kerry plus: He does not come across as arrogant and obnoxious as we believe him to be.
[...]
George W. Bush minus: The President is a dismally poor public speaker.
From Daniel Drezner:
After an awful start, I thought Kerry and Bush got stronger as the evening wore on. But Kerry got much stronger -- his criticisms of Bush got sharper over time.
Instapundit:
WRAPUP: Both closing statements were pretty good. Overall, while neither of these guys is an especially good orator (or maybe because neither is an especially good orator) it was a more substantive debate than I had expected.
Kerry was tougher than I had expected [...]
Bush started off weak, got better as it went on, and finished well ("the transformative power of liberty").
Posted by Byron LaMasters at September 30, 2004 10:29 PM
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I gotta wonder if these guys watched the same debate. If getting frustrated and annoyed and just repeating the same answer you had to a totally different question is getting stronger, then Bush won.
If staying poised, on-message and answered the questions asked, then Kerry kicked his ass.
