[Mb-civic] The First Debate The New York Times | Editorial

[Michael Butler]

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Kerry Wins Over Some in Pennsylvania    €

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    The First Debate
    The New York Times | Editorial

     Friday 01 October 2004

     If Americans who tuned into last night's presidential debate were
waiting for one of the candidates to catch the other in a fatal error, or
leave him stammering, the event was obviously a draw. But if the question
was whether Senator John Kerry would appear presidential, whether he could
present his positions clearly and succinctly and keep President Bush on the
defensive when it came to the critical issue of Iraq, Mr. Kerry delivered
the goods.

     George W. Bush is famous for fierce discipline when it comes to
sticking to a carefully honed, simple message. Last night he reiterated this
campaign message once again - that "the world is safer without Saddam
Hussein" and that things are, on the whole, going well in Iraq. The
confidence with which Mr. Bush has kept hammering home those points has
clearly had an effect in the polls, encouraging wavering voters to believe
that the president is the one who can best lead the country out of the
morass he created.

     But last night Mr. Bush sounded less convincing when he had to make his
case in the face of Mr. Kerry's withering criticism, particularly his
repeated insistence that the invasion had diverted attention from the true
center of the war on terror in Afghanistan.

     Mr. Kerry found the most effective line of argument when he told the
audience that "Iraq was not even close to the center of the war on terror"
and that the president had "rushed the war in Iraq without a plan to win the
peace." It is the strongest and most sensible critique of the
administration's actions. Of course, it left Mr. Kerry open to rejoinders by
Mr. Bush that Mr. Kerry had sounded far more warlike about Iraq in his
pre-campaign persona. That's a fair comment, and one the senator simply has
to live with in this campaign. "As the politics changed, his position
changed," Mr. Bush said.

     But when Mr. Bush jabbed at the senator with a reminder about his
infamous comment on voting for a war appropriation before he voted against
it, Mr. Kerry had finally found an effective answer. While saying he had
made a mistake in the way he had expressed himself, the senator added: "But
the president made a mistake in invading Iraq. Which is worse?"

     Both men made errors that appeared to be mainly a matter of misspeaking
under the pressure of the moment. But Mr. Kerry scored an important point
when the president made a more significant slip and talked about the need to
go to war because "the enemy attacked us." The person who sent planes
smashing into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, Mr. Kerry reminded
the audience, was Osama bin Laden, who was operating from Afghanistan, not
Saddam Hussein in Iraq.

     Meanwhile, Mr. Bush, whose body and facial language sometimes seemed
downright petulant, insisted, again and again, that by criticizing the way
the war is being run, Mr. Kerry was sending "mixed signals" that threatened
the success of the effort.

     Before last night's debate, we worried that the long list of rules
insisted on by both camps would create a stilted exchange of packaged sound
bites. But this campaign was starved for real discussion and substance. Even
a format controlled by handlers and spin doctors seemed like a breath of
fresh air.

   

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    Kerry Wins Over Some in Pennsylvania
    By James Rainey
    The Los Angeles Times

     Friday 01 October 2004
 For at least one focus group that watched the debate, the Democrat was more
'presidential' than Bush, who stumbled on answers.


    ALLENTOWN, Pa. ‹ Here at a principal skirmish line in one of America's
key battleground states, Sen. John F. Kerry became a little more
presidential Thursday evening, and President Bush was somewhat diminished ‹
at least in the eyes of the majority of the voters who watched the first
debate between the two candidates.

     About two dozen undecided voters were among 100 people who participated
in a panel at Muhlenberg College, a small liberal arts school in
Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley, a region rife with coveted swing voters.

     Those in the crowd laughed several times when Bush smirked or
stammered, and several undecided voters said afterward that they found Kerry
more articulate and decisive.

     Beth Buechler, who voted for Bush four years ago and Ronald Reagan
before that, said she had been struggling this year with her presidential
pick, in large part because she believes the U.S. has become bogged down in
Iraq.

     But at the end of Thursday's 1 1/2 -hour session, she called Kerry the
"hands down" winner and predicted that, if elected, he could make "a great
statesman."

     "I think he was very composed, very dignified and very on point," said
Buechler, a secretary at the college, where the group watched the debate on
a big-screen TV in a science lecture hall. "After listening to him, I can't
believe I was undecided. He did a great job of fleshing out every point."

     Bruce Glazier, 60, a credit analyst for a hardware store, said he was
uneasy by the president's long pauses and hesitation in answering some
questions.

     "To be laughing at your president ‹ and it wasn't that he said anything
funny ‹ that is not good," said Glazier, an independent who also came into
the room undecided. "I wonder how he comes across to the rest of the world
when he acts like thatŠ. Is he making the world laugh at him too?"

     Many in the audience agreed, however, that there had been no single
knockout punch by either candidate, and that they would watch the next
Kerry-Bush debate on Oct. 8 closely.

     Sally Sayre, a Republican from New Tripoli, said she was impressed by
Bush's plans for ending the nuclear threat from North Korea.

     "I think Bush is absolutely on the right track to engage North Korea
and China and Japan, and to work on a decision that is going to work for the
whole region," said Sayre, a high school teacher. "Kerry accuses him of not
bringing in enough allies, but he [the president] is absolutely doing it in
North Korea."

     And Mitch Keating, a 23-year-old who recently graduated from the
college, said he heard Kerry repeatedly say he had a better plan for Iraq
without outlining that plan. He said the challenger's promises of building
international alliances were hollow.

     "When Kerry is talking about Bush not having the rest of the world on
our side, he is really talking about France and Germany," said Keating, a
Republican who voted for Bush four years ago.

     "We have Great Britain and Italy and Poland and 50 other countries. We
do really have an alliance, and President Bush is right," he said.

     People in the audience instantly recorded their impressions of the
president and the senator from Massachusetts by punching their responses
into numbered keypads. The group was balanced about evenly between Democrats
and Republicans, with a smattering of independents filling out the tiered
student seating in the small lecture hall. Although the final results will
not be released until today, the preliminary findings that flashed on the
screen during the debate showed Kerry consistently scoring closer to the
"very good" rating. Bush tended to hover closer to average, and sometimes
below average.

     Chris Borick, the political science professor who arranged the focus
group, cautioned that the findings were only a snapshot in time and not an
indication of how anyone would vote.

     On virtually all of the questions, the audience scored Kerry's
responses higher than Bush's. The crowd seemed particularly impatient with
Bush, groaning audibly when he repeated several times that the rebuilding of
Iraq and rooting out of terrorism was "hard work."

     One of the biggest disparities in the audience's opinions of the two
candidates came when host Jim Lehrer of PBS asked Bush whether the war in
Iraq had been worth the cost in lost lives and billions of dollars expended.

     The president talked about how much it hurt him to have to meet with
the families of dead service members. But Kerry responded that though he
felt great compassion for the "warriors" fighting for the U.S., he wanted to
"make sure the outcome honors that nobility." He added: "The president's
plan is four words: more of the same. And I think my plan is better."

     Bush then had trouble forming his rebuttal and paused for several
seconds, drawing a loud laugh from many in the group.

     The long-range impact of the debate was hard to discern. Kerry seemed
to have established himself as a more credible candidate than he had been
going in, at least with this small crowd in one important electoral corner
of the country.

     Two other Muhlenberg students, who said they would vote for the first
time Nov. 2, were among those who said they had been undecided but would
take a harder look at Kerry now.

     Jacinda Caras, an English major from Maine, said she was impressed by
how articulate and concise Kerry was, although she still remains closer to
Bush on issues like abortion.

     Mark Grabarits, 22, who grew up in the Lehigh Valley and is now
attending law school in Delaware, also came into the evening unable to pick
between the two candidates. Although he left feeling Kerry had appeared
"presidential," the debate had not made his choice any easier.

     "I think there was good information on both sides, and I have to go
back and weigh the issues and what is more important to me," said Grabarits,
a moderate Republican who said he voted for Bush four years ago.

     "I think they would both do an excellent job in foreign policy, and it
might be the other issues that tip the scale for me. We will have to see."

     The voters met in a lecture hall at Muhlenberg College here in the
Lehigh Valley, a region with a relatively high concentration of moderate
"persuadable" voters who could tip the balance in Pennsylvania, which has 21
electoral votes.

     Bush has been working furiously to reverse his 200,000-vote loss in the
state four years ago. Most media analysts and Kerry aides cannot construct a
winning scenario for the Democrat without a victory in Pennsylvania.

     If the importance of this area needed any more emphasis, Bush provided
it when he made plans to make his first post-debate stop here. He is
scheduled to rally supporters in Allentown late this morning.

     After leading here comfortably about the time of the Democratic
National Convention in late July, Kerry saw his lead slip away and Bush
forge to a narrow advantage. Only in the last couple of weeks has the
senator regained a tiny edge in several polls.

     Once the home of German Catholic workers who toiled in the steel mills
and other heavy industries, the unemployment rate in Lehigh Valley mirrors
that in the rest of America, but voters in recent polls here have mentioned
the economy as their biggest concern ‹ even ahead of the war in Iraq.

     "Even though a lot of the macro-economic indicators are getting better
here, it takes people here a little longer to warm up to that," Borick said.
"I think that is an artifact of the rough times as industrialization faded
around here."

  

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