The first presidential debate

I watched the whole debate last night, even staying on for the news analysis after. What are my impressions? It was not debate. It was a bilateral press conference. The format was weak and should not be repeated. It did not foster open discussion of issues, it instead was another opportunity for political stump speeches. I heard nothing new. Bush said Kerry was inconsistent. Kerry said Bush did not know how to win the peace (Whatever that means). It was essentially a waste of my time.

Who won?
It was a tie. After all, who wins a press conference? Of course, CNN is spinning it a 20-point Kerry win. I sure didn’t get that from what I saw last night. If anything, Kerry was a more polished public speaker, while Bush looked a little pissed off at times.

Key issues:
Korean bilateral vrs multilateral talks: Kerry seems to be going against his “get the world involved” message by saying we should go it alone. This policy really does not make any sense.

War on Terror: Kerry thinks we are doing everything wrong. Bush thinks we are doing everything right. Neither is correct. Some middle ground seems more reasonable.

War in Iraq: Kerry thinks we are losing, Bush thinks we are winning. I think we should have gone after the terrorists rather than Iraq, but now that we are there, we need to see it through to the end.