Inspiring Words

Reactions to the debate so far have been pretty positive for Senator Kerry, somewhat less for President Bush, more or less across the board. I particularly liked what John Podhoretz had to say about the debates. I went to Newsmax (which I hate) to see what Extremist Conservatives were saying about the debate and they linked to his article, which is just inspiring.

What was important last night was the high tedium factor. It hurts Kerry. Boredom isn't going to do anything to change the dynamics of the race in Kerry's favor. As for the president, because he's leading and because he has the enthusiastic support of his Republican base, Bush needs only to reassure people between now and Nov. 2.

So tedium actually works for him in this context.

Bush wanted to make clear that he intends to win the war in Iraq and that people think of him as a strong leader. He did so by contrasting his own consistency with John Kerry's vacillations — and he did it over and over again, until even his eyes seemed to glaze over from the repetitiveness.

"So what did you think of the debate, Martha?"

"Well I really liked it when President Bush's eyes glazed over. That's the mark of a real leader, someone who gets bored repeating the same thing over and over again."

"You know you are right, the debate was so mind-numbingly boring, it really motivated me to run right out and vote for President Bush."

I don't know, it just feels like Mr. Podhoretz protests too much.