I don’t know about you, but I’m glad our president is from a state like Texas. I’ve read numerous accounts of George Bush’s “swagger.” In my opinion, this is something only an insecure man would have a problem with. After all, why would a real man begrudge another man’s swagger?
That’s what I was thinking about when I read Paul Krugman’s column in the New York Times (reg. req.). He writes:
Let’s face it: whatever happens in Thursday’s debate, cable news will proclaim President Bush the winner. This will reflect the political bias so evident during the party conventions. It will also reflect the undoubted fact that Mr. Bush does a pretty good Clint Eastwood imitation.
But what will the print media do? Let’s hope they don’t do what they did four years ago.
Interviews with focus groups just after the first 2000 debate showed Al Gore with a slight edge. Post-debate analysis should have widened that edge. After all, during the debate, Mr. Bush told one whopper after another — about his budget plans, about his prescription drug proposal and more. The fact-checking in the next day’s papers should have been devastating.
I don’t know about the “Bush lied” routine, but Krugman sounds a little envious because he knows his guy is an elitist patrician from New England who can’t possibly match Bush in manliness, at least in the opinion of the American people (and me). I’m a little suspicious of a man who whines about the potency of another man’s attributes.
Krugman scribbles on about “body language” becoming the deciding factor in who’ll win the debate between Bush and Kerry. Remember one of the debates in 2000 where Gore walked up to Bush and stood practically in his face, and Bush looked him up and down and nodded “Hello”, and the audience laughed? I hope John Kerry does that, too.
The liberal is psyching himself up for “cable news” declaring Bush the winner. If he’s talking about FOX, maybe, but other channels? CNN?
So Krugman rambles on about the “unnecessary war” in Iraq. He knows Kerry is unpopular, even among the people who plan to vote for him, so he’s preparing himself for the inevitable criticism of the New Englander’s stiff performance.
In an effort to be “fair and unbiased”, I’ll listen to the debate on the radio. I wouldn’t want George Bush’s “swagger” to distract me and remind me how glad I am he’s running the country.
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Bush on Kerry’s flip flops on the war in Iraq: “He could probably spend 90 minutes debating himself.”
Myster Pollster (there are all sorts of bloggers out here!) has a pre-debate poll analysis.
See a pre-debate poll analysis at Mystery Pollster.
