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October 1, 2004

Killing Him on Topicality; Close on Speaker Points

That's how you debate!

For all the hours and effort that I put into the speech and debate
team in high school, I really should have a more complex and nuanced
set of opinions in re: last night's presidential debate. In my defense,
I'll argue that said encounter was really only occasionally a debate, and
was more an exercise in two people taking turns giving speeches.
And that's fine. This is the paradigm, and it's not a bad paradigm --
the American people get to hear both candidates articulate their
positions on a number of topics, and the electorate walks away more
informed.

Apologies aside, here were my big takeaways from the debate:

Red Is Blue And Blue Is Red: how cool was it that Dubya wore a
BLUE tie while Kerry wore a RED tie. That is, the RED-state dude
wore BLUE, and the BLUE-state dude wore RED! (Or was it the other
way around, with the REDs and the BLUEs? You are getting verrrrrrrry
sleepy....) Do you think they talked about it beforehand? Was this
one of the things that was negotiated by the respective camps? Will
they switch colors next time? The tension is almost too much to take.

HUGE Blown Opportunity To Talk About Football: as important as
foreign policy and domestic security surely are to the future of
America, I would venture a guess that more Americans know the
spread on the Eagles - Bears game than can name the US Ambassador
to the United Nations. People like their football. And playing opposite
the debate was ESPN Thursday Night College Football, showing none
other than the NAVAL ACADEMY against the AIR FORCE ACADEMY.
That is, the branch of the service to which John Kerry belonged
against the branch of the service to which George Bush belonged. It
was almost too good! And both teams were running ridiculous
triple-option gadget offenses no less (talk about misleading language!).
And yet not a word from either candidate on the topic. In all
fairness, neither candidate actually went to either of the service
academies, so the connections aren't quite as strong as they could be.
But I'm sure we would have heard something if the Yale
Whiffenpoodles were in an a capella cage match against the Alley Cats.

We'll Take the Crappy One First: tough gig for Dubya last night.
Ninety minutes of foreign policy and homeland security means ninety
minutes of taking crap for all the bad decisions he's made. Such is the
burden of being the incumbent -- the election tends to be a
referendum on what you've done, rather than a comparison of what
you and the other guy might do. It would take a severely
brainwashed Bushie to argue that mistakes haven't been made in re:
Iraq. People are dying every day, the situation seems to be getting
worse, and it doesn't look like there's an easy way to extricate
ourselves or our troops. Pretty bad. Almost all Bush's fault. Kerry did
a pretty good job of explaining why this is a mistake and how he
would handle things differently. He made a compelling case for
reestablishing America as a good global citizen and leader (though I
actually don't imagine that being a good global citizen resonates with a
lot of people -- SIGH). He pointed out the President's failures, and
called him out on the misinformation that had been offered to the
American public. But I didn't think he really creamed him the way he
could have. The thing about Bush is that he actually believes what
he's selling: that Saddam Hussein is a bad guy who needed to be
taken down; that no one will look out for the US's interests like the
US; that the US is actually making the world a safer place. And I think
Dubya's message made sense, if you're the sort of person inclined to
believe it. It's at least internally consistent (though arguably factually
wrong and potentially disastrous). Kerry made a lot of sense to me.
Seems like a smart guy, and I agree that we need a serious course
correction in foreign policy. But I really wish he did a better job selling
that vision, stylistically. Sigh. And in the grand scheme of the
election, this was the debate where Bush was most vulnerable -- not
coincidentally the FIRST ONE. That is, whatever bump Kerry will get
out of the debate, it's as far away from the election as possible. That
GOP -- always one step ahead.

The Junior Varsity: I sat through a corporate presentation for MBA
job seekers yesterday afternoon. (It's what I do: look for jobs.) I
won't name the company, but I will say that the dude giving the
presentation was pretty senior (top five in the company) at a
well-known global firm. And he was completely money. Smooth,
articulate, blazingly intelligent, charming -- sitting in the audience, it
was very clear why this guy had made it to the top. Impressive guy.
And then I watch the debate. And I think to myself, man, neither of
these dudes is half as smooth as the guy I saw this afternoon.
Granted, it's a much tougher gig to debate someone in front of 50
million people than it is to give a speech to a bunch of geeks who
desperately want a job from you. But I couldn't help but think that
the real leadership talent in America is NOT in politics. It's in corporate America making tens/ hundreds of millions of dollars. If America is ultimately about money (which it is), then it only makes sense that the best people gravitate to the most money. And there's only so much money in being the president. Thus, we get the junior varsity sending nice kids to die in far away places. Not exactly inspirational.

Posted by thatkid at October 1, 2004 11:58 AM under The Papers

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