Reactions to the Debate

[pegkerr]

I have been following the polling coverage after last night's debate, and it suddenly occurred to me, hey, I have a paid account! I can take my own poll! So tell me, if you are so inclined:

[Poll #359407]

Comments

[magentamn.livejournal.com]

I knew there was a debate and delibrately didn't watch it. I don't need to raise my blood pressure. Just looking at Bush makes me angry these days. I'm voting for Kerry because Minnesota seems to be a swing state this year.

[chance88088.livejournal.com]

I really wanted an option in the poll for "This is the best we've got? We're Dooooooomed!"

[tanaise.livejournal.com]

For the record, the reasons I didn't watch the debates were that a)I already knew I'd vote for Kerry, and the debate wouldn't change that and b)Bush makes me crazy and want to throw things, and the debate wouldn't change that either.

Oh, and I actually snapped at a house-mate for saying something about it being too bad Nader wasn't there. Far as I'm concerned, Nader's doing anything useful as a third party candidate such as bringing up issues that the other parties should be dealing with, he's just being a pain in the ass and should be made to sit in the corner with the last 4 years of newspapers and such and think about what he did. Over the DNC, I saw someone in the park here (where a lot of smaller protests were) holding a sign that said, "the Lesser of two evils is still evil." And I was like yeah, but that's not the point. One of my friends wanted to make a bumper sticker that said "The Lesser of Two Evils Is Still Less Evil: Kerry 04."

[trinker.livejournal.com]

Has your friend made that?

Otherwise, I'd be happy to design that and put it up at cafepress.com/politicklers

[tanaise.livejournal.com]

She hasn't, to my knowledge, so go for it. :)

[trinker.livejournal.com]

Does she want to be credited, or shall I just copyright it under politicklers?

[tanaise.livejournal.com]

I don't know. She's crowyhead on lj.

Less Of Two Evils

[huladavid.livejournal.com]

Actually, Arise bookstore is already selling bumper stickers with that quote, which I belive is from Ralph Nader.

Re: Less Of Two Evils

[tanaise.livejournal.com]

Nader has a pro-Kerry quote?

[sternel.livejournal.com]

I fell asleep about twenty minutes in (more because I was tired than it was boring), but since you don't have a choice to click for that, I'm commenting instead.

From what I'm hearing, though, it went exactly like I figured it would, and my opinion was already pretty well formed. ::shrug::

[praetorianguard.livejournal.com]

Hey! You don't have an option for those of us voting for a third-party candidate.

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

This is only the second poll I've done, and I'm discovering that they are trickier to set up than you think at first. I did mention Nadar, but not the option of voting for him.

I also think I should have included these options:

I'm a Bush supporter, and yeah, Kerry won the debate, but I'm voting for Bush anyway
I'm a Kerry supporter, and yeah, Bush won the debate, but I'm voting for Kerry anyway

[praetorianguard.livejournal.com]

*wrinkles nose at mere thought of Nader* :P

Oh, those would have been good options. Hee!

[pameladean]

Also some "other" category for watching the debate. I cannot stand to see Bush for more than ninety seconds, so I eavesdropped on a lot of live blogging, read the transcript as soon as it was up, and looked at some photos.

Pamela

[ivyblossom.livejournal.com]

How about, I don't like either of them, I'm canadian and can't vote in this election anyway, but Kerry won.

[vass]

I knew there was a debate, but I don't think the whole thing was televised here (I did suffer through, oh, five minutes of the Australian Prime-Ministerial debate) and I'll read about it in the news anyway. I went to see Alien vs Predator instead.

In Alien vs Predator, there's a scene where one of the humans suggests that since they're probably going to die anyway, and there's the rest of the world to think about, maybe they should pick the slightly less evil side, the one that probably won't destroy the whole world, and help them.

Which was at least topical.

[mizkit.livejournal.com]

But even the Aliens have a certain charm that Bush lacks...

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

I couldn't answer your first question, because neither option applied to me. I read the transcript of the debates the following morning.

B

[faithhopetricks.livejournal.com]

I'm hardly objective, but I do think Kerry won -- Bush looked just awful. Plus, for all the media hype that it was a cage match, blahblah, fake, blahblah, pointless exercise, blahblah, I thought it was actually a good way to catch both candidates and watch them speak (or in Bush's case, fumble) for themselves.

[primroseburrows.livejournal.com]

I spent the evening finishing the trek to the Dark Tower with my beloved favourite characters. I could have watched the debate, I thought about it, but the book was more compelling, and most likely more interesting.

I'm going to be voting for Kerry. I'd still rather be voting for Dean. :/

[heinous_bitca.livejournal.com]

I'm going to be voting for Kerry. I'd still rather be voting for Dean. :/

WORD.

Going to the Candidates' Debate...

[aerden.livejournal.com]

I saw some of the debates, but not the whole thing, as I was in the middle of working on something else. I'm voting for Bush. Kerry would have to do something that spectacularly impresd me, to get me to consider him, at this point.

From what I saw, the debates were about average for both sides. The debating system is so regimented and stilted in its structure now that it is really impossible to get a true impression of the candidates during them, in my opinion.

I would really like to see Bush and Kerry arguing directly with each other, though in a controlled way. I want to see what each man cares passionately about and when each man believes the other is wrong. I want to see in their words and enthusiasm, what each man believes in.

Current debate structure is just crap. Bring back the Lincoln-Douglas style, where you got to listen to some fire for several hours! (g)

Chantal

Re: Going to the Candidates' Debate...

[trinker.livejournal.com]

Would you mind if I asked you why you're voting for Bush? (Peg, if you'd rather we didn't do this here, I can move this to my journal.)

Re: Going to the Candidates' Debate...

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

I have no objection at all to discussing it here and am curious to hear the answer, myself.

Re: Going to the Candidates' Debate...

[dustybinx.livejournal.com]

I am not the above poster, but I did vote in your poll that I supported Bush. Further, I am not any good at debating an issue on my own, so posting here may be pure folly.

I am, by my nature, conservative. I always tend toward the Republican view. Contrary to most posters, I think Bush is reasonably intelligent. (No rocket scientist would take that job anyway!) I think he believes in himself and his convictions. I don't think he is saying things just to appease voters. I do think he has tried to get world-wide support for his foreign policies, and failing to win whole-hearted UN support, has chosen to act in a way he believes is best for the US. I believe he has acted on the best information available to him at the time to take the actions he has. I don't think he has always made the best decisions, however, I still feel more comfortable with Bush in general than Kerry. Honestly? Kerry scares the hell out of me.

Was that 2 cents worth?

Re: Going to the Candidates' Debate...

[aitchellsee.livejournal.com]

A colleague at work who was planning to vote for Bush was nevertheless quite impressed by the reasoning behind the recent endorsement of Kerry by John Eisenhower, son of the late president Dwight D. Eisenhower, who after 50 years of voting GOP has changed his party affiliation to Independant and is planning to vote for John Kerry next month:

http://www.theunionleader.com/articles_showa.html?article=44657

(I link it here for other loyal Republicans who may find it of interest)

HLC
(full disclosure: I myself have been a registered Democrat since about 1973 when I hit voting age)

Re: Going to the Candidates' Debate...

[aitchellsee.livejournal.com]

Also, I see the lack of a possible poll choice that would have said "I was a Kerry supporter, but I felt the debate ended in a draw" (or the converse for "I was a Bush supporter but")

HLC

Re: Going to the Candidates' Debate...

[morganmalfoy.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think just seeing them go at it would be freakin' awesome.

-M

Re: Going to the Candidates' Debate...

[primroseburrows.livejournal.com]

I just have to jump in and mention that Mrs Robinson rocks the Casbah. *loves Simon and Garfunkel* :D :D

[titanic-days.livejournal.com]

I would like an option for 'I slept through it as I am a bad bad foreigner.'

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

Yeah, as I mentioned to praetorianguard, this is only the second poll I've done and they can be trickier to set up than you think at first. minnehaha B. pointed out that he didn't watch or listen to it but read the transcript the next day; that's another option I could have included.

And as you and ivyblossom both point out, not all people reading this journal are U.S. Citizens who would have a vote anyway. Nevertheless, I'm still interested in your opinion. For one thing, I'm curious about how the world reaction to the debates differs from the U.S. reaction. I know that there were many outside the U.S. who were paying attention to them.

[perimyndith.livejournal.com]

I knew there was a debate, but opted to go to my weekly crit group instead. I'm already decided anyhow, and it's not like I need more opportunity to dislike Bush.

[averagegirl.livejournal.com]

I watched it and enjoyed it, even though I'm not able to vote this time around (by 6 days!). I'm trying hard not to lose respect for the voters who say that they didn't watch the debates because seeing Bush speak just makes them mad - that's no excuse at all.

[whapnoggin.livejournal.com]

I'm reluctant to say that anyone "won." I thought that Bush didn't come off particularly well, but I doubt that anything he did is going to affect his supporters' opinions much. Kerry was better than I expected, however.