Debate #1: Kerry's problem, Bush's idiocy on display

The bar where I watched the debate, Millie and Als in Adams Morgan, erupted in laughter and applause last night when Bush yet again mixed up Sadaam Hussein with Osama bin Laden. Granted, the crowd was pretty much 99% pro-Kerry (with the obligitory lone Bush wack-o screaming "you voted for it!!!" at the screen whenever Kerry brought up Iraq), but all bias aside, the consensus was that Kerry won this round easily.

Bush often had that "we just got attacked but I'm reading to school kids" look of dumbfounded uncertainty whenever he was forced to make an unscripted response to one of Kerry's assertions. The answer he came up with, time and time again, was the one Karl "Evil Personified" Rove scribbled down for him to say whenever he didn't know what to say: "Mixed signals. Wrong war, wrong time." Bush obviously cannot think on his feet (some would say or anywhere else, for that matter), and when he tries to, it makes you wonder what the hell anyone who votes for this moron is thinking.

But then he gets onto one of his prepared speeches, and you find out how he gets all the yokels to vote for him. He turns on the "good ol' boy" factor. Leaning over the podium and delivering his lines with a smart-ass tone that basically implies "Jesus, this is so obvious, how can my opponent, THAT ELITE LIBERAL, not understand us?" The "us," of course, being the under-educated, over-religioned masses that buy into his bullshit hook, line, and sinker. He succeeds in portraying himself as a down-home, regular guy, which is no small feat considering that he was born a millionaire, never had to work a day in his life, went to Yale, is a member of an elite fraternity, and didn't have the guts to show up to his military service.

And that's Kerry's problem, in a nutshell. He's obviously head-and-shoulders above Bush in intelligence, intellect, and honor, but while Bush can cover up his priviliged past with a bullshit "country" persona, Kerry just comes across as richer, smarter, and more inside the Beltway than you or me. Not good when you're trying to get the Joe Schmoe vote. (Actually, Schmoe is a Jewish name, so Kerry's probably got his vote....er, maybe the Billie-Bob Adkins vote? Whatever, you get the picture.)

That said, I hope Billie-Bob and all his buddies come to the correct conclusion that the reason they lost their good job at the call center and have no income or health insurance is due in large part to Bush's economic policies before November. Hope against hope, I know.

Best Kerry line of the night: "We could've caught bin Laden at Tora Bora if we'd have used U.S. troops, but Bush outsourced that job too."