There Is No Cat - Smirking Chimp

Thursday, September 30, 2004

Smirking Chimp

I’m sure you’ve heard about the ground rules for the "debate" tonight, including the one that no reaction shots are allowed. I just spun through the various channels showing the program, and C-SPAN appears to be the only network not adhering to that agreement. It’s running the debate as a split screen, with Kerry on one side and Dubya on the other. And seeing his reactions to Kerry’s answer to the first question, I can understand why Dubya’s campaign insisted on this provision. Only the people watching C-SPAN will see his smirks when Kerry is speaking. Kerry seems to be concentrating on what Bush is saying, writing notes and such. Dubya looks like he’s trying to stop his underwear from binding. He really looks uncomfortable.

Posted at 9:10 PM

Comments

Looks like ABC is starting to do the same. Bush looks like a deer with his eyes caught in the headlights.

Posted by ralph at 9:13 PM, September 30, 2004 [Link]

I was thinking that he was looking *pissed* for a good portion of it.

The moment when Bush stared at the camera saying nothing though, that was priceless.

Posted by sis at 11:27 PM, September 30, 2004 [Link]

Yeah, that was a good one, especially since right after he begged Jim Lehrer for an extra 30 seconds to respond. You would have thought he would have had a response ready in that circumstance.

And yeah, he did look pissed. I was reading on the New York Times’ real-time commentary by Kit Seelye that one of Kerry’s objectives was to needle Dubya and irritate him. Looks to me like he succeeded. Bush looked petulant and unpresidential, and acted like Chester O’Chimp: pull his string and out comes a predefined talking point. Kerry seemed to have a firm command of the issues and seemed very presidential.

Even the wingnuts on Free Republic were saying Kerry won. I hope the Bushies aren’t able to spin their way out of this one. I saw an interview with Giuliani on The Daily Show, and he didn’t even seem to believe his talking points.

Posted by ralph at 11:38 PM, September 30, 2004 [Link]

I heard an interview on NPR with a guy who stood in as Reagan for Carter’s debate practice sessions. He said that the president is not used to be contradicted or "having bad stuff pointed out to him" because he lives in a bubble and that it was very difficult for Carter to accept what he was hearing. How much worse it must have been for Georgie boy. Be sure not to miss the brief video set to music of his obvious anguish at Democrats.com - Frustrated Face or something like that. Hilarious!

Posted by Mamacita at 11:27 AM, October 1, 2004 [Link]