Rick's Cafe Americain

Kerry clobbered Bush.  Kerry did much better than the first debate.  Bush did only slightly better than he did the first time.

I thought it may have been slightly Kerry, but certainly not as much as you did.  Among other things, Bush KILLED Kerry on the abortion question.

Kerry missed many more opportunities that you suggested, but I still give it to him because Bush sounded like an angry robot. He repeated the same talking points ad nauseam, but this time he did it while jumping out of his chair and almost barking right at the poor undecideds in the crowd.

Also: This was a spectacular bunch of questions.  These undecideds came in with real issues on their minds.  It was a shame that so many of their thoughtful questions were avoided.

I agree with most of what you’ve said here, Ugarte.  With the “liveblogging”, what you got was not analysis but reaction, and I’m clearly rooting for one guy to win.

However, I stand by my opinion that Kerry had the advantage on abortion.  Nobody who is pro-choice is voting for Bush, so the question was primarily relevant only to pro-lifers thinking about voting for Kerry.

I think Kerry’s initial answer was terrible, rambling, and incincere.  Bush’s answer was pure “pro-life” propaganda, pushing all the right buttons for those who are virulently anti-abortion.

But on the rebuttals, I thought Kerry made clear that his policies were to balance the life of the unborn child with the life of the mother, whereas Bush went back into robot mode, spewing “does not compute!” “Culture of Life!”.

I think few people—and very few undecideds—really object to exceptions in cases of rape, incest, or the life of the mother.  Bush’s answer suggested (to me, anyway) that he does, and so I think Bush lost more undecideds than he won over on that one.  Just my 2 cents.