Saw Tim Russert on the Today show this morning, repeating the conventional media wisdom that John Kerry is not as likeable, not as able to connect with the common man as George Bush.
Tim has a better chance to know than most all of the voters out there, since he's met Kerry on numerous occasions. But who knows what he took away from that experience, since he just repeated the conventional lines. Far be it from Tim to introduce any contrary information like the Newsweek poll that shows Kerry more likeable after the first debate.
In any case, this narrative should be good for Kerry. No man can possibly be as wooden and aloof and arrogant and like Thurston Howell III, as Kerry has been made out to be. If Kerry can show a good command of the issues, and just be a reasonably, friendly human being, the post-debate narrative might well be how Kerry suprisised by connecting with the audience. On the other hand, even after his podium-hugging, face-making free-fall last week, the president has nowhere to go but down, since most of the talk is how Bush is likely to do better in this setting.
Perhaps the best thing I learned was that Bush is comfortable delivering his speech while wandering about. So he can walk and talk at the same time ... Better than Gerald Ford, I suppose.
Posted by robe0419 at October 8, 2004 12:07 PM | TrackBackI was just curious if you've seen the article on Salon about the possibility that Bush was wearing some sort of radio device connected to his earpiece. They have a photograph which is not totally convincing, but they also use it to account for his long pauses, and well, its a long article. Just wondering if you've seen it, what you thought about it. http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2004/10/08/bulge/index.html
Posted by: Tim at October 8, 2004 02:00 PM