The sickness continues. Anna and I watched the second installment of the presidential debates. This time, there was some actual direct exchange (thus the elimination of the quotes in the title) between the candidates, though it still fell short of an actual debate.
Everyone was playing the expectation game: giving low expectations for Kerry, high expectations for Bush; that for Bush this was a "make or break" moment; and other sorts of hooha. And the spin afterwards was a bunch of deep doodoo. I watched NBC and the ex-Mrs. Prez was so over the top it was mindboggling. I'm sure Kerry supporters thought he won the debate, but Ms. Clinton was so unequivocal in her view that Kerry dominated (her word) the debate, one wonders if she's gone off her meds. That being said, it's clear that not even Sen. Clinton believed her own blathering. Her delivery of her evaluation of the debate was flat and lifeless. She seemed rather bored.
Now Kerry did land a few good ones, particularly on domestic policy, assertions that Bush did not directly respond to: the funding of the No Child Left Behind Act, the loss of health care for many millions, the net job loss during this administration thus far, and so forth. But he also did little more than repeat the same old mantras from last Thursday. Cheney had put to rest the notion of $200 billion for Iraq on Tuesday night, but there Kerry was mindlessing putting it out there again. Last presidential debate, the more Bush talked about how hard the work is, I wanted to throw things at the TV. Last night, the more Kerry said "I have a plan" I wanted to throw the TV out the window. Enough with "the plan" already, Senator. What the frick-frack is your plan? Oh, sure, I know he has a website we can all go to, but he should give us one or two examples. Bush did (note to self: when your opponent is giving details of your own plan, it's not a good thing). Kerry said Bush was mistaken on those details, but then never gave the actual details.
In short,