Reaction Shots

The two sides agreed to rules that ruled out reaction shots. They made the agreement public (for the first time) and Bill Moyers did a terrific piece on the debate commission and how it foils actual debate. So the networks revolted and they showed both Kerry and Bush side by side, split screen, for major parts of the debate.

We started watching on C-Span which kept both men on screen all the time, but it was too distracting. So on the merits of argument, Kerry had a good first half, and Bush had a pretty good first half. The second half was all Kerry.

But it turned out that in addition to the merits, the split screen showed GW smirking and pouting and looking like he didn't want to be there with this pesky challenger---exactly the affect that clocked his dad in a crucial debate with Clinton. Kerry wins on style, too? Who would have predicted that?

Kerry must have taken the measure of this guy, because he did one especially effective thing---he refused to be baited. Giving Bush no direct argument on "mixed messages" except to show him up, he left Bush repeating and repeating, sounding more and more hollow.

The pundits afterwards were the usual trip. Very gingerly in their evaluations until the instant poll results started to come in---Kerry winning in the ABC and CBS surveys, and in MsNBC's call-in survey that got close to a half million calls, Kerry won 70%, Bush 30%. And suddenly all the pundits were saying that Kerry clearly was the winner, and they knew exactly why.