Don't mention the war

I'm still trying to download a video of the U.S. presidential debate. I had little interest in it beforehand, largely because it seemed as though the whole affair had been carefully constructed to prevent any form of meaningful dialogue taking place. In the end, though, it appears most of the rules (some thirty pages of them!) were quickly discarded and the result appears to have been something worth taking notice of. Assuming I can ever get hold of the thing.

Even not having yet watched it, it does appear, by most accounts, that Kerry has finally emerged from the flurry of negative press that the Bush campaign has spent so many months whipping up (whether he'll once more be submerged under it is another question). It's almost frightening just effective that press was - I'm already sick of the phrase "flip-flop" and I don't even live in the country. Still, I can't help wonder if the Bush campaign's relentless negative strategy will now backfire. Having spent tens of millions of dollars trying to paint Kerry as an ineffectual, indecisive intellectual (but does he like green eggs and ham?) , the public has finally got to Kerry for themselves, and what they're seeing is not tallying with what they've been told to see.

I'm not yet convinced by Kerry as a candidate, but I've despaired of Bush long enough. Many people have jested that Kerry's only distinctive trait is that he is not Bush. It's not probably not an ideal foundation on which to build an election campaign, but quite frankly it's enough to sell me on him. Failing that, where do I sign up to get my "Hillary 2008" badge?

Various sound bites from the debate have been making the headlines, even over here, but without the relevant context most of these are little more than bluster. Still, a few of them were at the very least amusing, and at most rather telling:

Bush: Of course we're after Saddam Hussein -- I mean bin Laden.