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Who Won?
 In
the first presidential debate, Senator John Kerry’s poise and
aplomb left President George W. Bush diminished.  Even Bush’s supporters found his trite and repetitious
performance embarrassing.
Kerry earned French accolades:
He was suave, with savoir-faire and politesse. Bush avoided any fatal
gaffe, but he was a bit gauche, always seeming on the verge of a faux pas.
He seemed tense, annoyed, peevish.
Kerry nicely blended criticism
with courtesy, establishing his superiority without sinking to disrespect.
He scored powerful points on the Iraq war that Bush was unable to answer
— chiefly, that it was not Saddam Hussein but Osama bin Laden who
attacked the United States. Saddam was plainly incapable of attacking us.
And having started an unnecessary war, Kerry added, Bush had no plan for
following through. Kerry even cited Bush’s father’s prescient
reasons against occupying Iraq in 1991, and the present mess can be
blamed on the son’s refusal to listen.
That sums it up well. Kerry
should have kept hammering at it. Instead, he inexplicably turned to the
false assertion that American presidents have “always” had
the right to wage preemptive war, which amounts to endorsing one of
Bush’s most flagrantly unconstitutional innovations. A U.S. senator
should know that Congress, not the president, is supposed to declare war.
Bush also scored a strong point,
but failed to exploit it. He asked how Kerry thinks he can enlist
international support for a war he has already told the world is futile.
Good question. “Please come into our quagmire and help us”
— will that bring Europe rushing to our rescue?
One justification Bush offered
for the war was this: “A free Iraq will help secure Israel.”
Does he know what country he’s responsible for? Kerry likewise promised to finish the war properly because “it’s important to Israel, it’s important to America, it’s important to the world.”
![[Breaker quote: Assessing the first debate]](2004breakers/041004.gif) Presidential
debates, unlike high-school debates, aren’t
won by cogency alone; small, seemingly casual gestures may win more
votes than logic. Kerry made veiled references to his military experience:
“I know what it’s like to go out on one of those missions
where you don’t know what’s around the corner.”
“I know what it means to lose people in combat.” (Bush
countered with “I understand what it means to be the commander in
chief.”)
One issue that separated the
candidates, in an odd way, was hurricanes. Since the debate was in Miami,
both opened with expressions of sympathy for battered Florida, each in his
own style. Kerry said, “Our hearts go out to you, and we admire your
pluck and perseverance.” But Bush topped him, saying that
“our prayers are with the good people of this state” — a
subtle appeal to religious voters. Message: I pray.
Later Bush recalled consoling the
widow of a soldier who had died in Iraq: “I told her, after we prayed
and teared up and laughed some, that I thought her husband’s
sacrifice was noble and worthy.” Another reminder of his piety.
A trifle? No. Kerry made no
gesture toward religion, even after Bush had done so twice , except for a final, perfunctory “God bless America.” Both parties
know by now that the Democrats face a “piety gap.”
Churchgoing people are more likely to vote Republican, and people who
seldom attend church tend to vote Democratic. This being a generally
religious country, the Democrats have been trying to counter their aura of
indifference, if not hostility, to religion. Yet Kerry let Bush make two
unanswered appeals to the Christian majority.
Morning-after analysis of the
debate, focused on neckties and haircuts, didn’t notice this. But
Bush’s performance can’t be properly understood or evaluated
without taking into account his sensitivity to the religious voter, and
Kerry’s lack of same. While intellectuals hear Bush’s clumsy
syntax and non sequiturs, countless voters are hearing echoes of their own
religious lives, to which secularized commentators are deaf.
The purpose of these debates is
less to win arguments for their own sake than to display the
candidates’ total personalities. Voters are curious about what sort
of men they are.
Bush deftly established himself
as a man who prays; Kerry didn’t bother doing this. Kerry performed
more smoothly, but don’t be too sure he won more votes.
Joseph Sobran |
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| Copyright © 2004 by the
Griffin Internet Syndicate, a division of Griffin Communications This column may not be reprinted in print or Internet publications without express permission of Griffin Internet Syndicate 
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