Along with perhaps 60 million others, I watched the first presidential debate of 2004. It was great to hear both candidates forced to express themselves a little differently than they do in speeches and commercials.

The format was better than I expected after reading about the 30+ page agreement between the candidates that made it sound like we wouldn’t know they were in the same city. Instead, they did interact and we did get to see them reacting to each other. Camera angles of Kerry reacting to Bush showed him attentive and alert, sometimes smiling, even conceding a point to Bush. Reaction shots of Bush showed him grimacing or smarmy and fed-up.

Each candidate challenged the other on certain matters. Bush seemed a bit more desperate to make his point. Bush repeated himself quite a bit with “mixed messages,” “harm’s way” and “it’s hard work” said over and over again.

Kerry: “Certainty can get you in trouble.”
Bush: “We’ve climbed the mighty mountain. I see the valley below.”

I thought Jim Lehrer did a great job of posing challenging questions and seeming completely without his own agenda. Bravo.

I went to bed dreading what the Republican Media Monster would do during the night to distort this event. mjh

Footnote: at one point, I turned the radio on and was shocked to discover the TV was a few words behind radio — there was a distinct, constant delay between the two. Why?