The New Hampshire Debate - Good article by William Saletan (slate)

[Bombtrack]

http://slate.msn.com/id/2092286/

1. Ted Offensive. This was Ted Koppel's worst performance as a moderator. You can forgive him for experimenting with a couple of questions about the horse race. But when the experiment failed and he persisted, that's on him. When he asked inside-baseball questions and got substantive answers instead, he chided the candidates for failing to stoop to his level. First he asked John Kerry why Howard Dean couldn't beat President Bush. Kerry talked instead about why he would make the best president. Koppel then turned to Dick Gephardt and said, "I'm not really asking you—at least, I wasn't then—whether you think you're the better candidate. I was simply asking you whether you thought that Howard Dean could beat George W. Bush." Later, Koppel asked Carol Moseley Braun whether Al Gore's endorsement of Dean would make blacks loyal to Dean. Braun talked instead about what Democrats should stand for. Koppel then said, "Sen. Edwards, what I was trying to get to with Ambassador Braun was whether loyalty can, in any way, be transferred by an endorsement." Edwards wisely ignored the question as well.

<snip>

5. Dean's whoppers. Armed with Gore's endorsement, Dean looked confident and relaxed. He smiled at himself after a verbal slip. He looked down at his podium studiously and took notes while others criticized him, instead of staring dumbly ahead, as he did in previous debates. His most interesting line was a complaint that Bush "personalizes policy difference, and that is a fatal mistake when you're running … a state or a country." Isn't Dean famous for personalizing policy differences? Dean's problem is that his fibs are increasingly conspicuous. He accused Koppel of spending the debate's first 75 minutes on Iraq, a statement whose falsity was obvious to anyone who had watched from the beginning. Dean also blamed Fox News for having prompted him to talk about the "theory" that Bush had been warned beforehand about 9/11, when in fact Dean had broached that idea on NPR's Diane Rehm Show. Memo to Dean: Clean up your accuracy, or you'll go the way of the guy who just endorsed you.

<snip>

7. Feel the love. For whatever reason—debate fatigue, Dean's inevitability, Koppel's irksome questions, the Christmas spirit—the candidates were unusually kind to each other. Kerry praised Lieberman's loyalty and expressed surprise that Gore hadn't reciprocated it. Gephardt said all the Democrats were united against Bush. Dean said Edwards was right about something. Kerry said Dean was right about something else. Dean clapped and smiled at Kerry's rebuke of Koppel. Kerry effused, "I love John Edwards." Edwards credited Gephardt with bringing up an important issue. Gephardt nodded as Edwards spoke. Edwards said Dean was right about something. Clark said Dean was right about something else. Maybe this was what Koppel hoped to accomplish by annoying them all. That's what I'd be saying in the spin room, if I were him.

[papau]

1. When Saletan notes Bush lies - or says Bush fibs - we pay attention

Until then he can take is lying double standard knee padded article and stuff it where the sun don't shine.

"Dean's problem is that his fibs are increasingly conspicuous."

Of course that is just my opinion. No hard feelings, Bill!

:-)

[arendt]

2. Saletan is another "good cop"

> Kerry praised Lieberman's loyalty and expressed surprise that Gore hadn't
> reciprocated it.

You call this a good story?

Lieberman was disloyal to Gore, he sandbagged him in Florida
and has distanced himself since.

This sentence is a lie, as are many others. Saletan is another
"good cop" in the corporate "good cop, bad cap" racket.

Don't trust him

arendt

[blm]

3. I always take Saletan with a grain.

He's far too mocking even when he is right.