Did Anyone Listen To What They Said?

I watched the entire debate last night. This morning I checked around and was surprised to find that almost everyone thinks it was a draw or that Kerry won. I think they are completely wrong. Anyone who thinks Kerry won did not spend much time listening to what he actually said. Here are a few things that stuck in my mind:

• Afghanistan is the only battleground in the War on Terror
• He kept talking about "outsourcing" the hunt for OBL (mentioned this several times) but wants to "outsource" the entire Iraq effor?
• He bragged about the generals who support him
• He said we "pushed" our allies aside and continued to denigrate the allies that went with us into Iraq
• He said that weapons inspectors had "trapped" Saddam Hussein
• He claimed to know where Osama bin Laden is (Afghanistan) - How?
• He said twice that Saddam was NOT a threat; then admitted that he was
• He said you don't send troops in without body armor, yet he voted not to supply them with the aforementioned armor
• He repeatedly said we were too unilateral in Iraq, but also repeatedly said he would be MORE unilateral with North Korea and that multilateral talks were bad
• He talked about the American "occupation" of Iraq
• He implied repeatedly that our troops can't do the job alone
• He is going to get more countries to join "the wrong war, at the wrong time, in the wrong place
• He mentioned the UN several times and even quoted Kofi Annan
• He said that any pre-emptive strike by the US needed to pass the "global test"
• He said the UN inspectors were "continually weakening" Saddam
• He mentioned Vietnam way too many times as the basis for his thinking
• He thinks that to earn respect in the world you have to sign treaties, even if they are not in the best interest of the US
• He repeatedly said that part of his "plan" was to have "meetings" and "conferences" about what to do
• He said that the US should provide nuclear fuel to Iran
• He claimed the North Koreans breached the pact with the US with plutonium, when it was highly enriched uranium
• He said he had never "wilted" or "wavered" in his entire life
• He's going to shut down the US nuclear weapon development
• In response to Bush mentioning Beslan, he talked about being in Moscow at KGB HQ
• He talked about how important it is to support the troops, but gave as an example of his "integrity" how he came back from Vietnam and protested the war.
• The only "specifics" that Kerry came up with about what he would do in Iraq, were basically the same thing we ARE doing, PLUS meetings and conferences--as noted previously. THERE WAS NOT ONE ORIGINAL OR USEFUL IDEA TO COME OUT OF HIS MOUTH ON THIS TOPIC

Well, these are just a few things that I noted while listening to the debate. I probably spent less time actually looking at the two men on TV because I was jotting down notes or looking things up in the computer. So I didn't notice some of the things other people have mentioned (like Bush looking "disgusted" while Kerry spoke). I did note that Bush did not speak as fluently as Kerry--but that is nothing new. He never has, except for a few well-known exceptions (like in the aftermath of 9/11). I knew Kerry was a better extemporaneous speaker going into the debate, so it didn't score any points for me.

I actually debated with myself if I should listen to this first debate. I was afraid that Bush might really stumble. I'm glad that I did listen, though, because it made me realize again, what a great man Mr. Bush is. Not a great speaker, but a great man. I think that if anyone listened to what Mr. Kerry said, he lost the foreign policy debate bigtime.

Transcript of the debate HERE.