NEW YORK, 2 October 2004 — An estimated 55 million Americans watched President George W. Bush and Sen. John Kerry spar over national security issues during the first televised presidential debate on Thursday night.
The debate highlighted conspicuous differences between the two men’s foreign-policy vision and personal style. Kerry called the president’s decision to invade Iraq a costly diversion from the war on terror and Bush defended his action as essential to America’s defense.
The two presidential contenders used Iraq to question each other’s character. Kerry portrayed Bush’s policy as evidence of his impatience and inexperience. Bush labeled Kerry’s criticism as non-presidential and inconsistent with his previous statements.
Throughout the 90-minute debate, held in the critical battleground state of Florida, Kerry offered some of his sharpest criticism yet of the Iraq invasion — explaining why he had been labeled a “flip-flopper,” and hoping it would be outweighed by trying to hold Bush accountable for a policy that is increasingly unpopular among many Americans.
Using blunter language than often heard on the campaign trail, Kerry tried to separate the Iraq conflict from the war on terror, portraying it as a misguided invasion that has stretched America’s military and exhausted resources. “Saddam Hussein didn’t attack us. Osama Bin Laden attacked us,” he said. Pouncing on Bush’s statement that Iraq was the center of the war on terror, he said: “Iraq was not even close to the center of the war on terror before the president invaded it.”
Repeating a line he has used countless times to show his opponent is inconsistent, Bush reminded viewers again that Kerry had voted for an $87 billion spending bill for Iraq and Afghanistan before he voted against it. Kerry shot back, “When I talked about the $87 billion, I made a mistake in how I talk about the war. But the president made a mistake in invading Iraq. Which is worse?”
Kerry said Bush, in invading Iraq, lost sight of the goal of capturing terrorist leader Osama Bin Laden.
But Bush countered, saying: “The world is safer without Saddam Hussein.” He called Iraq “a central part in the war on terror” and said 75 percent of Bin Laden’s leadership had been brought to justice.
Trying to turn Kerry’s criticism against him, Bush said, “I understand what it means to be the commander in chief. And if I were to ever say, ‘This is the wrong war at the wrong time at the wrong place,’ the troops would wonder, ‘How can I follow this guy?’”
Three post-debate polls suggested Kerry impressed voters more; the majority of those surveyed said the senator gave a better performance, and was more convincing than Bush.
CNN/Gallup Poll gave Kerry 53% and Bush 37%. A CBS poll showed Kerry winning with 44%, Bush coming in with 26%, while 30 percent said the poll was tied between the two men. ABC also found Kerry impressed most viewers; Kerry drew in 45%; while Bush got 36%, and 17% said the two men tied.
Initial reactions to a debate can change after a few days have passed, but both pundits and viewers seemed most impressed with Kerry’s focus and decisiveness on the issues.
Morton Kondracke, a political commentator on Fox News said: “This is the president’s turf, this is the place that the president is supposed to dominate, terror and the war in Iraq. I don’t think he really dominated tonight. I think Kerry looked like a commander-in-chief.”
Joe Scarborough, a talk-show host on MSNBC said: “It was John Kerry’s best performance ever...As far as the debate goes, I don’t see how anybody could look at this debate and not score this a very clear win on points for John Kerry.”
News analyst Andrea Mitchell of NBC said: “This is the toughest we’ve ever seen of John Kerry. He attacked the very core of the president’s popularity. He’s basically saying, who do you believe?”
Fred Barnes said on Fox News: “Kerry did very well and we will have a presidential race from here on out.”
The debate was conducted under meticulously negotiated agreement between the two campaign camps and there were pages of restrictions regarding the proceedings.
The agreement had wanted to limit television networks access to show one candidate’s face while the other was speaking. But the networks did not agree to that stipulation.
As a result, viewers saw Bush grimace and fidget several times throughout the debate while listening to Kerry.
Yesterday morning, Bush campaign advisers suggested that the president’s visit with hurricane victims earlier in the day had been emotionally draining, which resulted in his “tired” appearance during the debate.
With only 32 days until election day, the debate was the first of three scheduled events between the two candidates. Bush and Kerry will meet next Friday in St. Louis, Missouri, and again on Oct. 13 in Tempe, Arizona.
Vice President Dick Cheney will debate with Sen. John Edwards, Kerry’s vice presidential running mate, on Tuesday in Cleveland, Ohio.
Yesterday, both candidates rushed back to the campaign trail trying to convince Americans they had won the first debate.
