Rhetoric 3257-Tschider

I kinda disagree with the president's politics, but I thought he had a better speaking style during the debate. He worked to present himself directly to the audience and maintain eye contact with the camera, while Kerry tended to talk directly off camera.

Working from policy or arguments Kerry took a more emotive approach, while Bush focused on "this is what we're doing" and a straitforward logical kind of approach.

But... I'm not sure Bush's logic made sense... and I ended up getting slightly lost, but I think he came across as the better speaker.

I didn't get a chance to watch the entire debate, with homework happening. From what I heard, Kerry's hands were trembling occasionally. For those who caught the rest, did Bush provide any of his Bushisms? You know"We gotta smoke them rats out of the caves like when we were on snake hunts" type lines. I won't vote for Bush, or Kerry, but when the President is saying the dumbest things, and ever your wife is critical, it doesn't exactly help.

I watched the debate and I think Kerry gave the best speech. Yes, his hands were shaking at times, but did any of you see Bush take a sip of water like 10 minutes into the debate? That glass of water was shaking so bad. I felt that Kerry brought up all the issues and presented a good case, but Bush just defended himself. His face gestures and posture were horrible. He even rolled his eyes a couple of times. I didn't think that was a positive thing at all. I'm excited for the next debate to see what happens.

One difference I noticed between the candidates was that Kerry took notes while Bush was talking. While there is no way of knowing what Kerry was writing, it made him seem more engaged in what Bush was saying. I think if Bush had also taken notes he may have avoided making some of the facial expressions that he made while Kerry was talking.

Kerry won, no question. Although they weren't supposed to show a split-screen with the non-speaking candidate, all the networks did anyway, and you could tell that Kerry was very confident while Bush was nervous and unsure of himself. While I leave the validity of their responses up to you to decide, Kerry seemed to be very confident, sometimes grinning while Bush was speaking. Meanwhile, Bush looked unhappy and under a lot of pressure. He couldn't always finish speaking in time (Kerry never had problems wrapping up his points in the allotted time) and he made too many long pauses.

I think the cue lights on the podiums were very distracting and they made me focus too much on how the candidates budgeted their time and less on what they said. I was impressed by how well both candidates managed the time alotted to them, but I think Kerry did a slightly better job ending his comments with a strong final point. Bush also managed his time well but there were a few times where it seemed that his answere lacked a final sentence or idea to drive his point home.

i thought it was impressive that bush did not take notes durring the debate, it showed that he had a memory of what was going on. on the other hand kerry's notes gave him an upper hand in that his speaking was more fluid.