Bush v. Kerry, Round 2: Advantage Lehrer

Posted on October 8, 2004

The second debate took place in a less formal setting: a town hall format, with audience members asking prescreened questions, presided over by Charlie Gibson, genial host of Good Morning America. Gibson is a nice guy, but honestly, I thought Jim Lehrer was the clear winner.

Lehrer came out swinging in the first debate; he told the audience that they must be absolutely silent during the proceedings. If they left the room, they couldn't get back in. If they made a sound during the debate, laughed, talked, clapped, wept or engaged in any other prohibited behavior, he would stop the debate and personally humiliate them on national television. The crowd was cowed and deathly silent. The debaters were also cowed -- when Lehrer spoke, they listened.

But Charles Gibson was weak from the outset. He chatted with the audience members beforehand and actually took their complaints about the lousy sound system. He didn't threaten at all, merely asked them to be quiet during the debates...a fatal error.

After Kerry said that he was "not going to go alone like this president did" in Iraq, Bush leapt from his stool and roared, "I've got to answer this!" just as Gibson was going to ask a follow up and give Bush time respond. Bush cut Gibson off at the knees, charged towards him and thundered, "You tell Tony Blair we're going alone!!"

After that, Gibson lost all authority. The crowd laughed at the candidates' jokes. They sighed. The coughed. You were aware they were there. Gibson strove to regain lost ground by pulling out some half-glasses and donning a stern look, but the match was over by then. Lehrer would never have allowed a sitting president to run roughshod over him -- no, he is made of sterner stuff. Advantage, Lehrer, with Gwen Ifill coming in second for her snappy put-down of Dick Cheney in Tuesday's debate: when he said he couldn't answer in only 30 seconds, Ifill snapped back "Well, that's all you have."

Oh, and the presidential candidates? Kerry wins on points for substance, and for managing to get in the facts he's a Catholic, served as an altar boy, that you can be Pro-Choice without being Pro-Abortion, and for bringing up Nancy Reagan when discussing stem cell research. Bush improved immeasurably from his dismal performance in the first debate. But he lost on style points for 1) forgetting this was a debate, not a bullfight and charging the moderator; 2) chuckling and smirking to himself, then doing facial contortions in a heroic attempt to suppress his scowls when Kerry talked about how he's for tort reform and lower taxes, 3) talking about the "rumors you've heard on the Internets", thereby immediately fueling more rumors of a second, undisclosed Internet location and 4) answering questions with values instead of facts. Although the "we had to cut down the trees in order to save the trees" argument was impressive, as was the claim that he was the one who proposed the hydrogen automobile and the piece de resistance, "To destroy life to save life is one of the real ethical dilemmas that we face."

Bob Schieffer has his work cut out for him on the 13th.