Post-Debate Post-Mortems
Reported by Marie Therese - October 4, 2004 -
Here are few choice predictions and comments made by FOX News regulars on the timely topic of how much of a bounce will Kerry get in the post-debate polls and what George Bush needs to do in the NEXT debate. The comments were aired on Big Story with John Gibson and The O'Reilly Factor, Friday, 10/1/04.
Big Story, 5:16 PM EDT
ANDREW KOHUT, Pew Research Center: "This is pure guesswork, Maybe it'll take the average from 7 to 5 or 4. I can't imagine it's going to turn it around completely and have a Kerry lead, but, you know what may happen is public opinion may become a little more unsettled again...but, you know, we're gonna have two more debates...so people are going to be ping-ponging back and forth in the way they think about these candidates."
The O'Reilly Factor
8:14 PM EDT JOHN KASICH, host of Heartland: "Most people sat and watched ninety minutes, according to the poll. But they aren't gonna sit around and listen to these people spin and you know at the end of it, Bill, what I think, a lot of people say Yeah. It's kind of boring and it's, ya' know, Kerry did alright and let's go to work tomorrow' and I don't think there was that much talk around the water cooler today...."
8:17 PM PAT CADDELL, former Democratic Strategist: "...he [Bush] was sort of angry. He seemed to be unhappy...the more important point was he didn't make his case...you don't get many opportunities to do this and I'm thinking it's just like the debate between Reagan and Mondale ...What you realize is how hard this is for Kerry because he did almost every thing he could do and Bush still didn't lose any ground.
BILL O'Reilly: "I don't know about not losing ground..Don't you think it's gonna tighten up a little, John?
KASICH: "Kerry's base will be enthused. Undecided voters may take another look...George Bush has not lost any of his base ...You're gonna see a George Bush fired up ..
8:21 PM DICK MORRIS, FOX News Political Analyst: "Yeah, I think it's gonna be a tightening up. I think Bush is gonna lose about half of his post-convention bounce. I would expect the polls that had him 8 or 10 ahead to have him 2 oe 3 ahead. And that's a darn shame. He should have blown it out in this debate...."
8:24 PM O'Reilly: "But as the Gallup Poll showed last night, it was style over substance...and I don't know if the President - I don't know. God-given gifts - Kerry is more glib than President Bush. And every time the President is halting, it looks like he doesn't have a command of the issues. How do you overcome that?"
MORRIS: "...You can practice it. If you practice ... You can sit him down and practice everything Kerry's gonna say and practice his response so that when Kerry says North Korea ..."
O'Reilly (cutting him off): "But he gets jumbled up when you do that! He gets jumbled up when you do that cause he starts to memorize and mispronounce.."
MORRIS: "George Bush is a smart guy."
O'Reilly: "And it doesn't seem historically to work."
MORRIS: "...He just needs to spend more time practicing. This guy didn't warm up. It's a homework problem. He should have been fed these attacks, these comments. Everything he's gonna say in the next debate is predictable. You've gotta practice it til it becomes rote with your candidate...Bill Clinton, you don't have to do it. Ya' just send him out and he does it. But George Bush, ya' gotta do your homework and I don't blame Bush, I blame his handlers."
Comment:
Today's polls show that Bush has lost his entire convention bounce. This is a dead-even horse-race again.
