The moderator was a smarmy ass who didn't know his job. More on that later.
All the parties beat Harper soundly about the head and shoulders.
Harper made like a snake in an oil slick and wriggled out of most of the tight spots in which they put him. He also never looks at the camera the way the other candidates do, which is unnerving. Lots of eye contact with the moderator, which appears to have scored him some points.
The moderator decided at just less than an hour into the debate (or thereabouts) that people were picking unfairly on Harper, and jumped to his defense a bunch of times (twice that I can remember clearly, and I'm sure it happened more). I wish I knew that man's name: I want to make a formal complaint somewhere.
No one seemed to agree on whether the Conservatives created 100,000 jobs or caused the loss of 95,000 jobs (depends on who you ask).
Elizabeth May acquitted herself extremely well, far better than even Layton. She mastered her facts well, called Harper on his bullshit relentlessly, and put forward her party's plans and platform clearly and explicitly. The fact that I don't agree with her proposed solutions in the economic sector doesn't alter the fact that she was very, very solid in her argumentation.
Layton was pretty good. He's a solid politician, regardless of what Rick Mercer calls the "funny gay mustache." ;) He was a little more fanciful with his facts and statistics, and pulled a lot of the "I'm in touch with the little guy" stunts by mentioning the manufacturing plants he visited that were shutting down ("Men who worked for 30 years, sometimes with their fathers, breaking into tears because they couldn't go back to work!" etc.) and the poor communities he went to (Native American and Inuit communities especially). Heartstrings galore got pulled. He made some very good, very interesting points.
Dion spent the first hour and a half being so nervous and/or angry at barbs Harper directed at him that his English went even further to hell. There were moments when I cringed for him. I think that this debate didn't do him much good: his poor grasp of oral English really does him a disservice. I think that if he managed to get a good language coach, or at least manage to speak crappy English with panache, à la Jean Chrétien, then he'd do much better.
Someone needs to tell Duceppe to not let his eyes bug so far out of his head. Otherwise, he did exactly what was expected of him. He also got in a couple of really good zingers at Harper, including a well-timed barb about Harper's 100% plagiarized speech from when he was leader of the opposition.
All in all it ranged from maddening to stultifyingly boring, with a couple of moments of entertainment and a couple of interesting points made by the Greens and the NDP.
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Date: 2008-10-03 12:34 pm (UTC)All the parties beat Harper soundly about the head and shoulders.
Harper made like a snake in an oil slick and wriggled out of most of the tight spots in which they put him. He also never looks at the camera the way the other candidates do, which is unnerving. Lots of eye contact with the moderator, which appears to have scored him some points.
The moderator decided at just less than an hour into the debate (or thereabouts) that people were picking unfairly on Harper, and jumped to his defense a bunch of times (twice that I can remember clearly, and I'm sure it happened more). I wish I knew that man's name: I want to make a formal complaint somewhere.
No one seemed to agree on whether the Conservatives created 100,000 jobs or caused the loss of 95,000 jobs (depends on who you ask).
Elizabeth May acquitted herself extremely well, far better than even Layton. She mastered her facts well, called Harper on his bullshit relentlessly, and put forward her party's plans and platform clearly and explicitly. The fact that I don't agree with her proposed solutions in the economic sector doesn't alter the fact that she was very, very solid in her argumentation.
Layton was pretty good. He's a solid politician, regardless of what Rick Mercer calls the "funny gay mustache." ;) He was a little more fanciful with his facts and statistics, and pulled a lot of the "I'm in touch with the little guy" stunts by mentioning the manufacturing plants he visited that were shutting down ("Men who worked for 30 years, sometimes with their fathers, breaking into tears because they couldn't go back to work!" etc.) and the poor communities he went to (Native American and Inuit communities especially). Heartstrings galore got pulled. He made some very good, very interesting points.
Dion spent the first hour and a half being so nervous and/or angry at barbs Harper directed at him that his English went even further to hell. There were moments when I cringed for him. I think that this debate didn't do him much good: his poor grasp of oral English really does him a disservice. I think that if he managed to get a good language coach, or at least manage to speak crappy English with panache, à la Jean Chrétien, then he'd do much better.
Someone needs to tell Duceppe to not let his eyes bug so far out of his head. Otherwise, he did exactly what was expected of him. He also got in a couple of really good zingers at Harper, including a well-timed barb about Harper's 100% plagiarized speech from when he was leader of the opposition.
All in all it ranged from maddening to stultifyingly boring, with a couple of moments of entertainment and a couple of interesting points made by the Greens and the NDP.