I'm heading out of town for a 3-day weekend, so blogging will be light to non-existent.
A few things:
1) Remember Gore's weirdness in the previous presidential debates? Not only the pancake makeup and the heavy sighing and the "lockbock" mantra and the awkward entry into Bush's personal space--but also the exagerrations? It was so bad that Gore actually apologized in the next debate for exagerrating some things. Well Kerry may have the same problem on his hands. Check out Robert Novak's column today on this.
2) To keep Kerry honest, the Bush rapid-response team will be live-blogging their responses at DebateFacts.com. Those guys are so nice, they've even developed a briefing book for John Kerry to prep for the debate.
3) The Kerry Spot's Jim Gerharty says: "I cannot think of any statement by any other figure, left, right or center, that exposes such a jaw-dropping ignorance of the greatest issue of our time." If you want to know who he is talking about and what she said, click here.
4) The fellas at Real Clear Politics are discussing what they call "an extremely high risk strategy" for Kerry in the debates tonight." " Kerry is in so much trouble right now that if he truly wants to be President he has to roll the dice, play to win, and forget about the possible consequences." It would basically involve breaking the rules of the debate. The Kerry Spot suggests it might come in this form: "Rules do not permit me to ask direct questions at tonight's debate, but if I could, I would ask Mr. Bush..." I have my doubts this will actually happen--but as the RCP guys said, "to be blunt, Kerry has almost no chance with polling internals this dismal." Hence, he has to try something.
5) Saturday Night Live had a blast four years ago mocking the presidential debates. This greatly cemented the negatives toward Gore. Will it happen again? The season premiere is this Saturday. The host? Kerry-supporter Ben Afleck.
