On Bonds and Debates

So I know I need to give my humble blogger's take on the debate, but first, I must talk baseball.

I am currently watching the first game of an end-of-season Giants/Dodgers 3-game set in Chavez Ravine. The Dodgers' Jeff Weaver just walked Barry Bonds intentionally with no one on and one out in the sixth. COME ON!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Giants/Dodgers rivalry is second only to Yankees/Red Sox in all of baseball. And Barry Bonds is the best player ever. And these final three games have HUGE playoff implications. This is the stuff of which history is made, and Jim Tracy gives Weaver the four fingers. Bonds slowly takes off his elbow shield as Weaver tosses four water balloons six feet to the catcher's left. Wooooo-hah! That is not, as Giants announcer Mike Krukow would say, "good ol' country hardball." That's basically admitting defeat, even if only to one player, and just bad sportsmanship. Not that MLB can do anything about it. Bud Selig was right when he called the Bonds situation a unique occurence in baseball history. Still, it's very frustrating.

And now, on to the real issue of the day...

From where I stand, it's obvious that Kerry had the stronger showing, but was it enough? He obviously was the only candidate actually answering the questions Jim Lehrer asked. Bush just did the standard "Iraq-Terror-You Flip-Flop" routine, hoping no one would notice those moments where he just completely freezes up right in the middle of a word.

But I agree with what Eric Alterman said in noting Kerry's missed opportunities. The Right always likes to point out Kerry's vote to authorize the use of force against Iraq as evidence of his flip-flopping. As Alterman pointed out:

He never once said “Here’s what the president said before I voted for the war resolution and here’s what I voted for. I did not vote for THIS.”

That's really all he's needed to say for months, but somehow can't. This type of failure is what makes me wonder if Kerry really did "enough" in this debate. There are two more, and maybe he's holding some punches for late in the game, but sadly, I have my doubts.