A quick follow-up on my post "George W. Bush: Masterdebater," in light of the recent news that the President only wishes to participate in two out of the three proposed debates:
I stand by my position that Bush is a skillful debater, in the sense that he's quite successful at coming off as a "regular guy," castigated by his uppity, book-larned lib'rul opponent. However, I also think it likely that Kerry is aware of Bush's "poor li'l ol' me" strategem (given that he's used it twice now, against both Ann Richards and Al Gore), and that, moreover, the Bush team understands that Kerry is familar with the President's preferred mode-of-attack (or mode-of-appearing-to-be-unfairly-attacked, as it were). In which case, they're likely looking to minimize the chance that Kerry will short-circuit Bush's scheme, and cause the "regular guy" to look not sympathy-deserving, but merely like a simp.
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