Kerry started off the debate with a bang. In his idiosyncraticway, he went on and on in the most mundane fashion. He hypnotized theaudience with his affected, affluent gesticulation, punctuating everysentence with a karate chop and accenting every syllable with a BillClinton thumb point. He reminded me of a strange combination of thetree from The Lord of the Rings and my former basset hound Bonnie.Boring qualities aside, his logic was sound and his policies seemedappealing, especially when juxtaposed with Bush’s – in the wayBush presented them,- at least.

Out of words, Bush invented queer little neologisms, such as”fiscal sanity,” to aid him in whatever his objective (what it was, Ido not know). He blinked constantly, laughed annoyingly and smiledinappropriately. When Kerry was speaking, he would write on his padto seem smart and competent. As if all this wasn’t enough, the nailin the coffin was admitting to the audience at the end of the debatethat he spoke English badly – presidents don’t do that. As inthe first debate, instead of inspiring confidence, Bush inspiredpity.

With respect to content, any fiscally conservative stirrings in mewere quieted by President Bush’s inability to present a sound,logical position on the economy. Even though I do agree with some ofhis policies and know exactly where he stands and why, hispresentation still inclined me to the left, and if a conservativemoderate such as myself is inclined to the left, I can only imaginewhere our collegiate liberals are right now. It got so bad that I hadto get up and walk the embarrassment off around my living room as myfriend watched me, concerned for my sanity. Let us hope this was justanother manifestation of Bush’s public relations problems and not anindication of a graver pathology. If the latter is indeed the case,may God help us.

– Troy Mestler is a mathematics and physics sophomore.

– This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of TheDaily Aztec. Send e-mail to letters@thedailyaztec.com .Anonymous letters will not be printed – include your fullname, major and year in school.