[Stingy Jack]

Personally, I think Kerry won the debate easily. The whole theme of this debate, that I saw, was whether or not a President should admit he made a mistake when he does make one and change his course of action to fix the mistake.

It is a fact that the war in Iraq was, is, and continues to be a mess. This mess was caused by the errors in judgement committed by Bush. Last night, Kerry tried to get Bush to admit that he did not handle the war situation in the best possible way, but Bush refused to admit to making an error. Instead, Bush blasted Kerry for suggesting that we change how the war is operated, saying that to do so would "send mixed messages" to the world that the American President doesn't know what he's doing -- a message that would be devastating. Kerry, on the other hand, argued that "if you make a mistake, fix it!" Don't continue down the same path errors just to avoid admitting you were wrong. It would be like me in the classroom: Let's say I've developed a certain teaching strategy that I was certain would work. However, when I implement this strategy in the classroom, it is a huge failure. Kids aren't learning, they're constantly confused, and they begin to misbehave because they don't know what's going on in the lessons. Bush's response to this would be: "Keep going with the same strategy. If you change now, it would send a message to the kids that you are an uncertain teacher who doesn't think through what he does. You will lose their respect that way." Kerry's response: "Change the way you teach. It is far less damaging to admit you were wrong and try to repair the error, than it would be to continue with this same line of devastating action."

I agree with Kerry, and I think Bush made himself out to look pretty foolish last night.