President Bush’s showing was depressing. That assessment admits nothing against his character, his motivations or his much more substantial appraisal of and strategies for dealing, long term, with Iraq and the WoT more generally. But it does admit something against his preparation for that debate, primarily his readiness to aggressively take the fight to Kerry’s ideas or lack thereof and to more fully flesh out his vision. If people can’t more honestly admit that, they’re living in a world populated more by their imaginings than what was actually presented during that debate. Kerry’s win, even if it was a win of image over substance, was made possible by the President’s lack of preparation and/or willingness to win (the debate and the election) himself. He was presented with some slam-dunk opportunities and essentially responded with Roberto Duran’s “no mas.” Even if that overstates the situation, when compared to “what might have been,” it doesn’t overstate by much.

Yet without minimizing that admission, it also has to be acknowledged though that the Left/Dems, with the help of much of the MSM, are waging an all out political war while, by comparison, the centrist/conservative core of Bush’s supporters continue to wage nice and naive. VDH summarizes that divide as well as anyone lately in his The Perfect Storm of Hating Bush, parts one, two, three and four, each very brief pieces but also very telling in terms of Left/Dem and MSM alliances and what they are yielding in the political war zone. In terms of the image vs. substance, no surprise, Belmont Club has been as focused as anyone.

Despite Kerry’s own various weaknesses and in addition to his MSM advantage he also hugely benefits from a synergy between himself and his base of supporters, oddly galvanized by Michael Moore and others, but very much galvanized nonetheless. The same cannot be said of the President’s base to the degree it can be said of Kerry’s, it’s not even a close call. VDH’s series helps to high-light that fact and throw it into sharp relief. The problem exists as much with the base of supporters as it does with the Pres. himself, waging nice and naive against a much more aggressive, whatever-it-takes political foe waging political war.