Brief Debate Update

Debate the First: clear Kerry victory
Debate the Second: tie
Debate the Third: still too soon to say, but seems agreed to be a Kerry victory
Debate the Sidekick: Cheney

Although I'm still pleased because Edwards got some hits in. He's kinda snarky, that one. (Such as the other night: "Could you beat the president in a foot-race?" "Well, I was on the track team in college, and I seem to recall him just standing on the sides and cheering. Can you run very fast in a cheerleader skirt?")

So here's my final verdict: We elect Kerry, gracefully retire Bush and never speak of him again, and then shoot all the undecided voters. The more I hear from these people, the more I want to kill them. CNN does interviews with them after the debates, and they seem like a bunch of idiots. Listen to this, "A CBS poll of uncommitted voters after the debate showed that 39% thought Kerry had won and 25% thought Bush had won." 36% of them couldn't even decide who they thought had won the debate -- a debate that they watched, listened to, etc. How do these people get dressed in the morning? Maybe they all have problems forming new short-term memories and can't even remember which candidate is which. You must have an opinion! You can't just sit there and go, "Well, both of them wore suits and neither of them made fart jokes, so I guess it was a tie." You watched no fewer than four debates where the candidates did nothing but look presidential and reiterate their policies and beliefs again and again, and 36% of you still don't know whose policies or beliefs or presidentialness you like better?

Just... vote for Kerry and go back to the daily agonies of which pencil to sharpen first.

Opinion Poll, Part 2

The following is a passage written by a person you are all acquainted with over LJ. I am taking a survey to recruit opinions on it. It's a pretty short excerpt, but I need opinions, and would really like an unbiased view. So pretend y'all are in English lit class, and answer the following questions... (In case you have problems with reading comprehension, I'll add that you don't need to be an English major to answer these questions; the preceding is a humorous recall back to the days when most of us were in English lit class and had to answer questions like this on a daily basis; it is not an elitist exclusion of the "inferior" non-lit majors.)

Mark's smile was so contagious that Kathrine had to smile back at him. "Thank you so much," he said. "I needed some feedback on my report, and your survey is going to be very helpful. I really appreciate the work you've done."

"Not a problem," she said, pleased with herself. "You're taking this very well, considering that most of the respondents wanted you to rewrite parts of the report..." They talked more about the repsonses before the workday was over; he thanked her again, and asked her to help him out in the future, too. She went home feeling her effort had been worth it.

Kathrine was surprised, the next day, to find Alli waiting for her at her desk. Alli waved a piece of paper in the air. "Hey," she said. "Have you seen this?"

Of course Kathrine had seen it -- it was a copy of the survey she'd written, with an additional page of the report tacked on.

"Mark's been handing it out to all his closest friends," Alli said, raising an eyebrow. "Guess your survey wasn't good enough."

Now please answer these four questions:

1. How do you think Kathrine should feel at the end of that passage?
Amused? Irritated? Frustrated?

2. Can you believe that an actual person would do what Mark did?
How would you feel if you were lied to and used like that?

3. Do you think Mark's gratitude was sincere?
Do you think he's trying to get out of more work by asking his friends to tell him what they think?

4. If you were Kathrine, how would you approach Mark about this?
Tell him he's a liar? Tell him she's not going to try to help him with his reports anymore? Get Alli to send a goth Sailor Saturn after him?

All comments will be screened, but this is more for Kathrine's personal satisfaction than because Mark is ever going to get the result of this survey. I thought, at least I should do one survey that's going to get listened to.