From Knight Ridder



The debate's real winner? It depends on the measure

BY SETH BORENSTEIN

Knight Ridder Newspapers

WASHINGTON - (KRT) - A panoply of self-styled experts dissected Thursday's Bush-Kerry debate by monitoring smirks, smiles, posture, repetition and redundancy. They parsed sentences and counted syllables. They polled hundreds of people and measured the second-by-second feelings of a handful of undecided voters.

Some, heaven forbid, even paid attention to what the candidates were saying to judge the strengths of their arguments.

But there was one near-constant among the analyses: Sen. John Kerry won.

[...]

Republican pollster Frank Luntz ran his own focus group of 18 mostly undecided Florida voters Thursday night.

Kerry "dominated the confrontation," Luntz said. His focus group voted 16-2 that Kerry had won.

Luntz gave the participants dials that they constantly adjusted to indicate positive or negative feelings for each candidate. Those feelings were displayed in continuous-line charts like heart electrocardiograms. That "tells me what's really happening," said Luntz.

One of Kerry's themes - "I believe we need a fresh start" - scored particularly well, while President Bush's repetition of the phrase "It's hard work" soured voters.

[...]

Bush won one dubious measurement: More people, by about a 3-to-1 margin, bought toilet paper Friday emblazoned with the president's face from the online company justtoiletpaper.com. Co-owner Marc Polish said that really was a win for Kerry - for obvious reasons.


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