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Official Debate Thread

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Oh is it time to wake up again?

Gee that was dull telly.

It only became fleetingly interesting when the two leaders got to ask each others questions and disagree with each other.

Dull content, dull presentation, 30 mins too long. On one point I’m with Howard: I don’t want three of these.

And who was heading up the Sound Department?

Anyway, list all your comments on the Great Debate here.

23 Responses

  1. I have to agree with anonymous #362 😛

    The one who said that even before Rudd had said anything of note, when he was uhhing and umming, his votes clearly went up.

    Those who deny it being “rigged”, the ones say that the worm voters were just sick of Howard- Clearly there was an obvious bias against Howard, being more in favor of Rudd. How then can you say that these people are neutral if they were liking what Rudd had said, even before he said anything?! They’re meant to have no preference, to either side, not a complete slant to one side….

  2. The people denoucing the rigged commenters need to remember that the worm is meant to poll “swinging” (moron) voters on the issues the leaders are talking about, and not the actual leaders.
    The Nine Network created the worm to entertain the masses (morons) and give them a point of difference with the ABC…

  3. People go on about the worm being rigged when actually it was obvious that Howard gave a medicore performance at best!

    His technique of sprouting verbal diarrhoea without answering questions doesn\’t work in debates. It looked worse when the speaker had to interrupt him several times. Now someone like Costello could have done a much better job. They just need him to work off that smirk!

    Of course debates/worms don\’t win elections!

  4. Of course we know what we’re getting if we vote for Howard:

    Broken promises, racial, religious intolerance, denial of gay rights because of Howard’s faith, lack of action on climate change, reducing the amount of HECS to 6 years (maybe more if he wins again), more wars no one wants, further degradation of low income families, and tax cuts and benefits for the rich. Did I forget anything? Oh yeah, scapegoating people to hide their incompetence: the states, Muslims, and last month it was the Sudanese. I hate to see who they blame their problems on next.

    Perhaps we should make a deal: if Iraq fails, and we’re drafted to fight the war in Iraq, maybe we should only send the kids whose parents voted for Howard.

  5. On 9am they were saying the audience was carefully chosen and were 100% swinging voters,the type who will decide the election. Not rigged just an indication that people are sick of Howard’s rubbish and want a fresh change.

  6. All you people who think it’s rigged just don’t get it. People are sick of Howard – he’s a turn off – literally. It doesn’t matter what he says – he’s stuck in the past. Climate Change ? He’s going doing something about that in 2011 (2 elections away) – the future of the country ? – better history lessons. Spare us.

    David – please post the stories from the current affairs shows producers who say their viewing figures decline the moment the politicians hit the screen. The posters who think this is rigged – note carefully.

  7. Pleased to read that many viewers agreed with my perception that the audience was biased. The worm was controlled by that audience who definitely rolled up when Mr Rudd started to speak and down when Mr Howard commenced speaking.
    Trust we do not see anymore debates
    in this format.

  8. Love to know if Howard intends in giving gay people in a relationship equal rights to those in a straight relationship?I called up the Labor Party this week and they told me it is Labor Party Policy to have equality

  9. Remember it was only a debate, not the final election vote which is still a long month away now!

    I do think Rudd delivered a much better performance than I expected. I think the jingoism and clarity of his arguments were much more succint and easier to understand. Howard tended to waffle and go on a bit which became more evident when the speaker kept trying to wrap him up.

    And when Howard started with the macroeconomics I just rolled my eyes.

    I do think Howard would always be on the backfoot as he has quite a bit of history behind him that can be attacked. Also it’s not his strong point and he always looks a little uncomfortable and too forced in the body language department. At one point they cut back to Howard with his eyes darting back and forth like he was confused and scared.

    Seriously, why haven’t the Libs tried to fix and refine Costello’s smirk problem? I haven’t seen a smirk *that* horrible in a long time!

    Of course most of the 13 million voters would have avoided this like the plague! It will be interesting to see how this gets reported and what gets shown.

  11. Why are people so affraid to vote for the unkown?!
    To me, it seems like a better idea than nothing changing at all. Rudd seems like a good candidate, i’m happy to give my vote to him rather than to “optimistic” Howard, who seems pretty content to keep this country far away from its potential.
    Here’s for a change!

  13. at the very start of one of kevin rudd’s speeches, for the first few seconds, all he did was stutter and say “um” and “uh”, and yet the worm went straight up – what the hell? he hadn’t even said any distinguishable words

    the debate was such a bore, but i did agree 100% with john howard’s statements about why he is not apoligising to the aboriginals

  14. I think people don’t understand what the word rigged actually means…
    Furthermore, I highly doubt they chose they chose a whole audience of pro-Rudd. And who knows, maybe the worm does represent the majority of people at home.
    Honestly, i can’t stand Howard. I’d be absolutely shocked and appalled if Australia voted him again.

  15. I was watching the ABC broadcast through their good leftie mates at The Age website, and it was interesting to hear what Jim Middleton said at the end; “The Nine Network was cut from the feed just before air time, but they seem to have pirated their pictures from somewhere else.” Little John won’t be too happy with them by the sounds…

  16. Im also with the original comment – totally rigged. I guess people have total faith in the Newbie and trusts his words like the Holy Grail. Ill stick with the man with the experience, afterall, i know what ill be getting, rather than the unknown.

    Besides, Rudd looks like the Cheshire Cat – all smiles, yet a hidden agenda!! Watch out for him!

  17. I don’t think the worm was ‘rigged’, but the audience controlling it were certainly biased.

    To the person above: the point is that they clearly weren’t interested in anything Rudd or Howard were saying.

    How can the worm go down if they don’t like what Howard has to say, if he hasn’t even said anything?

    The same with Rudd – it didn’t matter what he said, the worm was immediately high as soon as he opened his mouth.

    As far as I could see, the depth of thinking was ‘Oh! Kevin’s speaking!’ nevermind what he’s actually saying. Which actually wasn’t a lot.

    Howard dodged questions – but Rudd dodged his fair share too. They’re politicians, it’s what they do.

    I was interested in how tongue-tied Rudd became on climate change – and then he accused Howard of reading some kind of special intelligence report on his meeting with Bush! I read that report in three different newspapers Kevin, as did the rest of Australia. It was the AMERICANS who said they were surprised you didn’t talk about climate change. Jeez.

    The sound quality was poor, and it was just boring. Did not affect my vote at all.

    I am still waiting for a politician from either party to inspire me. I can’t stand either of them. And I’ve been so overexposed to Kevin Rudd his voice is like nails on a chalkboard to me now. I can’t stand him.

    I want to move to America and vote for the Democrats.

    Mia

  18. Howard always dodged answering anything directly, because he knew the answer would make him look bad.

    I think the entire panel (and the female commentary afterwards next to Ray Martin) was the rigged part. It was so blatantly pro-Howard, it’s a wonder Rupert Murdoch didn’t ask the questions.

    Did we really need the repeated cuts to a thin-lipped, smug smile from a sweaty Costello?

    The worm was the only thing of honesty, and no wonder Howard didn’t want it – it hates him and his hateful and intolerant policies.

    5 weeks, bring it on. Time for a change!

  20. Rigged?! Ha!
    Maybe people just don’t like what the man has to say, i know i did’nt…He failed to even answer questions properly.
    I sure hope Australia votes in a change, its about time!

  21. I have to agree with the first person to comment. The word was totally rigged. As soon as Howard spoke the worm went down, before he had even said anything significant. While Rudd’s worm went up as soon as he said two words.

    Howard could be either positive or negative and the worm would go down. Rudd could be either positive or negative and the worm would go up.

    What a waste!

  22. Well david i don’t know what debate you saw, but the one i saw was gripping.

    It was good to see Howard lie so blatantly, and then accuse Rudd of lying! The hilarity!

    ..of course I listened to it on NewsRadio, so maybe it was more exciting on radio than on TV?

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