Howard loses debate.

[member34258]

Fairly clear that Howard lost the debate tonight. Ch 9 "worm" confirms.
But this is the same result as the last 2 elections, so nothing for Rudd to get excited about.
I actually score the whole debate thing as a win for Howard. Not that he is a great debater, no he is an awful debater.
But to get his way, to have one long drawn out "switch the channel" debate, 5 weeks from polling day tips it into his favour.
3 debates of 1 hour or less, leading up to 2 weeks from the election would have been a clear win for Rudd, so awful is Howard at this form of politics.
The coalition have a real problem if Labor decide to focus more on Costello as the defacto Prime Minister. The worm tried to dig a hole to China when his name was mentioned. Very funny.

[Dave The Man]

I think the election will be so 1 sided towards labor it will Embrass Howard(GOOD!)

[The Prototype]

I'd really like to know how they managed to pick the people in this debate, it seems none of them were very approving of most of what Howard said, which seemed to be like the last few debates he has had but managed to win the election...seems almost funny that all the debates he lost the results seemed to be very similar to each one.

[John Wren]

and you will have noticed that almost as soon as rudd opened his mouth the worm went up.

[Pa Marmo]

I felt Rudd came out marginally ahead, but definitely not based on some ridiculous media toy. The worms a joke and so is the debate. Why weren't they questioned on health care and made to tell if they would finally get rid of the tax on a tax, the GST on petrol?

[Culprit]

Rudd just cam accross Fresh, to me it was like two lawyers at work. Pretty even to me. Polling booth is where it matters.

[stui magpie]

Didn't watch it. I find those debates fractionally less exciting that sitting back watching my lawn grow.

[Alec. J. Hidell]

A fair spanking by Rudd IMO

[spoljar]

I have no idea who they select to control this worm, but there was some noticable bias there. Rudd was effectively able to drop a fart and the worm would go up.

As a swinging voter myself, I was able to acknowledge some good points from both sides. However I also noticed that both spent the entire night dodging direct questions with long winded sermons. Therefore I cant really see why there was such a massive discrepancy with the worm.

[qldpie02]

did anyone realise that when howard was talking he keep like licking his teeth or something? it was quite distracting, well to me anyway, im easily distracted

and i dont think either of them are particularly good debaters! ANSWER THE QUESTION ALREADY! i truely think some of those questions could have been a simple yes or no, or its still unsure answer..and then elaborate....but they are politicians, theyre really good at beating around the bush.

i like the worm...it should be on more programs...maybe in recent weeks it should be on the Chaser to show theyre approval rating through the shows, that could be interesting.

[Joel]

[HAL]

Tell me a story. Can you please rephrase that with fewer ideas, or different thoughts?

[sherrife]

[David]

There was no 'worm' on the debate when I was watching it... but whatever the case, we all know the 'worm' is a joke. Look at the debate between Latham and Howard.... Latham ended up 'winning' by something like 66-33. And look how that election turned out.

I personally thought Howard did pretty well at times. Still, both of them were basically using the debate to sell as much propaganda as possible. It was kind of nauseating at times, frankly.

[bwphantom]

Watching it was like being present at a Pentecostal Sermon. Both waved their arms feigning righteousness, but lacked any real credibility.