Friday, October 01, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Debate sparks angry exchanges among Nevadans in R-J focus group

Paul Adams, 50 • Army veteran; consultant • Republican Mercedes Marcos, 26 • Single mother of three • Nonpartisan Linda Head, 51 • Precinct captain • Democrat George Saxon, 72 • Retired Army veteran • Democrat Theresa Bunker, 45 • Operates family support for deployed troops • Republican David Hensey, 41 • Marine veteran; active reservist • Republican Dan Hinkley, 55 • Army veteran • Democrat

Members of a focus group who gathered to watch Thursday's presidential debate soon began finger-pointing not just at the television, but at each other.

Democrat Dan Hinkley said: "America got to see John Kerry as president."

"That scared the shit out of me," retorted Paul Adams, chairman of a local Bush veterans group.

While watching the debate at the Review-Journal offices on Bonanza Road, Adams repeatedly defended the war in Iraq by mentioning weapons of mass destruction, a point which caused Democrat Linda Head to ask: "Where are they?"

Adams slammed his fist on the table and yelled: "They're probably buried in Iran or Syria."

"Where's the evidence?" said Hinkley, the leader of a Democratic group for homosexuals who wore a rainbow pin next to his Veterans for Kerry button.

So it went for several questions until the seven-member panel was excused to prevent a fight.

The group included four military veterans and a woman whose son just returned from Iraq.

Without instruction, Republicans sat themselves on the right side of the table, Democrats on the left.

The undecided voter, Mercedes Marcos, came in a few minutes late and took a seat with the Democrats.

One of her remarks led to a heated discussion that drowned out what Kerry was saying on the television.

It started when Bush answered a question about North Korea by saying the world is better without Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein in power.

"What has that got to do with anything?" Mercedes Marcos asked.

"It's all about the war on terror," Adams responded.

"It's totally connected," agreed David Hensey, a former Marine.

Marcos, a teacher and first-time voter, said after the debate that she definitely is going to vote for Kerry.

Right from the start of the debate, the other six fell quickly into partisan roles, at times accusing the others of using party talking points.

Several Kerry statements were greeted by Adams with, "That's bullshit."

And each time Bush mentioned Saddam as a threat, Hinkley responded: "No he wasn't."

Republican Theresa Bunker, whose son in the National Guard recently returned from Iraq, said she thought Bush showed "he is better at keeping the country safe."

Democrat George Saxon said he thought Kerry looked presidential and thought the senator's combat experience, like his own in Korea, will help him as president.

"Leadership is an art of influence," Saxon said. "Where lives are involved, you have to consider a strong leader to be a leader with experience like that."

Hensey, an insurance consultant whose unit left Kuwait just before the 2003 invasion, said Bush's "unwavering stand on Iraq" is what is needed.

"He understands he has to be tough," Hensey said.

Head, who is the Democratic captain in Nevada's most closely registered precinct, said she thought Kerry was most successful when he talked of building broad international support for Iraq and other international hot spots.

"I have felt all along that George Bush, regardless of what they found in Iraq, was going to do it," she said.

Marcos, the independent, said she wanted to support Bush, but said when she researches what the president says, she finds information that counters his message.

"I don't understand the thinking that says George W. Bush is the only thing that can be right," Marcos said.

Bush scored his biggest applause from the Republicans when he criticized Kerry as someone with inconsistent positions on the war.

"It's flip-flopping, political correcting, and we can't have it," Hensey agreed as Bush made this point.

After Kerry discussed what he called Bush's miscalculations in Iraq, Head asked: "Why is Kerry the only one that gets called a flip-flopper?"

The Democrats agreed Kerry was strongest talking about rebuilding the Unites States' respect in the world. Republicans just laughed.