From an arms control perspective, the debate was mildly interesting.
Bush hit Kerry over his support for the International Criminal Court, something the PIPA/’s voter studies show should be a losing issue for Bush if Kerry sticks him to it.
Kerry said he/’d shut down the RNEP, Bush just mentioned missile defense in passing. I was surprised that Kerry spent so much time on RNEP, Bush so little on missile defense.
Oddly, the two candidates sparred quite a bit over whether or not bilateral talks with North Korea were incompatible with the Six Party Talks. It was weirdly wonky.
Bush also tried to explain that North Korea violated the Agreed Framework with a uranium enrichment, not plutonium reprocessing, program. I doubt any voter followed the explanation, which was trivially true but not an answer to Kerry/’s charge that the Agreed Framework collapsed on Bush/’s watch.
