Leave It Behind > Brian Bailey

Debate I: I Regret to Say

Tonight was the first presidential debate between President George W. Bush and Senator John Kerry. Simply put, the debate could not have better for Senator Kerry.

As has already become the conventional wisdom, the president spent the entire evening on the defensive, failing to make a positive case for a second term or clearly define Kerry's record and public contradictions. The most succinct summary I have found is that the president arrived at a 90-minute debate with 30-minutes of material. Once he made his four primary points (stay the course, the world is safer without Saddam, Kerry is sending mixed messages, and Kerry can't be an effective commander-in-chief and world leader on Iraq due to his criticisms of the war), he was left with repetition, frustration, and responding to minor Kerry attacks. Bush had innumerable openings to attack Kerry or offer a more thorough, persuasive defense, but missed each and every one. It is difficult to imagine how a sitting president, with fresh memories of the 2000 campaign, could appear less prepared.

Kerry, on the other hand, had the focus and determination of someone who clearly understood that this was the seminal moment of his campaign. Up until the debate, he had failed to present a coherent, consistent message. His convention acceptance speech was poor and his attacks on the president had grown increasingly strident, angry, and, unsurprisingly, ineffective.

Tonight, his answers were clear, eloquent, and concise (an honorable mention goes to the blinking red light). The key to his success, however, was the respect he showed the president, even as he systematically exposed his flaws. One consistent phrase was the key, "The president, I regret to say..."

Much has been made about the frustration Bush expressed throughout the debate. In my opinion, Bush expected to face the Kerry of the campaign trail, and was completely befuddled by the respect and decorum Kerry presented.

The president also failed to realize a fairly obvious debate principle. If you make a charge against your opponent, and your opponent denies the charge, you can't win the argument by simply repeating the charge ad nauseum.

Bush: My opponent has been inconsistent on Iraq and continues to change his position.

Kerry: My position has been consistent throughout.

Bush: My opponent has been inconsistent on Iraq and continues to change his position.

Next time, the president may want to offer some proof.

So, what's next? The polls will tighten and the next debate will be even more significant, with all eyes on how Bush will responds to this defeat.

Capitol Hill Star Search

Washingtonian Magazine presents the annual survey of Capitol Hill staffers, the Best & Worst of Congress. See if your favorite congressman makes an appearance in such categories as Best Leader, Hottest Temper, and Biggest Windbag.

Site Diagrams

Site Diagrams: Mapping an Information Space. Very well-done overview of how to visually represent websites for planning and presentation purposes.

Mossberg on the iMac

The Wall Street Journal's Walter Mossberg gives a standing ovation to Apple's new G5 iMac.

I am writing these words on the most elegant desktop computer I've ever used, a computer that is not only uncommonly beautiful but fast and powerful, virus-free and surprisingly affordable.

Where Do I Begin?

This weekend, I added a section to the homepage called, Where Do I Start? I find that whenever I visit a weblog for the first time, I wish I had access to a representative sample of the writer's efforts. What typically happens is I scan the most recent few days of posts, but not much beyond that, which means that I'm judging months or years of writing on a week of work. So, I thought I'd provide a collection of essays that cover everything from politics to mega-churches to personal stories. Hopefully, this will make it easier for people to get a more complete first impression.

If anyone's curious, Where Do I Start? is a subtle homage to my favorite Chemical Brothers song, Where Do I Begin. The song has a single, repeating verse that concludes with Where do I start? Where do I begin?

All About Me

My son Ben is in 3rd grade and recently participated in the annual rite-of-fall experience - the All About Me presentation. Each year, the students in his class take turns sharing 10-15 things about themselves. This year's version featured a series of questions: favorite color (blue), favorite food (smoothie), favorite thing to do (read), I want to be an (architect ?) when I grow up, I love (baseball), and more. He does such a good job each year, and has so much fun doing it, that I decided I should give it a try. And what better day to write All About Me than on your 34th birthday?

Who are you?

My name is Brian Bailey. I was born and raised in Michigan, got married in Chicago, and moved to the Dallas area in 1993. Since 1995, my family and I have lived in the wonderful town of Flower Mound.

Who are Lori and Ben?

You'll find my wife Lori and son Ben making fairly regular appearances in my writing. Lori and I met in 8th grade and started dating in the spring of our junior year of high school. We dated throughout college and got married one week after graduation. Lori also works at Fellowship and is in almost every way my better. She was my first date and continues to be my first love.

Our son Bennett was born just over three years later. He's a great blend of Lori and I. After my relationship with Christ and my marriage to Lori, there's nothing in life I love more than being Ben's dad.

Where did you go to school?

After spending our freshman years apart, I joined Lori at Michigan State University and majored in Philosophy. My main reason for attending MSU (outside of the love of my life being there) was actually James Madison College, a residential college within the larger university. I spent two years within James Madison, working toward the coolest major ever named in a student handbook: Justice, Morality, and Constitutional Democracy! Though it really just meant "Political Theory", I was sure I would do anything to receive a diploma with that written on it. Unfortunately, that was not actually true; I was not willing to take two years of a foreign language (a personal achilles heal). Instead, I switched to Philosophy which was not quite as cool or interesting, but did not require anything other than my mother tongue.

Where do you work?

I have the incredible honor of serving as the Internet Manager at Fellowship Church, the 5th largest church in the country. My team and I are responsible for developing and maintaining four unique websites, as well as our internal church management solution. Fellowship is an intense, challenging, and infinitely creative organization that never loses sight of what is at stake each and every day.

I started at Fellowship over four years ago as a part-time help desk employee and have had many different technology roles throughout, each more intimidating than the last! Thankfully, I've been led by a fantastic manager each step of the way, Terry Storch. Whether its technology, managing, problem solving, or the inner core of Fellowship, I can honestly say he's taught me everything I know.

Why is this site called Leave It Behind?

Great question! You'll find the answer here.

What is the focus of this weblog? Do you speak for Fellowship Church?

Though I am a Fellowship Church employee and often write about the church, everything on this site is my personal opinion and is not read or approved before posted.

I started LeaveItBehind.com because I love to write and wanted the challenge of producing something on a regular basis. Over these first six months, I have resisted the desire to divide this weblog into multiple sites - one personal, one church-related, one dedicated to technology.

Why? Because I'm not divided. Each part of me impacts the other. Church, technology, family, music, and films are all part of each of my days. I don't leave church behind when I walk out of the worship center, nor do I leave work behind when I leave the office or leave my family behind when I step outside of my house.

All of these pieces are fully part of me, always, and this weblog is the thousand words attempting to describe that completed picture.

Campaign Snapshot

Two great political reads on the upcoming election: the latest edition of the Electoral Vote Predictor has terrific data, as well as a fascinating discussion on the possibilities and implications of a tied electoral college (including Colorado's ballot initiative to distribute electoral votes in proportion to the vote total, instead of all-or-nothing).

The second item is a very optimistic Washington Time's interview with Karl Rove [via Political Wire]. Obviously, the strong confidence is expected, but it is indeed telling that the Kerry campaign continues to cancel advertising buys in a number of states.

These sites are two of the best places to track the latest election news. Highly recommended!

The Badge of Busy

Russ Lipton has written an eloquent post which offers a Christian perspective on time management.

Our pastor talks regularly about how we love to wear the label busy like a badge of honor. When people ask how we're doing, by far the most common answer is "Busy".

The question is, Busy doing what? What are your priorities? As Ed often points out, a quick review of your day planner and bank statement will tell you where your heart is.

   Maybe our problem is that we aren't allowing God to be the Manager (or CEO) of our time?

While you're reading the essay, be sure to click the link to the post on Knowing God's Will, which is also terrific.

News You Can Use

Brent Simmons with Ranchero Software just released two very interesting pieces of software for the Macintosh - a beta version of NetNewsWire, the best RSS newsreader, and a new app, MarsEdit.

I've been testing the new version of NetNewsWire for over a month, but haven't been allowed to discuss my impressions. Now that the software has gone public, I can say that the 2.0 version turns a great piece of software into a truly exceptional, essential piece of software. The news reader is much more powerful, allowing you to search your feeds, control the presentation, and, easily my favorite new feature, flag posts for later reading. With this ability, you can keep a folder of must-reads that will never be deleted or archived, while still keeping up with the latest news in another folder.

Another wonderful addition is an integrated, tab-enabled web browser based on Safari that allows you to view links without leaving the application.

I have not encountered a single bug and quickly replaced my official version with the beta. If you own a Macintosh and have any interest in RSS, you have to give it a try.

MarsEdit is a new application that allows you to post to many of your favorite weblog tools from a desktop client. It offers the holy grail of web writing, built-in spell checking, along with other improvements over browser-based writing.

I tested it with Typepad and immediately found two issues. First, MarsEdit supports many of Typepad's features, but not, as far as I can tell, the ability to post to the past or the future. As those of you who follow along regularly know, I use this great feature all the time to fill in days that I miss due to typical assortment of work, school, baseball, and entertainment distractions. I hope that there is a way for MarsEdit to support this.

Second, my post looked different from all my other Typepad posts. The spacing seemed off, despite the fact that there was no special HTML involved. Even when I edited the post within Typepad, the differences remained. As soon as I deleted the post and copied the exact same text and HTML into Typepad did the post look correct. I don't know what caused this, but it will prevent me from using MarsEdit until there is a solution.

The software is still very much worth playing with, so be sure to download the beta and experiment.

My thanks to Brent from supporting the Mac with insanely great software!

Happy Birthday Ben!

Nine years ago today, at 3:33 in the afternoon, an angel from Heaven entered our lives. Ben is a delightful, sweet, and creative boy who is a joy to train and teach, laugh with and play with, and simply be around. Lori and I thank God for him each and every day.

Happy birthday, to my favorite boy in the world!