General election · 8 October 2004
Presidential Debate in St. Louis, Missouri
Full transcript: The American Presidency Project (opens The American Presidency Project in a new tab)
Speaking turns
165
16,261 words transcribed
Candidates' share
86%
2 candidates
Moderators' share
14%
moderators, panellists, questioners
Crosstalk markers
0
4 turns end on a dash
The debate, turn by turn
Read left to right: each block is one turn, placed where it falls in the running word count and as wide as it is long.
Candidates Moderators, panellists, questioners Audience, recorded clips, unidentified
7 more speakers with very short contributions are left out of the chart but counted in the table below.
Share of words
A stand-in for talk time.
- Kerry45.6%35 turns
- Bush40.9%41 turns
- Gibson8.7%70 turns
- Dahle0.5%2 turns
- O'Brien0.5%1 turn
- Washington0.4%1 turn
- Fowler0.4%1 turn
- Varner0.3%1 turn
- Long0.3%1 turn
- Grabel0.3%1 turn
- Jacobs0.3%1 turn
- Otis0.2%1 turn
- Degenhart0.2%1 turn
- Laurent0.2%1 turn
How long each turn ran
Ticks are single turns; boxes span the middle half; the heavy bar is the median.
Every speaker
Show the full speaker table
| Speaker | Role | Turns | Words | Share | Median turn | Longest | Ends on a dash | Reading grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kerry | Candidates | 35 | 7,413 | 45.6% | 268 | 375 | 0 | 6.2 |
| Bush | Candidates | 41 | 6,649 | 40.9% | 110 | 360 | 1 | 5.9 |
| Gibson | Moderators, panellists and questioners | 70 | 1,416 | 8.7% | 8 | 321 | 2 | 6.4 |
| Dahle | Moderators, panellists and questioners | 2 | 78 | 0.5% | 39 | 76 | 1 | – |
| O'Brien | Moderators, panellists and questioners | 1 | 76 | 0.5% | 76 | 76 | 0 | – |
| Washington | Moderators, panellists and questioners | 1 | 67 | 0.4% | 67 | 67 | 0 | – |
| Fowler | Moderators, panellists and questioners | 1 | 63 | 0.4% | 63 | 63 | 0 | – |
| Varner | Moderators, panellists and questioners | 1 | 49 | 0.3% | 49 | 49 | 0 | – |
| Long | Moderators, panellists and questioners | 1 | 49 | 0.3% | 49 | 49 | 0 | – |
| Grabel | Moderators, panellists and questioners | 1 | 43 | 0.3% | 43 | 43 | 0 | – |
| Jacobs | Moderators, panellists and questioners | 1 | 41 | 0.3% | 41 | 41 | 0 | – |
| Otis | Moderators, panellists and questioners | 1 | 39 | 0.2% | 39 | 39 | 0 | – |
| Degenhart | Moderators, panellists and questioners | 1 | 39 | 0.2% | 39 | 39 | 0 | – |
| Laurent | Moderators, panellists and questioners | 1 | 38 | 0.2% | 38 | 38 | 0 | – |
| Barrow | Moderators, panellists and questioners | 1 | 36 | 0.2% | 36 | 36 | 0 | – |
| Bronsing | Moderators, panellists and questioners | 1 | 35 | 0.2% | 35 | 35 | 0 | – |
| Baldi | Moderators, panellists and questioners | 1 | 29 | 0.2% | 29 | 29 | 0 | – |
| Hubb | Moderators, panellists and questioners | 1 | 27 | 0.2% | 27 | 27 | 0 | – |
| Michaelson | Moderators, panellists and questioners | 1 | 27 | 0.2% | 27 | 27 | 0 | – |
| Horstman | Moderators, panellists and questioners | 1 | 25 | 0.2% | 25 | 25 | 0 | – |
| Farley | Moderators, panellists and questioners | 1 | 22 | 0.1% | 22 | 22 | 0 | – |
As the 2025 scraper split it
The notebook's own Participants and Moderators fields, reproduced exactly by the TypeScript port.
- Participants
- No participants block in this transcript
- Moderators
- No moderators block in this transcript
- Listing date
- October 08, 2004