The Debate

Up here we also thought the debate went pretty well, but could have been better. Problems: Kerry not looking straight into the camera nearly at all except in his closing statement; the contrast (at the beginning) of the president's "ordinary guy-ness" with Kerry stiffnes; etc. By the end though, Kerry came out pretty well. Bush seemed to get tired and frustrated and therefore a little "Al Gore". Also, somehow, the issues were complicated enough that Bush was forced to speak in complete sentences that had facts in them, which can do nothing but hurt him with one of his main target demographics (and one of the most import demos in the election): idiots.

Basically it was a tie with a possibly a slight Kerry edge. And in presidential debates, a tie goes to the challenger. Since so many Americans had probably never really seen Kerry before, this can't but push his numbers up.