Debate Night...My take:

2 thumbs up! In boxing there's a term for a guy that gets beat by a more skilled boxer. one that just out did him on the different areas. its called "out classed". Bush was clearly out classesed.

bush looked like a kid struggling to explain himself after (clearly) gettting caught doing something wrong and the split screen of him and kerry wasn't helping him when kerry was talking. best of all, bush tried to use the flip flop business and it went over weakly. bush would use it as a whole answer to a question. calling kerry a flip flopper, then kerry aptly brushed it away and gave a real answer leaving you feeling like bush didn't have much to say on thetopic other than the name calling.

all in all, it was a revealingly weak performance for bush. you know, surrounding yourself with people in "townhall meetings" that must take loyalty oaths to get in the door isn't the best way to get yourself sharp for a debate. he clearly lost and there was little spin material given over by kerry. that will prove to be one of the best parts of this.

On several occasions, while explaining himself on difficult questions,bush said 'this is a hard job'. oh is it? well, was that a shock toyou? being president IS a hard job but you aren't much of a presidentwhen that statement is part of an explaination on how bad of a jobyou're doing. let me show you one example from the night:

In Iraq, no doubt about it, it's tough.

It's hard work. It's incredibly hard. It's-and it's hard work.

I understand how hard it is. I get the casualty reports every day. I see on the TV screens how hard it is. But it's necessary work.

We're making progress. It is hard work.

You know my hardest, the hardest part of the job is to know that I provide comfort for the loves ones who lost a son or a daughter or husband and wife.

Her husband, P.J., got killed-been in Afghanistan, went to Iraq. You know, it's hard work to try to love her as best as I can knowing fullwell that the decision I made caused her, her loved one to be in harm's way.

Yeah, we're the job done. It's hard work.

Understand how hard it is to commit troops. I never wanted to commit troops. I never - when I was running - when we had the debate in 2000, never dreamt I'd be doing that, but the enemy attacked us, Jim, and I have a solemn duty to protect the American people, to do everything I can to protect us.

Which leads us to one of my favorite parts:

Jim Lehrer had asked Bush about his policy of preemptive war. Bush claimed to
have "never dreamt" of starting a war before Sept. 11 "but the enemy attacked
us, Jim."

Kerry: "The president just said something extraordinarily revealing and frankly very important in this debate. In answer to your question about Iraq and sending people into Iraq, he just said, 'The enemy attacked us.' Saddam Hussein didn't attack us. Osama bin Laden attacked us. Al-Qaida attacked us. And when we had Osama bin Laden cornered in the mountains of Tora Bora, 1,000 of his cohorts with him in those mountains, with the American military forces nearby and in the field, we didn't use the best trained troops in the world to go kill the world's number one criminal and terrorist ... That's the enemy that attacked us. That's the enemy that was allowed to walk out of those mountains."

Bush: "Of course I know Osama bin Laden attacked us, I know that." (which was sorta funny because he'd already mixed up Saddam and Bin Laden earlier in the night).

On many occasions Bush seemed unable to extend his comments past the soundbites of his commercials and he had a few moments where he clearly drew a blank and would stare off searching for his words.

final note:

i've seen nothing on this in the press. During the lead up to the debate we heard a LOT about the strict rules and how the president won out by brokering the deal so that there was to be virtually no back and fourth between the candidates and as i recall, no extended follow ups. on SEVERAL occasions bush interrupted the moderator to demand these rules be ignored. HIS rules.

Tonight was billed as the bush's strongest area. if they wanted this to be his knockout punch, they better start worrying about the next 2 debates