Kerry looked good tonight in my opinion. He was well composed, handled himself well, and most importantly put Bush on the defensive. I think this may be the first time many people have really gotten an idea of who Kerry is. Unfortunately I think it may be too late. He needed to step up tonight and I believe he did.

My biggest complaint with the debates is how manufactured it is. John Stewart talked about that today on Fresh Air. You could just tell that all week Bush's people have been pounding "A free Iraq means a safer America" in to his head while Kerry's folk were reminding Kerry to say, "My view has been consistent on Iraq, however I disagree with how the President handled Iraq"

Everyone turn their tvs off after "Joey" last night?

I think Kerry won. He handled himself more like a professional, not a daddy's boy.

What ever happened to Dude? Did he get sick of us?

being an "end of human life due to nuclear weapons" fan. I loved that everyone was like, "nuclear proliferation is priority #1" If the government treats nuclear proliferation the way they treat drug proliferation we can expect that an entire industry based around nuclear proliferation should spring up.

kind bud? a bombs? mushrooms? whatcha need?

Bush got spanked. And judging by the faces he made, he didn't like it.

My favorite part was watching W squirm when Kerry was talking about how Bush Sr. said he didn't go past Baghdad in the Persian Gulf war because there would be no exit strategy and our troops would be surrounded in a hostile environment.

I would agree that Kerry won. Bush's strategy seems to be convincing Americans that we cannot possibly feel safe with a president who hasnt "been there" like he has. He kept reiterating this idea that he was like some sort of ultimate protector of the country; scaring people into voting for him more or less.

I do think, however, that Kerry needs to be more clear about his claim that he isnt a "flip flopper" Early on he told Bush that he made "the wrong decision" going after Saddam instead of Bin Laden but later said that he believed Saddam posed a serious threat to the US. I can see where this isnt a contradiction - Bin Laden should have been priority #1 AND we should have gone after Saddam as well - but I think to the Average american it would still appear as indecision.

Also, one of my friends suggested Kerry answered "Nuclear proliferation" to the last question just to hear Bush mispronounce it a few times ;)

9-11 = Al Qaida
Terrorism = Al Qaida
Middle East = Al Qaida
Taliban = Al Qaida
Afganistan = Al Qaida
Iraq = Al Qaida
Saddam = Al Qaida
Hurricanes = Al Qaida
Mt. St. Helen = Al Qaida
Drugs = Al Qaida
Kerry = Al Qaida
Over priced vegetables = Al Qaida
G.W./Cheney '04 = NO Al Qaida!

(paid for by Bush/Cheney 2004)

9-11 = Al Qaida
Terrorism = Al Qaida
Middle East = Al Qaida
Taliban = Al Qaida
Afganistan = Al Qaida
Iraq = Al Qaida
Saddam = Al Qaida
Hurricanes = Al Qaida
Mt. St. Helen = Al Qaida
Drugs = Al Qaida
Kerry = Al Qaida
Over priced vegetables = Al Qaida
G.W./Cheney '04 = NO Al Qaida!

(paid for by Bush/Cheney 2004)

I would NEVER get sick of you guys!

My wife said I was making similar faces to those of the President during the debate Thursday. Those are the looks that cross your face when you listen to something so incomprehensible and nonsensical. Sure it sounded good to the average Daily Show viewer, but to anyone who has been following the things this man has said at all, it was enough to make your head almost spin off.

That said, Bush was just awful. I think the strategy was "show up and don't screw up." They likely convinced him to not attack too much (to seem nice to the security moms). In retrospect, I think that was a huge mistake.

Did anyone see SNL? Oh man...that was some of the funniest stuff I have seen on that show in a long time. The best was the Kerry line, "What the President didn't tell you is when I spoke out against the war I was addressing an anti-war crowd, when I spoke out for the war, I was addressing a PRO-war crowd. That's NOT flip-flopping, that's PANDERING, and America deserves a President who knows the difference!"

Dude, good to hear from you! I was curious about the Bush camp's take on the debate.

Does anyone know the details of the town hall debate? Have the questions of the "townspeople" already been approved? Have the candidates seen these questions? That wouldn't make for much of a townhall debate, but I can't imagine Bush handling questions he doesn't have a script for.

What do you think he does every time he visits with the press? Give me a break.

The questions will be pre-approved by the debate commision, not by the cadidates. I don't think the commission would stand for that, but I could be wrong.

Personally, I think all of the questions should have to pass a "global test"...hehe.

I don't think he meets with any real press. He takes questions from pre-approved "journalists" who lob easy questions his way. "President Bush, do you love America?" "Yes, yes I do" "Thank you Mr. President, that is all."

You obviously haven't really watched the President take questions, which he does on a regular basis (in absence of alot of formal press conferences) so I won't argue. As is always the case in any administration, any journalist with White House Press credentials can shoot out a question whenever the Pres. is within earchot, and it's his choice whether to answer or not.

One more thing about the debate, if I were a terrorist, I would have been very happy with some of the great ideas the Senator provided, such as:

-- "The president hasn't put one nickel - not one nickel - into the effort to fix some of our tunnels and bridges and most exposed subway systems."
-- "95 percent of the containers that come into the ports, right here in Florida, are not inspected."
-- "Civilians get onto aircraft and their luggage is X-rayed, but the cargo hold is not X-rayed.
-- "And there's an enormous undone job to protect the loose nuclear materials in the world that are able to get to terrorists."
-- "The president, also unfortunately, gave in to the chemical industry, which didn't want to do some of the things necessary to strengthen our chemical plant exposure."

Yes, it is a much better idea to just ignore those facts and hope the terrorists can't figure it out themselves.

We've been hearing all those same facts since September 11th, they are nothing new... which is sad because it also means in 3 years they haven't been fixed.

They're all suspect at best. Like everything else he said in the debate, not born of conviction...only political posturing.

We "outsourced" Afghanistan...but we shouldn't be doing 90% of the fighting in Iraq. So...should we be getting help with fighting or shouldn't we? Also, let's have all these meetings and unilateral talks...oh, EXCEPT when it comes to North Korea where we have to "go it alone". Can't let China get involved... it seems that the criteria Kerry uses for whether something is wrong is "however the President does it, it's wrong".

As poorly as Bush performed, his best line was "what's he going to do, ask the world to come join us for the wrong war, wrong place, wrong time"? Kerry Thursday night was the most incoherant slick-talker I ever heard!! :o)