I thought Bush did very well first 45 minutes, not as well the second  half. I thought he did fine on Iraq (which could have been his toughest area), but did not say enough about 9/11, and the attacks on us. The 3 times when he talked about how Kerry was givng wrong message to our troops, our allies and Iraqis, he neglected to say and it was giving the wrong message to our enemies. That's a big oversight.

Overall, the debate was a bore, and I suspect many people tuned out before it was over, other than the junkies. Bush did look annoyed at times and Kerry, when he was not speaking was more controlled, but I still found Kerry utterly lacking in personality, and Bush seemed more human. Snap polls give edge to Kerry:

81—16 Kerry won on cnn
72—27 on msnbc
44—26 on cbs.

Bush needs to be concerned about the next two debates, when he gets hammered on stem cells, health care costs, prescription drugs, Halliburton, job losses, education, environment. He does not have the Kerry flip flops to throw back on these issues. Fortunately fewer people watch these, and I am confident Cheney will beat Edwards.

Richard Baehr  10 01 04