Debate-O-Matic

My favorite line of the night: "The enemy understands a free Iraq will be a major defeat in their ideology of hatred. That‘s why they‘re fighting so vociferously."

Vociferously? I know they're pretty noisy, but I don't think the volume is the biggest problem. I think the fact that they have bombs strapped onto themselves and aren't afraid to die is more of an issue.

Actually, Bush's line about Osama bin Laden not deciding how we defend ourselves was pretty good, but didn't undo the damage (I hope). This presidential debate was the first that's ever kept my interest. I always plan to watch with the critical eye of the informed voter, and I always end up glazing over right after the handshake. But this time I did a pretty good job of following it (not too difficult on Bush's side), and was pleasantly surprised. Although it was clear Bush had been coached to always refer to "The Enemy," as if there was a generic brand of terrorist that comes from somewhere over there, the coaches didn't do a very good job of preparing him. I guess his people thought it would be enough for him to keep repeating "my opponent flip-flops," over and over and it would therefore be clear that since he's repeating the same thing over and over, Bush stands by his word. Vociferously.