Recommended after-debate reading
CBS News: Bush & Kerry Clash On Iraq. They’re playing it safe at CBS News.
Mark A.R. Kleiman: Liveblogging the debate. The devil is in the details.
Tapped: George W. Bush, how do you mislead me? Tapped corrects a few of Mr. Bush’s misstatements.
The New York Times News Analysis: Standing Firm for 90 Minutes. I almost had a witty remark to make about this headline, but I couldn’t think of an entire one. All I’ve got is: Something something Viagra something.
Andrew Sullivan: Just One Thing. I am nothing if I’m not fair, so here’s a one-liner about the debate by a Republican.
And finally, here’s Mark Evanier’s thoughts after the debate.
Larry King announced the result of an immidiate phone poll: Kerry’s way ahead among those who watched the debate there. And in the CBS News story above, we learn that:
“A poll of 200 uncommitted voters conducted immediately after the debate by CBS News and Knowledge Networks gave the edge to John Kerry.”
Kerry’s taking CNN.com’s “who do you think won the debate” poll, and CBS News, and MSNBC. Online polls don’t mean much, nevertheless, that’s nice to see.
I’m just hoping in the next three days or so we see his standing in the polls go up at least four points, and preferably more, as the more scientific polls of “ordinary” people, especially in the swing states, come out.
I don’t have to tell you to be sure to watch the reshowings of The Daily Show’s live broadcast following the debate if you missed it, do I? Didn’t think so.
And me? What did I think? Well, I didn’t make it five minutes into the debate before zapping over to We Are the ’80s. (They were showing “Broken Wings.” You can see the bind I was in.)
If you watched The Daily Show, Kerry’s first answer (the one after which Jon said “Smoke ‘em if you got em!”) is the one that broke me. After that I made it through by exercising (pun intended–I was on the bike) a strict regimen of zapping between the debate, We Are The ’80s, and syndicated episodes of Friends.
Despite this, put me in the “color me impressed” box. Kerry did better than I had any right to expect, and I’m delighted to see that, for one night anyway, most people seem to agree with me.
Of course, tomorrow is another day.
