3-0-0

The instant polls are in and it looks like a pretty decisive Kerry win, even in the face of most pundits acknowledging that this was Bush's best performance. I'm not going to give long paragraphs of analysis because that's been done better at other sites. Here are just some bullet point thoughts:

*Everyone's talking about yet another Bush lie. Who are these people that they think they can get away with blatant and easily fact checked lies? Really, everyone in the room I was watching the debates in exploded in disgust the moment he said that he didn't recall saying that he didn't care about finding OBL because we all knew he had said exactly that. Lo and behold, immediately after the debate news organizations had already dug up the quote and now Bush is looking at another two weeks of networks playing that clip over and over. Republicans argue that Bush isn't stupid, and while he's not the borderline retard that some liberals think, the man really is dumb to make mistakes this simple.

*Kerry talked about Mary Cheney when talking about gay marriage. Republicans are "outraged" and say he "outed" her. Truth is, she's been publically out for a long time, since at least the 2000 campaign, and she's been active in gay issues as well he dad's campaign. She's a public figure and she's fair game, as is the terribly hypocritical position taken by BC '04

* What the hell was up with Bush's laugh? He was seriously channelling the Penguin from the Adam West Batman.

* For a domestic policy debate, there was a conspicuous lack of domestic policy.

* Bush actually did pretty well compared to his first two showings. He didn't seem completely out of it and he managed not to yell at the moderator. Kerry just out played his ass. Kerry mentioned stats, Bush could only dredge up that crap about Kerry voting to raise taxes 200 times. Does anyone buy that bullshit? Does anyone really think, "Yeah, I remember the ten times last year my taxes got raised. Kerry's fault huh? Better vote W.!" Kerry applied his stats to crucial battlground states to show how Bush's term has been crappy. Bush didn't even mention specific places.

Kerry's got a plan, Bush has got four years of bad track record and nothing different to turn it around. Kerry swept the debates and has the momentum now to push through to November 2. My confidence in Kerry and his chances just keeps growing.