A palpable hit

After watching the Bush/Kerry debate last night, I went to bed thinking that it was a win for Kerry. On points, not by a knockout, but a win nonetheless - and as the rules were pretty much like amateur boxing with the debating equivalent of headguards on, perhaps a points win is the best you can get.

Dave's got a good roundup and there's also an interesting summation of conservative reaction on Daily Kos - if your opponents are calling it a draw at best (besides those who'd probably spin Bush sacrificing goats to Satan as 'a bold move to open a dialogue with Hades') then you can probably call it a victory. Elsewhere, the Mighty Reason Man was liveblogging it, but thanks to his posting lethargy I missed seeing him in action, though unlike the results of many livebloggings it's still worth a look through after the event:

Jenna and Barbera onstage post-debate:

Ah, so that's what a "My daddy just got his ass whupped bad" expression looks like.

Atrios has poll numbers, and it seems the people concur with those opinions. Clearly, the people of America have a disturbing bias and need to be replaced. In short, though, Kerry looked Presidential last night while Bush spent a lot of the time sounding petulant, defensive and acting more like the challenger than the incumbent.

Anyway, to give you a bit of notice, I think I might liveblog the next debate next Friday night, so anyone else who's staying up to watch them in their 'Town Hall'-style discussion (is it just me, or does anyone else get images of British Town Hall meetings with Bush and Kerry arguing over the minutiae of the council's cleaning budget?) feel free to stop inand heckle.