A Small Victory and VodkaPundit hit the nail on the head.  However, not content to let a sleeping dog Kerry, I will put forth my own erudite opinion on the Debate. 

First off, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that Kerry had better style.  He did, no question.  However, it is important to realize two things:

1.  Kerry has been doing two minute speeches (and yielding the balance of his time) for friggin’ 20 years.  Though the Senate is known for long-winded sermons and fillibusters, the majority of business has time considerations.  he Senator has also been doing sound-bites and political commercials for a long time.  He’s paid to talk, for the love of pete! 

2.  GWB talks like the rest of us....he thinks, he says “Umm..”...however, we don’t do it after 4 hours of helping hurricane victims, or in front of 55 million people.  I am sure that we would all tear ourselves apart if we had to review the tape of us answering what were basically hostile questions. 

However, to say that Bush won isn’t honest.  Kerry did what he had to do. 

Bush had Kerry in a position where he could have delivered a fatal blow to the Vietnam Veteran’s attempt to attain the Presidency.  Bush failed to do so, even though Bush could be said to have held his ground and not gotten trounced himself.  Bush didn’t get killed, but he didn’t win. 

All Kerry had to do was stay alive.  A clear win by GWB would have been the end for Kerry, and Kerry succeeded in his goal.  It’s still a 3-5 point race, and that is beter than Bush getting a 5-point bounce and a 12-15 point lead. 

If there were a numerical score, I would have scored it 55-45 for Kerry.  It’s in the “Draw” range, but common sense dictates that Kerry had the edge. 

All this means is that Kerry isn’t doomed....yet.  There are two debates remaining, and Bush is much, much better on the stump than Kerry is.  My prediction?  Kerry closes two points, making it a 50-45 or 50-46 race, as opposed to a 52-45 or 50-43 race.  Bush still has the ball.  However, he’s got to put Kerry away. 

Another thing is the fact that the press and the MSM worked very hard to lower the expectations for JF’nK.  They knew he was a better debater, and instead of doing what I said a few weeks ago, which was “The media will salivate over the debates, because they believe Kerry is so much more articulate and intelligent than Bush is. Problem is, they set the bar too high for Gore, and they will do it again for Kerry...they can’t help it. They have to bolster Kerry somehow, and that will be his undoing. However, I also said, “He’ll need to crush Bush, and Kerry won’t be able to decisively beat Bush in the debates. All Bush needs to do, however, is work a draw or a narrow victory. His personality will do the rest. One other thing.....Cheney is going to devastate Edwards in their debate....mark my words.

That still stands.  They’ve ben pumping up an Edwards debate victory for some time, and I think that Cheney will win that one, quite possibly in a rout. 

I also think that, as opposed to conventional wisdom, Bush will do better in the domestic policy debate, and the town-hall formatted debate, than Kerry and his minions expect.  Watch for the lowering of expectations by the Kerryites again, as the debates approach...listen for “Bush is a skilled debator...” from people who wouldn’t say one good thing about Bush if their life depended on it. 

OK...I’ll troll for comments now.