| Kerry put on a good show, probably his best and he definitely "won" this debate, though Bush certainly wasn't crushed.
This debate as a whole lacked a lot of substance, and was more like a duel press conference than a debate. That said, I think Kerry was better prepped and finally started providing some concise arguments regarding Iraq.
On the surface, Kerry looked a lot better, but when you dissect what was said, Kerry gave very little reason as to why he would be better than Bush. He did a good job of picking apart Bush's approach to the Iraq war, but never really said how he would've done it differently, and as far as I can tell he and Bush have the exact same plans for the future of Iraq. Kerry seems to be trying to convince America to elect him as punishment for Bush's mistakes of the past rather than because he will do better in the future. I guess we'll find out soon enough if it works.
I think this is the most important of the three debates for Kerry because foreign policy issues are the one place where he can gain votes. He's already doing pretty well on domestic topics (the topics of the next two debates), so if he's going to gain any votes through these debates, it's going to have to be tonight. |