Who won the debate?

Miakal

Every news organization I’ve seen has given it to Kerry.

Bush seemed flustered when attacked, confused and stunned on certain questions and his rebuttals were full of cheap rhetoric.

Normally, a candidate does well with repetition but Bush came off as not having any real kind of plan or substance.

AudioSavior

he made the oddest noises too when confused lol. He was one big sound bite when it was about the war, but on other subjects all he did was dodge left and right.

Miakal

"I know Osama Bin Laden is the enemy" - George W. Bush

AudioSavior

The whole sound bite doesn't do it justice lol. He kept repeating it like a kid who had no comeback.

The Dude

Kerry crushed him, plain and simple.

When you see Jerusalem being surrounded by armies, you will know that its desolation is near. Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, let those in the country not enter the city. For this is the time of punishment in fullfillment of all that has been written. How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! There will be great distress in the land and wrath against this people. They will fall by the sword and be taken as prisoners to all nations. Jerusalem will be trampled on by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.
...At that time they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.
Luke 21:20-28

Disco Raheem

While Simon did have some interesting observations, IdaMAN never lost control of the encounter.

Shining Wizard

No he didn't but your entitled to you opinion. Watching the soundbites after the debate, Kerry did seem to come off better then Bush but Kerry by no means embarrassed him. Interesting to see if Bush's lead shrinks as a result, I doubt it but stranger things have happened.

Spinoff90

You are the only person I have seen think Kerry didn't crush Bush.

AudioSavior

Bush embarrassed himself.

DMW

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.