Zencycler,
I'm a hard right conservative who wants badly for W to win, and I seem to have saw the same thing you did tonite. Maybe my expectations were too high. But W almost had the look that a close loved one just passed away, and he couldn't stay focused. His sputtering in speech, and I guess thought, throughout made me cringe several times.
At least he was able to continually nail Kerry for what Kerry is, full of it.
I sit tonite aghast at the thought that one of America's most rabid liberals could BS his way into the White House with just a few good 90-minute bursts of manuer.
kbeam
Welcome to FR, kbeam.
You worry too much. GWB was focused enough to repeat the same points over and over. That's all he had to do. The debates, while watched by many, are really nothing but spectacle for the beltway, political wonks and junkies. In the days to come the polls will say John Kerry won the debate (so?!) but Bush still leads.
Kerry's people had to resort to A) our guy won tonight and, B) Bush looked like he didn't want to be there. Fair enough, he's the president...doing what presidents do...like running the country. Unlike Kerry, Bush has other duties besides a full-time campaign.
Kerry dropped so many anti-Kerry sound bites tonight the BUSH/CHENEY 04 team will have trouble using them all. Clearly the "Global Test" comment was a keeper not to mention the other "UN is GOD" drivel Kerry has always believed but this little nugget went relatively unnoticed: When Lehrer asked Kerry about Bush's supposed "misleading" the country, ol' John ran his usual shpiel but the kicker was GW's response. He said (paraphrasing) "My opponent saw the same intelligence I saw but I'm not running around the country saying he misled us." Great comeback and stuff like that plays in Peoria...if ya know what I mean.