I disagree. The President is certainly not the most articulate public speaker in a debate setting. He'll never win on rhetorical points. But he is sincere and authentic in a way his opponent will never be. Kerry could NOT knock down Bush and this is the centerpiece of his fall campaign. Bush held his ground and never wavered. No one got the sense Kerry told us how he would do things differently from Bush or laid out his plans. Certainly the Democrat is an accomplished debater. But as far as substance goes, he can't explain himself well enough to connect to average Americans in the heartland. And that "Global Test" comment he made late in the debate is a big loser. I don't know of a single sane person in this country who thinks our foreign policy should subordinated to the UN and co-ordinated with the French. President Bush is not a guy who seeks to dominate an opponent with brute force; he is much more subtle in going under the radar. When all is said and done, Kerry did not do anything to shake up the race to propel himself into the lead. He had to knock the President out to accomplish it and didn't get it done. This first debate was the toughest of the three and Bush survived. Considering the mainstream media is in the tank for Kerry, it went about as well as we could have expected. For what its worth, the only way Bush can lose the election now is if he does a Howard Dean meltdown down the road or is caught sleeping with a live boy or dead girl. In the final analysis, I think Kerry was better than people anticipated but it doesn't change my vote and I suspect it won't change the direction of the polls. We'll see.