Short comment: I though John Kerry did very well.

Long comment:

Looking at the journalistic commentary, many have observed that Kerry was a stronger performer in tonight's debate. You can also see how strongly Kerry performed in the sorts of rebuttals made by the Republican spokespeople; they are not happy, and it is visible.

I have heard that Bush is considered a strong debater unless he gets angry; I think we got to see the results of that tonight. And as a debater, I have a great respect for the amount of information and explanation Kerry was able to bring with him (no notes were allowed in).

An obsessive habit of mine I developed in Debate is watching speaking time, which can also say a lot. Wise use of time makes the audience forget there is a timer running, and, just like an acrobat, time seems to slow to accomodate the final seconds of a debater's final comments in a speech. Poor use of time results in a speaker appearing rushed, or standing silent or squawking emptily to fill the void with garbage -- time squandered either way.

At the beginning, Kerry very calmly used front time on his speeches to warm up and frame his subjects before plunging in, but did not frantically cram facts in at the end, nor did he panic as time ticked away. Like news articles, when he found he had time to spare, he either reinforced his arguments from earlier (restating them or enumerating them) or brought up a few new topics to make his opponent triage his response, spread him thin, or just make him sweat. Very good time management.

Bush, on the other hand, jumped the gun and responded before being given permission by the moderator (pressuring Leher to grant him a rebuttal, I mean, who denies the President?), started with too many claims of opinion that needed factual backup (which often did not come), and scrambling at the end (and often going over time sloppily) to cram everything in. By the end of the debate, however, he kept running out of things to say before the 30 second mark. 30 seconds is a precious eternity to debaters.

Overall, I am hugely impressed with Kerry, who proved as knowledgeable as Al Gore, but did not make the same errors he did four years ago.

I got to experience the joy of watching it with the U. Washington Young Democrats on campus, and a second time with my family on tape. I am glad that the networks (NBC and CNN) used cutaway shots (contrary to the agreement signed by the candidates and not the networks to not use cutaways . . . I wonder which side prompted that issue) so we could watch the candidates' body language and facial expressions, which almost tell more than their actual words.

zunger is also discussing the debate.