Presidential Debate

If I had to pick a winner from last night's debate - I would have to pick John Kerry.

Some observations:

- President Bush was determined to make the point that a person who wants to be President can't go around using phrases like "wrong war, at the wrong time". He should have had a couple different ways of saying that. Saying it the same way every time came off as carping.

- John Kerry mentioned the US guarding the oil facilities in Iraq but not the nuclear facilities twice last night. Since when did Iraq have nuclear facilities? This was a slip by Kerry that the President should have jumped all over.

- John Kerry is physically bigger than Bush and that worked to great advantage last night. In comparison Bush looked small.

- For all the build-up prior to the debate - there was very little lightning. Not much memorable about last night's debate. Unless you are a politics wonk then it was honestly pretty boring. This hurts Kerry because I imaging fewer people will tune into the next debate and Kerry needs all the undecided voters to tune in and see that he can be "Presidential".

- I get a kick out of how Bush pronounces the word "mullahs". He says "moo-lahs." That sounds like either a kind of ice cream treat or a PBS children's show along the lines of Telly Tubbies.

- Kerry did better than expected on Foreign Policy but I would look for Bush to do better than Kerry on Domestic Issues. Bush hasn't cut any programs and he can constantly point out that Kerry will have to raise taxes to pay for all the programs he's promising.

- Kerry keeps talking about being able to bring a "true coalition" together. I wish President Bush put him on the spot and asked what nations specifically Kerry would bring to the tale that aren't already in the coalition. France? Germany? Bush should have called him on this.

- Kerry repeated his idea of offering nuclear fuel to Iran. That is an unbelievable statement and completely indefensible.

- Kerry kept using the 90% of the casualties and 90% of the costs line. I would have loved for Bush to point out that the US is the world's sole Superpower and to steal a line from Spiderman - "with great power comes great responsibility". Does Kerry expect us to apologize for being a Superpower?

- How come John Kerry never has to answer questions about his record in the Senate? He talks about his experience in Vietnam and then he talks about what he would do as President. Nothing in between. It's as if his 20-years in the Senate didn't exist.