I figured I'd weigh in on the 1st Presidential debate before the 1st VP debate tonight.  On presentation, I give Kerry high marks.  His voice even sounded natural.  I think this format favored Kerry as far as presentation goes.  Specifically, the colored lights indicating time were not helpful to the President.  Bush is a straight-to-the-point kind of guy, and having to give a two minute answer to a question that he would prefer to answer in ten seconds forces him to stretch out what he's going to say, to speak slower, and to be more repetitive.  It was kind of like a football game, where you don't want to give up the time of possession stat.  Had we the public not been made so aware of the time factor, I think we would have preferred shorter answers from Bush and would have seen Kerry has long-winded in comparison.  The other factor in presentation was that some people didn't like the expression on Bush's face when not answering the question.  I'm not saying that for presentation sake, he doesn't need to be careful, but one should note that the rules clearly stated that there not be a camera on the candidate not answering the question.  Of course, as Mark pointed out, had the broadcasters gone along with this rule, they would never have been able to have the camera on Kerry, because he was always the candidate not answering the question.

On substance, I stand by Bush.  Kerry is consistent only in saying that Bush always makes the wrong decisions.  According to Kerry, in Iraq, Bush adopted too much of a go-it-alone policy.  However, in North Korea, Bush needs to go it alone.  The fact is that Bush went to the UN and asked other countries for help.  They didn't help.  That did not deter him.  Kerry complained that we aren't training Iraqi troops fast enough.  However, they are in the midst of training.  Unfortunately, we can't plug them into the Matrix and download military manuals directly into their brains.  I thought one of Bush's best points was to ask how Kerry was going to get other countries to help out in something that he calls a mistake.  And I agree.  I understand that Iraq is a rough situation.  Bush understands that Iraq is a rough situation.  Kerry seems to want us to believe that all of the problems in Iraq will go away if he is elected.  If he really does have solutions, I'd respect him a lot more if he would offer them now.  That's the end of my rant.

In the upcoming debate addressing domestic issues, we will undoubtedly hear from Kerry about jobs lost during Bush's first term.  As Kerry reminded Bush that it was Bin Laden that attacked us on 9/11, I hope that Bush will remind Kerry of the same fact, that it was Bin Laden that attacked us, including our economy.  Bush did not attack us with his policies.  In fact, his policies stemmed the tide of the enormous damage done on 9/11 and have brought us back from that horrible disaster. 

Man, I would hate to have to be President.