Immediate Debate Summary (i.e. less good content)

Bush:

• Well, you did not mess things up twice. If that is victory, then you are the victor.
• Yelling does not equal making a good point. My 3-year-old does not get that yet, but I bet he does by the time he hits your age.
• You got some points by that Kerry did not catch, most notably the job report from September.
• "Name 3 mistakes" means you have to name AT LEAST ONE MISTAKE. You're just lucky Kerry didn't call you on that. By the way, if Kerry said he'd made appointments to Bush responds "boards you never heard of", you'd have his head.
• The Dred Scott case?? I am a lawyer-- I know that case . . .from 1857!!! Lemme guess, you also feel that slavery is wrong. Well, that sure is resolute.
• Too much 9-11.
• You do own part of a timber company, making you a small business.

Kerry:

• Boy, he gave you a lot of material. Don't keep a pad and pen if you don't use it for notes you'll use later.
• I said no big words. You used big words (calling the clean skies bills "Orwellian"). Dummy.
• Nice work on the Duelfer report, but you should have hit him harder on this (gotta read my tips next time).

Conclusion: Draw. Sorry to be boring, but that is the case. Bush showed up for this one, but still made a bunch of non-sequitur (I can use big words, Kerry, not you) comments, dodged plenty of questions, and just seemed downright peeved about being there. However, he still gives people an aw-shucks, folksy persona (even though he went to freakin' Andover), and Kerry simply does not. Kerry likely won't lose ground, but it certainly is not a repeat of last week.

That being said, I am sure the fact-checkers will have something to say about that. . . .