The Verdict: Kerry Yapped That Fool

I didn't want to get my hopes up, cuz I always keep myself in an assume-the-worst posture during these elections, but I guess we now have a consensus that Bush got straight Roy-Jonesed last night. Even Limbaugh is totally conceding defeat this afternoon, and hoping everyone will just forget this ever happened. yyyyeah!! My man Bunny Rabbit is a genius!!!

Let's see what folks are saying:

Josh Marshall cautions that we if we want this good feeling to last, we need to stay on the offensive in controlling the post-debate spin.

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1115.org echoes my earlier assessment that Kerry won the battle of the vibes:

We've heard from the media for years now that people don't as much listen to debates as watch the body language and demeanor of the participants. I've always been uncomfortable with that conclusion because it reveals the laziest tendencies of the American people: Don't think, just look at the pictures. Conventional wisdom (not something we traffic in here) predicted a Bush win on body language. After all, that's largely how he won the debates in 2000. But by any measure, Kerry looked significantly more Presidential to the point that by comparison Bush looked like a petulant child who was trying to convince his parents that he didn't break a window.

That's exactly what I was thinking early on in the debate, that Bush looked like a boy arguing with his father.

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National Review must think Kerry won too, if they are hoping we'll all just forget everything we saw:

Before the debate, the common wisdom was that the debates were Kerry's last chance to win the election. In 2 days, nothing about what he said during this debate will be remembered because nothing was memorable.

Same thing Limbaugh was saying. Guys, if that's the best spin you can muster, you are in serious trouble.

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Some other righties are trying to milk Kerry's "Global Test" line, as if it was akin to Ford liberating Poland.. this tactic is also pretty sad, but we should keep an eye on it.

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Which reminds me, looks like Bush had his own Poland gaffe last night, when he was so eager to take credit for their presence in his coalition, not realizing Poland's President had said thislast week:

They deceived us about the weapons of mass destruction, that's true. We were taken for a ride.

D'oh!

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Things are really getting strange when I agree with about 80% of what Andrew Sullivan is saying:

...from the very beginning, Kerry achieved something important. In tone and bearing, he seemed calm, authoritative, and, yes, presidential. I watched the C-SPAN version on a split screen, and in that context, it was particularly striking. In stark contrast to the Bush-Gore debates, it was Bush who was grimacing, furrowing his brow, almost rolling his eyes and at the very beginning, looking snippy and peevish...

..For many people, who have only heard of Kerry from Bush ads or sound-bites or from droning campaign speeches, it will be the first time that Kerry seems strong. In the simple, symbolic man-versus-man contrast, Kerry often seemed bigger. That strikes me as a big deal...

...If you believe, as I do, that the Iraq war is beginning to spiral downward, Bush was not reassuring. He seemed as out of it as ever. When Kerry rightly pointed out the failure of Bush to revamp the CIA or to secure Soviet nuclear material, Bush simply and sadly responded that every morning some guy comes in and briefs him on national security. Now I feel better. And you don't want to be the president who is forced to say, "Of course I know Osama bin Laden attacked us." Moreover, his fundamental critique of Kerry - that by criticizing the war, he had made himself unworthy to be commander-in-chief - was dumb and border-line offensive. It implies that if you've ever criticized the president's war conduct, you cannot succeed him in office. Huh? By that logic, the only credible alternative to Bush is someone who has agreed with him every inch of the way. Memo to Bush: we live in a democracy.

Yes, yes, and yes.

Finally, George Bush has united us all. The whole world stands together, to proclaim him a loser.