I’m not sure there was a clear winner in this debate but I will say that the president made a much better showing than he did one week ago.  I thought Kerry’s arguments were effectively neutered by Bush and Kerry was shut down again and again.  Kerry is in an easier position being that Bush is much more exposed politically than Kerry is.  With that said, I was glad to see that President Bush finally made Kerry’s record a topic of discussion.  Kerry’s Senate record nowhere dominated the debate as the president’s record did during the first debate but it gave the viewers something different to chew on.  I was waiting for Bush to finally counter Kerry’s claim that the president didn’t adequately fund the troops by reminding us of Kerry’s vote against the $87B.  That was a very big missed opportunity in the first debate.

Kerry scored when he talked about there being a ‘backdoor’ draft for the military.  We have a reserve force for a reason but I think we’re stretching it to the breaking point.  All the talk about reinstating the draft is pointless though with respect to the presidential election.  The president doesn’t reinstate the draft; congress does.

I thought the discussion of stem cell research was interesting and I thought the president eloquently made his position clear.  Kerry attempted to counter that Bush was being a hypocrite on the matter because he allowed X amount of stem cell lines to be used for research.  Bush correctly pointed out that the embryos had already been killed before he agreed they could be used for research.

Kerry was his usual self often times trying to cover both sides of the issue.  This was clearly seen when talk turned to the Patriot Act.  Kerry of course stated that he voted for it but he also stated that he didn’t like the way it was being used.  Well whaddyaknow…imagine that. 

Did anyone understand that gibberish Kerry was speaking about parental notification?  I'm not aware of one law would require a young woman to get her father/rapist’s permission for an abortion in that instance.

Bush scored talking about the Kyoto treaty.  Kerry mentioned that he would have fixed it and not walked away from it…okay, please just offer up one idea how you would've changed it.  It was just another plan which he fails to offer any specifics about.

Read my lips…Kerry has to be kicking himself for looking directly into the camera and swearing he’ll never raise taxes on anyone earning less than 200K.  Kerry bit on this one hook, line and sinker and I took a big sip of wine and gave Tammy a high five!

The funniest remark of the night and there were a few goes to President Bush with his line, ‘I own a timber company?’…’you wanna buy some wood?’  Whatever point Kerry was trying to make was lost in the laughter which followed. 

I’m not sure if Kerry was off tonight or maybe it was that Bush was on and Kerry seemed to pale from his showing a week ago?  I just don’t think Kerry lived up to his performance from the first debate.  I’m not looking for the polling numbers to change much more than a couple points in Bush’s favor.

Kevin g