Ok. I am FAR from being a political pundit and I am definitely not a debate coach so anything I say about the first Presidential debate is simply a gut feeling based on my own warped sense of reality. So here goes....

Did anyone else get the feeling that the President's handlers were a little nervous to overload his brain with concepts to remember? It's like they gave him a note card with the main concepts hoping that he could expand on them throughout the night.

I have to give him a lot of credit at the beginning. For the first 30 minutes, I thought he was kicking Kerry's butt. But then the next 30 minutes sounded just like the first 30. And same with the last 30. It reminded me of the most recent incarnation of Mike Tyson - go out swinging hard early and hope you catch an early knockout. Unfortunately for Bush is that this thing was going 90 minutes - knockout or not.

The wheels seemed to come off around the 40 minute mark. I stopped thinking, "Wow, Kerry is losing the election," and started thinking, "Hey, haven't I heard him say that already?" First it was "wrong war, wrong place, wrong time." Then he said it again 3 minutes later. Then he mentioned summits in Japan and the middle east twice in 5 minutes. Being president is hard work with hard decisions....again. 100,000 Iraqi troops are trained, 125,000 by the end of next year, and again 10 minutes later. It was like he was a talking doll from when I was a kid and he kept pulling his own string.

It also felt like Bush was on the defensive all night and just plain angry. Like he knew he was getting his butt kicked and all he could do was roll his eyes, sigh and get that look on his face that at any second, he could burst from behind that podium and plant a fist in Kerry's horse face. Kerry on the other hand seemed very mild mannered the entire time. Maybe too mild mannered. I think I would have liked to have seen him get a little fired up once or twice. Come on, John. A little emotion wouldn't kill ya.

I will end with my favorite exchange of the night:

BUSH: You know my opinion on North Korea. I can‘t say it any more plainly.

LEHRER: Well, but when he used the word “truth” again...

BUSH: Pardon me?

LEHRER: ... talking about the truth of the matter. He used the word “truth” again. Did that raise any hackles with you?

BUSH: Oh, I‘m a pretty calm guy. I don‘t take it personally.

LEHRER: OK. All right.

BUSH: You know, we looked at the same intelligence and came to the same conclusion: that Saddam Hussein was a grave threat.

What? Nevermind.

From the Peanut Gallery...

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