Kerry 1, Bush 0

I unfortunately missed about the first half-hour of the debate (I know, bad blogger!) but from the moment I turned it on, I could tell Kerry was winning, and the gap between him and Bush only widened from there. Kevin Drum has a post on the best Bush sound clip from last night. The list includes "He forgot Poland," "It's like, a huge tax gap," and "Of course I know Osama bin Laden attacked us. I know that." Those are all good, but in my opinion, the "sound clip" that best defines Bush's performance last night wouldn't make a very good sound clip at all: the moment after George Bush was asked to respond to one of Kerry's statements when he stood there, absolutely silent, with his mouth open for a couple seconds. In a debate loaded with questions of such great magnitude as last night's, the fact that Bush did this at all should have sent Karl Rove in a fit of pure rage. But after the debate, when Rove entered "Spin Alley," he claimed that "It was one of the president's better debate performances and one of Kerry's worst." As Ryan Lizza points out in his piece for The New Republic, such blatant lies as this in desperate attempts to spin the public perception of the debate in Bush's favor are clear indicators that Kerry was the clear winner of the debate. The post debate polls only made it clearer. ABC: 45%-36% say Kerry won. CNN/USA Today/Gallup: 53%-37% in Kerry's favor. CBS (poll of uncommitted voters): 43%-28% say Kerry won. I think even Karl Rove is going to have a hard time spinning this one around -- although when you're dealing him, you never know. What I'm more curious about now is how George Bush will fare in next week's debate. Ryan Lizza suggests that he may have the same problem Al Gore did in 2000. Bush has already been strongly criticized for his gestures and facial expressions, and if he and his advisors let it get to them, Bush could be coached to the point that he will simply appear uncomfortable at the podium. The other possibility, I think, is that Bush will come out swinging relentlessly, in an attempt to catch Kerry off guard. However, from what we saw from Kerry last night, I think the possibility of him being caught off guard is unlikely. Kerry showed last night that he has a clear message, and he is fully capable of articulating it. He also showed that he is a master of using the debate format to his advantage -- something that seemed to give Bush problems. If last night's debate was any indication of what we will see in the remaining two presidential debates, it could spell disaster for George Bush, and prove once and for all that Kerry truly is a world class "come from behind" politician.