**10:26pm EST - I think it helps the tone of the campaign, especially among their supporters that the candidates were about as cordial to each other as you can imagine they could be. They debated their differences of opinion, but largely avoided assasinating each other’s character. Bravo to the moderator and the candidates for a very substantive and solid debate. It was definitely one of the best presidential debates I have ever seen.

**10:22pm EST - Last question is on Russia. The President believes he has delivered his opinion to Putin. Are we going to do anything other than tell him about how wonderful democracy is?

It looks like the President just wants this debate over. It’s going to be a very odd ending to the exchange portion of the debate, on a very mild tone.

**10:20pm EST - The President just called Jim Lehrer, “Ted”.

**10:18pm EST - Well, we agree that we have to deal with proliferation.

**10:14pm EST - Good use by Kerry of the character question to discuss the President’s certainty and how it can be a weakness.

**10:13pm EST - A nice personal exchange between the candidates on the character issue. And even a few chuckles.

**10:11pm EST - The studio audience is doing a very good job of behaving themselves.

**10:09pm EST - Atrios offers the toll-free number to hear the Bush-Cheney spin live at 10:45pm EST.

**10:06pm EST - Bush appears to have nailed Kerry in his response, but Kerry responded to his response by saying the President was talking about sanctions on Iran that were only placed on them by the US.

**10:04pm EST - Kerry says, “The President did nothing.” with regards to North Korea. And we get the first mention of former President Clinton.

**10:03pm EST - Bush finally appears to getting off of Kerry and talking about the future, with respect to North Korea and Iran.

**9:59pm EST - I’m actually pleased with the course of this debate and the focus on one area of policy. It makes for a much more detailed discussion and a more enlightening one.

**9:57pm EST - The President is severely flustered. Kerry has pushed his buttons. You really saw it in the, “Of course I know Osama Bin Laden attacked us. I know that.”

**9:56pm EST - Kerry just got the first real body blow. Pointing out that the President answered a question about troops in Iraq by saying “the enemy attacked us” and going back to Tora Bora again.

**9:54pm EST - Bush: “We will rue the day.” We will rue the day??? Who talks like that? What happened to Mr. Down Home?

**9:53pm EST - Kerry hit two points that needed to be said. Allawi’s assessment of more terrorists coming over the border and the CIE that predicted a best case scenario of a tenouous democracy with continued civil strife.

**9:52pm EST - Kenny is live blogging as well.

**9:47pm EST - The President keeps hammering the same points and is not diverting from them at all. In fact, when we look at the transcript we will find he has used the phrases “grand diversion” and “wrong war, wrong place, wrong time” at least a half a dozen times at this point. At what point do people begin to wonder whether he is really answering the question being asked?

**9:44pm EST - Halfway through, but the word “Vietnam” has not been uttered. Kerry is effectively tiptoeing around it.

**9:43pm EST - “Has the war been worth the cost of life?” - excellent question Jim.

**9:42pm EST - I just had a Ross Perot flashback, when the President said “Let me finish.”

**9:40pm EST - Kerry is sticking to the “fresh start” theme, but Bush is effectively counterpunching with his criticism.

**9:38pm EST - Counter-punch from John Kerry - hard facts on the real numbers of troops from our “partners”.

**9:36pm EST - President: “To go from a place where people get their hands cut off or are executed to a place where people are free.” I’m sorry, but don’t we execute people?

**9:34pm EST - Is anyone counting the number of the President’s uhs and ums?

**9:32pm EST - Bush had a solid response to Kerry’s criticism of the lack of an alliance. He hit him hard with his own words, and he keeps coming back to the same themes.

**9:28pm EST - Senator Kerry offered his prepared response to the “I voted for it before I voted against it.” Which was “I made a mistake in speaking about the war, the President made a mistake in planning the war. Which is worse?” Not bad, but not a homerun.

**9:27pm EST - The Bush-Cheney instant response is extremely unimpressive. The “facts” under almost every Kerry response includes the supposed votes against the Department of Homeland Security.

**9:25pm EST - The President seemed to stutter start on the question about what criteria he would use to determine when the troops will come home. Now he’s passing it off on his generals.

**9:24pm EST - This debate has begun very well and substantively. Lehrer has asked some very good questions.

**9:22pm EST - “I don’t know how he’s going to pay for all of this.” Well, Mr. President, I’m not surprised.

**9:21pm EST - Kerry falls back on stump speech line about firehouses and police stations in Iraq being funded while their being closed in America. Is it really the job of the federal government to fund police officers and firehouses?

**9:19pm EST - President asks for an extension and gets it.

**9:16pm EST - President’s slip of the tongue - “Sadaam Hussein, uh, I mean, Osama Bin Laden”

**9:14pm EST - Pres. Bush = “He had no intention of disarming” WHAT? Mr. President, if he had no intention of disarming, where are the arms????

**9:12pm EST - Steven is live blogging as well.

**9:10pm EST - Senator Kerry has made the statements he needs to make, projecting strength. He just hit Tora Bora.

**9:08pm EST - Kerry-Edwards offering instant response as well.

**9:04pm EST - Senator Kerry is wasting time already on the first question.

**8:27pm EST - I’m disappointed James won’t be live blogging tonight.

**8:24pm EST - Glenn Reynolds points out some clever live debate blogging by the Bush-Cheney camp.

**6:51pm EST - ABC News’ The Note is posting live links as well. Kerry will be taking the first question and Bush will be delivering the final closing statement.

**6:42pm EST - We should take Dan Froomkin’s challenge seriously. Part of the blogosphere’s role is to do some of the work that mainstream journalists refuse to do.

**6:33pm EST - CBS is reporting on the pre-spin spin by both camps,

Both campaigns have drawn up mock “briefing books” for their opponents.

Former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani introduced the Bush briefing book for Kerry with a familiar attack on the senator’s alleged vacillation on major policy issues.

“Sen. Kerry has taken so many different positions on the issues facing the country that we thought he would benefit from the overview of the most interesting debate — the one John Kerry is having with himself,” Giuliani said in a statement.

…

For its part, the Kerry campaign’s line is that the Bush presidency is a failure.

“Each month since the handover of sovereignty has been bloodier than the last,” said the Kerry briefing book for Mr. Bush, discussing casualties in Iraq. The book is called the PDB, or Prebuttal Debate Briefing, a reference to the Aug. 6, 2001 presidential daily brief that discussed a possible al Qaeda plot to hijack airliners.

…

“Osama Been Forgotten,” the book quips, and later claims, “Bush has no strategy for Iran.”

The Kerry campaign also distributed CDs to the media titled “Bush Vs. Reality.”

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