Maybe I'm crazy, but I swear there was only one president on that stage tonight, and it wasn't the guy who lives at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
I guess we'll know more when the polls start to come in....
UPDATE: As always, Joe Gandelman has the roundup.
UPDATE 2: The first scientific poll I've seen (CNN's) has Kerry winning it 52-39.
UPDATE 3: Since the MSNBC crew I'm watching won't stop whining about Kerry's mention of Dick Cheney's daughter's sexuality, I'll point out that Mary Cheney is an official employee of the Bush/Cheney campaign. In fact, according to MSNBC's own website, "Mary Cheney is director of vice presidential operations for the Bush-Cheney re-election campaign. She held a public role as her father’s assistant in the 2000 campaign and helped the GOP recruit gay voters during the 2002 midterm elections." [Emph. added.]
How in God's name could she be any more of a public figure?
I keep getting emails asserting that Kerry's mentioning of Mary Cheney is somehow offensive or gratuitous or a "low blow". Huh? Mary Cheney is out of the closet and a member, with her partner, of the vice-president's family. That's a public fact. No one's privacy is being invaded by mentioning this. When Kerry cites Bush's wife or daughters, no one says it's a "low blow." The double standards are entirely a function of people's lingering prejudice against gay people. And by mentioning it, Kerry showed something important. This issue is not an abstract one. It's a concrete, human and real one. It affects many families, and Bush has decided to use this cynically as a divisive weapon in an election campaign. He deserves to be held to account for this - and how much more effective than showing a real person whose relationship and dignity he has attacked and minimized? Does this makes Bush's base uncomfortable? Well, good.
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