Presidential Debate 1

1. Mark Steyn: Kerry's polished, but he can't make his case (suntimes.com)
2. Why Bush Won: But here's a quick test of last night's electoral effect: what do you remember a day later, off the top of your head?Chances are, it's that Kerry called Iraq "the wrong war at the wrong place at the wrong time." Or that it is bad to send "mixed messages" (or "mixed signals"). Bush said each of these things seven times (Kerry, attempting to parry Bush's thrusts, said "mixed messages" another three times). Kerry spoke competently on each point of debate, but swing voters aren't going to walk around with his talking points in mind -- he only brought up rushing to war three times, for example. (American Spectator)
3. Debate Analysis: We know what you are all are asking - Who won? We think it's a tie. Sorry, but it's true. Both sides can make good arguments that they won. In our opinion Kerry probably stopped the bleeding tonight and he'll live to fight another day, but are there enough days left? (crushkerry)
4. KERRY DIDN'T GET IT DONE (nypost)
5. GOP Debate Facts (hughhewitt)
6. A Clear Difference (nypost)
7. Political strategists declare debate a draw (washingtontimes)
8. Not Enough: John Kerry was able to stir the faithful, but his performance wasn't enough to change the dynamics of the race. (Fred Barnes, Weekly Standard)
9. President's armor undented (H.D.S.Greenway, Boston Globe)
10. Iraq was shooting at U.S. in no-fly zones (indcjournal)
11. Der Spiegel: Bush Won Debate (captainsquartersblog)
12. Yepsen: Kerry scores, but there's no knockout (Des Moines Register)
13. ONE WINNER ON SUBSTANCE, ANOTHER ON STYLE (Dick Morris, NY Post)
14. Kerry Keeps Hopes Alive (David Corn, The Nation)
15. No knockout punch, but good news for Kerry (Robert Novak, Chicago Sun Times)
16. JUDGING THE DEBATE: A WASTED NIGHT: One more thing. John Kerry said, "They had to close down the subway in New York when the Republican Convention was there." Um, no. They didn't (Podhoretz, NY Post)
17. Kerry's strong showing tightens campaign - Bush missed opportunities to counter challenger: Substance is another matter. The Democratic nominee continues to peddle the fiction that the United States "pushed our allies aside" in a rush to the war in Iraq. He means France and Germany were pushed aside, of course, yet in fact both those countries indicated in the run-up to the invasion that they were not prepared to support such an enterprise, period. It was not a question of waiting a few more weeks or months to entice them into an alliance.
    Meanwhile, as recently as the past few days, key German and French officials have reiterated their opposition to sending troops. Yet Kerry repeated over and over Thursday his intention to call a summit if he is elected - a summit at which, apparently, he intends to cajole other countries into sending a significant number of new or additional troops. And this is the man who accuses the president of being out of touch with reality? (Rocky Mountain News)
18. Great Debate: Bush wins by not losing - The only truly surprising thing about last night's presidential debate was how good it was. Crisp, authoritative and articulate, both George W. Bush and John Kerry were at the top of their respective games. We call it a draw. But because Mr. Kerry did not get the breakout performance that he needs to turn this race around heading into the homestretch, the president won by not losing. (Dallas Morning News)
19. KERRY VS. KERRYKerry’s Top Ten Iraq Flip FlopsFrom First Debate (gop.org)
20. Kerry May Have Given His Foes Too Much Fodder (nationalreview.com)
21. BUSH PICKS UP AFTER STUMBLE: But Kerry's team may have made a strategic blunder in its post-debate strategy, which took a distinctly snarky tone of ridiculing Bush for his debate smirks and scowls instead of honing in on the issues. That was a clear copycat strategy on how Bush scored by ridiculing Al Gore's audible sighs in the first 2000 debate — but that was a very different time, pre-9/11, and the stakes and issues now are much more serious. (Deborah Orin, NY Post)
22. John Kerry as negotiator: this line, from Sen. Kerry, jumped out at me -- If the president had shown the patience to go through another round of [United Nations] resolution [sic], to sit down with those leaders, say, "What do you need, what do you need now, how much more will it take to get you to join us?" we'd be in a stronger place today.
    [...] John Kerry using the Clinton style of negotiating with North Korea ...
    "You can have anything you want, but that's my final offer." (beldar.blogs.com)

Other

• Bush unfair in criticizing Kerry anti-war?
  [Vietnamese General] Giap: Your objective in war can either be to wipe out the enemy altogether or to leave their forces partly intact but their will to fight destroyed. It was the American policy to try and escalate the war. Our goal in the '68 offensive was to force them to de-escalate, to break the American will to remain in the war....
  [commentary] Once any observer admits that part of war is the effort to destroy the enemy's will to fight, then we have to assume the enemy in Iraq wants to destroy America's will to fight in Iraq. If the enemy sees no progress in that regards, the enemy becomes dispirited, more prone to quit. But if the enemy sees a vigorous anti-war movement develop in the United States, sees masterful anti-American propaganda gain audience and respectability (Michael Moore at the DNC) and then sees a candidate announce his hope that American troops will be withdrawn from Iraq within his first term, then the enemy takes hope --courage-- and resolves to fight on, to kill and maim and do so again and again in the hope of further eroding the will of the enemy.
  Thus Kerry has encouraged the insurgency to shoulder on. (hughhewitt)
• Did Kerry write own report of disputed clash? by Thomas Lipscomb (suntimes)
• Norway Al Qaeda target? (command-post)