Kerry One, Bush Zero

It's obvious that John Kerry was the winner of tonight's debate. I hope this evening's broadcast gave people a vision of what an asset an articulate communicator and thinker would be in the White House. W, on the other hand, appeared like he had suffered a stroke or something.

I came away from the debate believing Kerry could repair some of the damage done to America's relationships in the international community. It's a sad commentary on the current administration when cooperation, dialogue, and attempts at peaceful conflict resolution sound like revolutionary new concepts.

I was very taken aback when early on in the debate President Bush said that as a country we must "consistently stay on the offensive." Is that really the best future that he can envision for our world? Is that the kind of country we want to live in? I realize that we need to defend ourselves, but our president seems like he has an overwhelming desire to use force to advance somewhat vauge goals. Sometimes it wasn't clear if he thought he was running for President of the United States or President of Iraq...

I'm glad that they got the terrorism and Iraq questions out of the way in this first debate -- that allows them to discuss domestic issues next time, which I have found to be sorely lacking in campaign coverage so far.