PRESTOPUNDIT

AND THE WINNER WAS . . . my little boy, who turned off the TV and played cars with his daddy.

Tonight it was my wife's turn to watch the debates -- she caught the last 45 minutes of the debate and really thought George Bush did well, much better than John Kerry. She's always liked Bush, and liked him tonight. On a number of social issues my wife agrees more with Kerry than Bush, but she wasn't much impressed with Kerry, and didn't find him very likeable. She liked Bush's answers on religion and the women in his life.

I take it this is all good news for George Bush.

No word yet from the lefty sister-in-law.

UPDATE: Hugh Hewitt has a round by round analysis and PoliPundit has great stuff, including a video clip of the President laughing at the credibility of network news.

Patterico picks up the wife theme:

Bush had a great answer on the wife question! .. This is a good example of why people like Bush .. Kerry doesn't really seem to want to talk about his wife. Don't blame him.

Kerry Haters might enjoy this Betsy Newmark pull quote from KerrySpot.

Bill Dyer channels PrestoPundit (I caught the first few minutes of the debate):

CBS News should have just dropped any pretense of fairness and sent Dan Rather to moderate this damn thing. The questions couldn't have been much more slanted if Michael Moore had been the moderator.

He also caught these, which I missed:

Take-away lines from the transcript, one from Dubya, and one from Kerry that Dubya & Co. will exploit: "A plan is not a litany of complaints." And "I think it makes sense, I think most Americans in their guts know, that we ought to pass a sort of truth standard." (Picture Chirac administering a lie detector test at the U.N., after he's graded the global test.)

And here's the wife thing again:

An aside, purely speculating, regarding Kerry's joke near the end: "Well, I guess the president and you [referring to Bob Schieffer] and I are three examples of lucky people who married up. And some would say maybe me moreso than others. But I can take it." In the next camera shot of Theresa, she looked like the furies of hell had swirled up inside her; she had the kind of grim smile a hungry tigress displays before she sinks a claw into a gazelle's liver. And fer pete's sake, besides saying she was "strong," which Shieffer's question practically required him to say, and the crack about her being rich, Kerry couldn't come up with another thing to say specifically about THK.

And Bill has more from The Corner on the same matter (scroll down).

Baldilocks live blogged the debate via streaming Internet feed (I think she said the other day she would be working tonight). If you skipped the debate, these are excellent Cliff Notes. Smash also live blogged the debate. Here's his post-debate analysis:

Kerry was confident, but he didn't bring anything new to the table. But Bush brought his "A Game," and he definitely outshone Kerry in style and substance. Bush did not stumble, and kept hammering his points home. He kept Kerry on the defensive. His whiney voice was gone. The President came armed with facts, and supreme confidence. Kerry made two big gaffes in this debate, that I noticed. First, he brought up Cheney's lesbian daughter, seemingly out-of-the-blue, which came across to me as a lame attempt at a low blow. Second, and most importantly, Kerry's finish was lame.

InstaPundit does the wife:

THE WIFE QUESTION: Both do the best of the evening so far. But Bush hits it out of the park. Kerry hits a double. Bush's problem -- is anybody still watching?

Tom Maguire also does the wife:

some of the early questions were absurdly pro-Kerry, all was forgiven with Bob Schieffer's last question about how Bush and Kerry have been affected by the strong women in their lives. This was a hanging curveball for Bush, since we all love Laura. At the other podium, Kerry did not mention Teresa by name; instead, he made the pivot to his belated mom, which is always defensible, but a bit awkward for his current wife. Fine, we are sure she polls badly, but now even Kerry is running away from her?

And has this on the men:

Kerry had a brief stretch for which his debate coach must have been Dr. Kevorkian - who in the Kerry camp thought it would be a good idea for Kerry to push the assault weapons ban and affirmative action back to back? Hard luck with the order of the questions, as disgruntled white guys everywhere lock and load for Bush.

Well time for bed. The kids exhausted me today. Posted by Greg Ransom