Phew!...Yee-haw

A few thoughts on the debate tonight before I turn in. Unlike Gore in 2000, Kerry won the body language war. Bush, partially because of the vast gulf between reality and his rhetoric, looked very cornered, flummoxed and nervous the whole time. Defensive would be the catch-all word for the president's performance.

And unlike 2000, the networks didn't call the debate for Bush. First they tried to say it was a draw, but when they were pushed, they admitted that Kerry did a great job of getting himself over the hurtle of being viewed a legitimate commander-in-chief. Even FoxNews thought Kerry won and that the race will tighten. Man, if Bush can't get them to sing is praises, you know it's not just be being partisan.

ABCNews did a snap poll, which show that Kerry won the debate according to voter-viewers, but the overall horserace didn't shift. Thankfully, they explained that is very natural. Interestingly Democrats were much more sure than Republicans 89% to 67% that their man won. Even better, Kerry won self-described Independents two-to-one.

But of course, Democrats can just sit back and smile, the next 48 hours are key to solidifying this impression that Kerry won and would make a good/decent Commander-in-Chief. JK really did a good job at being clear and forceful, but not combative, unlike Bush.

Back to the real world war on Terror, a Judge today ruled that the infamous section 505 (the FBI can read your library books and look at what you surf online section) was unconstitutional. And Hamandi is about to let go from his "detainment" and no charges have been filed. I am glad we can violate Habus Corpus with no real positive results. The one court victory on the war on terror was overturned because the Justice Department withheld evidence bad for their case. And the FBI has thousands of hours of untranslated tapes of conversations between suspected terrorists.

The important thing to note here is that America got to hear how each candidate stood on very important issues to the safety of this country. Being an International Relations major, I am privately pleased that Americans are focusing on foreign policy now more than ever and that major topics were discussed in clarity without too much name-calling. Anyone who saw the debate can't claim they don't know where Kerry or Bush stand on Iraq, Iran, North Korea, and the general war on terror. For that I am grateful to both candidates.

As a side note, the House Ethics committed wagged its finger at Majority Leader Tom DeLay for trying to bribe a member for his vote. By the way, all the GOP members of the committee have accepted tens thousands of dollars from DeLay's PAC. I am sure they are fair and balanced.