Apart from the first ten minutes, I did not see the debate -- yet anyway. I will watch it tonight and post my comments. Unlike many bloggers who purposefully wrote about their reactions immediately following the broadcast so as to avoid being tainted by any post-debate spin, I on the other hand will read all the spin and THEN view the debate. In this way, I'll have digested all the rehashed commentary and then see for myself to what extent any of it's true. I see the initial feedback is that 1) Kerry won, though uncertainty remains as to whether this consensus judgment will have legs, and 2) Bush lied lots more than Kerry.

I have a question: on the official debate web site, Debates.org, the formats for the debates are listed. However, what’s written does not seem to jive with what was on display last night. For example, “the candidates will be seated at a table with the moderator in the first and third presidential debates.” Huh? And, “the first presidential debate will focus primarily on domestic policy, and the third presidential debate will focus primarily on foreign policy.” Um, wasn’t last night’s first debate about foreign policy? Puzzled.