USA Today has an interesting poll on the debate. It shows Kerry winning decisively by a 53%/37% margin. Note that the best Gore did versus GW in their debates was a 48%/41% winning margin. Also, Kerry's figure of 53% is as high as Clinton's when he demolished Dole.

Another interesting item is in response to the question of whether or not the debate changed your opinion of the candidates, 46% said "more favorable" for Kerry vs. just 21% "more favorable" for Bush. The best Gore scored in this category was 29%. A reasonable interpretation of this data point could be that whereas debates very often can neither help or hurt a candidate, in this case, it would seem that TV time with GW as a perfect foil can be a very big net plus for the Kerry camp.