The Blogosphere

Been through the Liberal Blogosphere this morning, checking out the first takes of the debates last night. My opinion? Next to my man Gordon . . .

[. . .]

Kerry was poised, forthright and strong. He didn't sweat or sigh. He kicked Dubya's ass.

Bush was fumblin' an stumblin'. He sighed. As far as I'm concerned he fucked up by the numbers.

[. . .]

. . . the mighty Josh Marshall has the best one:

Now comes the hard part: winning the spin.

John Kerry made a good start of it tonight. But it is absolutely critical for his campaign and his supporters, formal and otherwise, to hit the ground running with a plan to use the grist from the debate to shape perceptions in the final weeks of the campaign.

As I said earlier, I think Kerry did himself the most good tonight simply by belying the Bush campaign's portrayal of him as weak-willed flip-flopper.

[. . .]

There was an air of prickliness and entitlement about the president that Kerry's surrogates should play up too. If you notice, one of the president's major attacks on Kerry through the debate was his claim that Kerry's criticism of the president's own war policy made him unfit to be president.

That's extraordinary -- certainly a set of rules that would put Kerry in something of a bind if he followed them, no?

And that's the best he could come up with: say I've made a mistake in Iraq and you're letting down the troops.

Notice the structure of the president's thinking: The point isn't whether he's made mistakes or screwed things up. But saying he has is bad.

Again, denial. Refusal to see what's happening. Lost. Adrift.