Breaking Political Stories and Commentary. "We're at the height of the Roman Empire for the Republican Party, but the tide slowly but surely goes out." --Republican US Senator Lindsey Graham, South Carolina
Score this as a draw, but notice that Independents favored Kerry:
The ABC poll of 566 voters found 42 percent picked Kerry as the winner, 41 percent chose Bush and 14 percent said they tied.

Who Won (sorry about the crappy formating -- just keep track of the columns)
Kerry, Bush, Tie
Among Democrats 81%, 5, 11
Among Republicans 12%, 73, 11
Among Independents 42%, 35, 22

The network said 38 percent of its respondents were Republican, 30 percent were Democrats and 28 percent were independent.
Living in New York City sucks sometimes. It's already after 1 pm!

Comments
on Oct 14, 2004
blogic,

A CBS News poll of uncommitted voters who watched the debate named Kerry the winner by 39-25 percent over Mr. Bush, with 36 percent calling it a tie. Fifty-nine percent said Kerry has clear positions on the issues. Before the third debate, only 31 percent of the same voters said Kerry had clear positions.

A USA Today/CNN/Gallup post-debate poll showed Kerry to be the winner by a margin of 52-39 percent.

A third poll conducted by ABC News, showed the debate to be a draw, with 42 percent choosing Kerry and 41 percent picking the president. More Republicans (38 percent) participated in the ABC poll than Democrats (30 percent).

Not one single poll that I have seen so far shows Bush as the winner. The only poll that shows a statistical tie is the ABC poll but it disproportionately had Republican participation (by 8% points) which is significant given that even with more Republicans participating in the ABC poll, Bush still couldn't claim a victory.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/09/08/politics/main641817.shtml

I'm not trying to "pile-it-on" but if the ABC News poll turns out to be Bush's best poll performance for the debate, it's not very good news for him. I concede that the winning debates does not necessarily translate into winning the election. However, the wins do help with "perceptions" and with "momentum." Personally, I think it's going to go right down to the wire.

Oh, and don't hate New York...it's a great city!