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 ...

Here's the description After another volley of rhetoric and statistics from both sides of the stage, Sen. John Kerry walked away as the clear winner of the final debate according to a flash poll conducted immediately after closing statements by the candidates. According to the Gallup organization as reported by CNN, Kerry won the debate with 52% while only 39% felt that George Bush had the better night. Still searching for more results...

Here are early poll results : 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 29 percent of the same voters said Kerry had clear positions. I'll keep looking for other data.

That's not good for Kerry. We'll see if that become a story.

There are two ways to talk about who won the debate: One is to talk about how you would have scored the debate were you a judge. The second is to talk about how viewers and -- once the spin gets going -- non-viewer voters see the debate. I'm always more interested in how the debates will be interpreted by the viewers and other voters. Personally, I've thought every debate other than the first was a draw. That's a copout, I know, but I think the candidates have performed well except for...

Hey, is it my imagination, or did Bush focus on foreign policy in his closing statements? Wasn't this the domestic policy debate?

And did Kerry say he hadn't? Does anyone know?

I don't mean that in a biased fashion. Bush is coming off well because he's energetic and aggressive. Kerry is performing very similarly to how he has in the previous debate. He's less energetic, but he speaks calmly in a measured voice, and he knows his facts. I've generally assumed one reason poll respondents like Kerry in debates, is that he sounds presidential. I think he's doing that tonight, but Bush's game is on, and I know lots of viewers like that. So, what do viewers like...

Bush looks less angry, and more comfortable than in the last debate. Worlds better than he did in the first. The initial take will probably be that it's a draw. My guess is that overnight polls will show that. Both Democrats and Republicans will think their candidate won, and the number of undecideds has been decreasing for at least a couple of weeks. Conservatives are going to love Bush's performance, and it may boost their turnout. They may have been demoralized, and Bush's stro...

From the polling I've seen on the second debate, men respond well to Bush's willingness to attack, but women are turned off by it

Bush just claimed he never said that he wasn't worried about Osama bin Laden. Bush looked into the camera and make fun of Kerry for claiming Bush had. In fact, this is what Bush said : "We want him dead or alive ... but we are not too worried about him. ... He is the one who needs to be worried," Bush said. and Q: Mr. President, in your speeches now, you rarely talk or mention Osama bin Laden. Why is that? [...] BUSH: ... I don't know where he is. Nor -- you know, I just don't spen...

For those on the Left Mrs. blogic and I watched this spoof last night. It stars -- well, it more than stars, it's only him and the horses -- Will Farrell, doing his very funny impression of George Bush. As an aside, the guy Saturday Night Live has doing their Kerry impression -- Seth Myers -- is perfect. He looks creepily like Kerry, and knows to play it over the top instead of striving for accuracy. For those on the Right I feel guilty posting this. If I valued politics ov...

There's a rumor that's percolated to late night television and major papers that Bush is wearing a wire during the debates . While there's obviously something going on there, I don't think Bush is getting his lines read to him. For one thing, would he have performed so badly in the first debate if some debate expert were feeding Bush lines? The simplest answer is that Bush is wearing a bulletproof vest -- the only problem with that is the White House denies it. Maybe the Secret Service...

Seymour Hersh is the guy who reported the My Lai massacre during the Vietnam War, and he was one of the first people to discover that prisoners were being tortured in Iraq, at Abu Ghraib. Bush supporters reflexively deny his reports, but his facts have a history of holding up. When the torture story broke, pro-Bush talking heads told us that it was nothing worse than a fraternity prank. Then we saw the photos, and learned that some were so horrific that Congress didn't think we should see ...

For those of you who don't read The Economist , it's about as solidly old-style freemarket capitalist as you can get. It favors low taxes, disciplined budgets, minimal regulation, and free trade. They polled economists -- not exactly a group known for being left wing on economic policy -- and got these results : In an informal poll of 100 academics, conducted by The Economist, Mr Bush's policies win low marks. More than 70% of the 56 professors who responded to our survey rate Mr Bush's f...