My thoughts on the Presidential Debates of last week...

I'm not sure who I'm voting for. I don't really support either candidate in any way. I have to say I came away with it thinking that Bush stayed constant and that Kerry dipped down a bit in my estimation.Kerry seems to be playing the "I wouldn't have..." card. That's fine to do, but in hindsight it's a lot easier to say he would have done this or that. He disagreed with how the President went into Iraq...but who's to say he wouldn't have done the same thing if he'd be presented with the same information?

Bush's painting of Kerry as not being a guy the troops can stand behind since Kerry's comment of "wrong war, wrong place..." was somewhat effective the first time. Less effective the next 12 times I heard it. Also, Bush stammered pretty often and looked blankly at the camera once or twice. That's to be expected from him when he's speaking from anything other that prepared remarks though.

One thing each seemed to give a concrete answer on was N. Korea. Bush wants to proceed with multi-sided talks involving China, whereas Kerry wants to talk one-on-one with N. Korea. General Wesley Clark pretty much said China's laughing at the Bush choice since now China thinks we need them to 'help' us. I don't know the reality of the situation so I don't know which stand would be better.

Another Bush point was asking Kerry how he thinks other countries are going to join us in Iraq since it's pretty much a quagmire. That'd be a fine point as well if it didn't seem to be the Bush position to stay the course in that terrible situation. That Kerry seems to want the burden shared (in lives and dollars) by other countries--I'm not too sure how you're going to sell other countries on Iraq using that argument.

I really only give Bush an edge because he's the sitting President and has a definitive record, whereas Kerry was taking the hindsight approach that just personally struck me as pretty easy to do.My thoughts, all IMHO. Vice Presidential Debate thoughts coming later...