Kerry Spot on The Debate

The Kerry Spot has a lot of good posts here, here, here, here, and here. From one of them:

On the one hand, last night Kerry was the best he was since the Democratic convention, and maybe the primaries. My head is saying, that's got to give him at least a point or two in the polls, if not more. He no longer looks orange, he no longer is giving dull, droning, rambling answers. If he didn't quite look presidential, he stopped looking like the tall Dukakis.

On the other hand, my gut is saying that Kerry didn't do what he needed to do. Kerry Spot reader John points out that the Democratic candidate gave his foes a lot of ammunition for the coming days:

Kerry obviously won on style. He looked good. But who has the material to work with and exploit over the next week? Clearly Bush. 1. "Global test?" Major mistake. We're gonna hear a lot about this. Probably today. Hopefully today.

2. Kerry didn't seem to know there were already sanctions on Iran.

3. Summit. Summit. Summit. Blah, Blah. Blah.

4. Kerry is opposed to the nuclear bunker busters as though we're the moral equivelant of our enemies. How very 80's of him.

5. Kerry certainly won Kim Jong Il's vote.

6. Kerry wants both bi-lateral AND multi-lateral discussions with North Korea? Sheesh. How about a stand? Sorry, forgot who we're dealing with.

7. Kerry said nuclear proliferation is his greatest fear and opposes missile defense? Uhm, okay.

8. He mis-spoke about the 87 billion dollars? How about, as Bush might put it, he mis-voted? Terrible reponse.

9. Was Iraq a mistake, or wasn't it? He doesn't know. He says both in the same debate. I rub my hands in anticipation of the RNC's commercial on this.

10. No subways were closed during the Republican convention. Duh.

There's little I see for Kerry to work with coming out of this debate in a substantive way. Bush can make hay. Kerry can pump his fist in the air. I'd prefer both but given the choice, I'll take the hay.

Maybe I can Kerry my way out of these conflicting senses. Kerry's style was dramatically improved, but the substance of his answers is going to hurt him in the coming days... and I return to my prediction of last night, no dramatic movement in the polls in either direction.