I caught last night's debate the second time around when one of the cable channels reran the show. I guess I agree with what I've seen in the news and with what Chris posted. W did better but I thought Kerry outboxed him.

I'm not sure what it adds to have ordinary people (OK, undecided voters from the Wash U / STL community) pose the questions. It's neat to see people whose faces you think you recognize, and it gives the candidates a chance to be chummy "Nina, I'm glad you asked that question".

It's just so sickening what politics does to people. I suppose that under ordinary circumstances, Kerry or Bush could tell you how they feel about a subject and discuss honestly the pros and cons of their stance. But we didn't get that last night; we got the same pokes from across the dias that we had last debate. Each one saying "believe me, the other guy is no good".

And after election day, when one of them wins, of course there will much unifying going on and smoothing over of the differences.