Gideon,
My point was that it surprised me, not that debates are normally scored that way, but that you score them that way. Do you really think it matters if the President leans against the podium? Why?
I disagree that Bush comes off as searching for his answer. He comes off as a guy that stammers and sputters and that is exactly what we expected of him. If Bill Clinton had been up there with the big pauses and the stammers it would look bad. But doesn't it look just like business as usual with GWB? The people who think that makes him look like an idiot already believe he is an idiot...so what?
Do you really think that his stammering brought out the fact that he was trying to remember his talking points? So what? We all know they both have talking points...only a real fool (and a likely non-voting fool) thinks they were coming up with this stuff off the cuff. The last thing Bush needed to do was go "off-the-cuff" that would have been a disaster.
I believe that Kerry is a better debater, I believe that Kerry had a better debate, I believe he looked more Presidential (whatever that means), Bush looked tired, angry, blah, blah, blah.
I also believe Kerry will bounce about 4 points on average (3 short of a lead from the last poll average I heard) and then will sink. They will be hammering him on the very things he said very soon and I think it will play and play well. So if you want to say Kerry won today, I agree...but I think he starts losing ground from the debate by next week. This is really a loss.
I could be wrong...we will see. If I am right though my prediction is they will pin it on Edwards. Claiming that he did not make the case against Halliburtan Dick...and that hasn't even happened yet.