Well, it's 30 minutes into the debate, and I'm actually thinking it's a pretty good one.

First of all, C-SPAN rocks. One of the silly rules that both parties agreed on was only to have one candidate on the screen at a time...no split-frame shots. But C-SPAN is apparently the only network ignoring that rule. They're showing both candidates side-by-side at the same time.

Anyway, I think Kerry's done a pretty good job so far of going after the President, though there are a couple of openings that I think he hasn't exploited.

For instance, Lehrer just asked Bush when he's going to bring the troops home, and Bush said something about Iraqis taking care of their own security, but then said something about "when the mission is complete, because this is an important mission". I half expected Kerry to say something like, "If the mission's not finished, then why did this President fly onto an aircraft carrier saying it was?"

Bush just called Kerry's assertion that the U.N. wasn't involved "absurd". I think he's right on that.

Kerry is belittling the coalition again. I don't think he's going to score any points doing that.

[35 minutes]

Bush has hammered pretty hard on Kerry "sending mixed signals" (he's already said it about 7 or 8 times, by my count), to the terrorists, to Iraqis, and to the troops. I think that's probably going to resonate.

Kerry's trying to say that he's not denigrating our coalition, and he's talking about how few troops they've sent. Kerry has now repeated "We're 90% of the casualties and 90% of the costs" in Iraq. As I've said here before, we were something like 85% of the troops in Gulf War I. The big difference is the cost...Saudi Arabia and Japan paid for a large portion of Gulf War I. But how would Kerry get others to pony up the cash? I haven't heard a good answer to that.

Kerry is now harping on invading Iraq as not being "a last resort". Well, how the hell do you determine "last resort", if 17 U.N. resolutions and 12 years haven't been enough?

One of Bush's strategies is to keep quoting Kerry's own words from past speeches in which he called Saddam a great threat.

I thought the early parts of the debate were pretty good, but we're into the second half hour and we're getting lots of repetition in sound bites.

[42 minutes]

I took a break to go get some frozen yogurt. Just as well...still sounds like there's lots of repetition.

We're up to the closing statements...

Kerry just talked about parents and children having questions about how can bring our troops home...and get the job done (he added that second, almost as an afterthought). Same old stuff from Kerry. He talks about bringing the troops home first, and meeting all the objectives second.

Bush is talking about how if we waver, the world will drift toward chaos. He's repeating the "take the fight to the terrorists" so we don't have to fight them here. I think that probably resonates. He keeps using the word "free". "Free Iraq", "Free Afghanistan".

Okay...it's over. I'll probably go back and read the transcript for the stuff I missed. Sounds like they talked about North Korea and Russia during the segment I missed.