Welp, the early post-debate numbers are in and they confirm what sane people already knew: Kerry gave Bush the smack-down. Again.

I think the net result of these debates is that the American people have now seen how thoughtful and presidential Kerry actually is, and Bush isn't. You know Karl Rove had to be freaking as the meticulously stage-managed multi-million dollar caricatures he'd built for both Bush and Kerry evaporated before the public's eyes in three 90 minute viewings.

Of course the cable news media, in a fit of "objectivity", is working overtime to show how both sides distorted the facts equally. Sorry, but there's a light year of difference between misstating facts and figures on an issue that is nonetheless true (i.e. quoting job statistics that can be looked at multiple ways, although no matter which way you look indicate that Bush is the first president since the Great Depression to lose jobs, or stating that Bush never met with the NAACP or other black leadership organizations, when he actually did meet with the Congressional Black Caucus only after they camped out at the White House and refused to leave), and making claims that are the exact opposite of reality (i.e. saying "Gosh, I just don't think I ever said I'm not worried about Osama bin Laden. It's kind of one of those ex-a-gger-ations" when anybody with a TV knows better).