The Fun Part: Now go back and read the partisans' comments. Great, delusional stuff. Hugh Hewitt calls this a Bush triumph, while TNR's Ryan Lizza effuses:

There are three keys to presidential debates: expectations, style, and substance. Kerry won on all of them.

You could claim, as I mentioned, that Al Gore won on at least two of those three criteria in 2000, but lost the debates. I'll wait and see how Kerry played in Peoria.

Neither candidate redefined himself, neither shifted "the dynamic on the ground" (to recycle an overused bogus phrase from last night). Here's one big factor you won't read about elsewhere, though: This debate played to Bush's strong suit -- the war. The other debates will cover turf more friendly to Kerry. So tonight was Bush's best chance to put Kerry away; he did not. If you liked hearing Kerry say "As you will see at johnkerrydotcom, I have a thirty-point plan . . ." you're going to be in hog heaven at the domestic policy debate.