Third of Three: Another draw. How could it not be? Bush was solid; Kerry was solid. Schieffer is as liberal a media suck-ass as you can find, as he demonstrated again last night. For example:

Schieffer: Mr. President, how can the voters truly know, I mean really sure as shootin' know, that you aren't actually getting a cheap thrill out of dead Americans in body bags?

Compared with:

Schieffer: Senator Kerry, how the heck did you make us wait this long to vote for you? You should have run for this office di-rect from your momma's womb. Why don't you take two minutes to work out on the topic of your choice. Great suit, by the way . . .

Kerry perhaps hit the high water mark of the night by telling a joke at (his own expense) that actually got a laugh. He looked good doing it, too. Some folks have mentioned that the reaction shot from Theresa was ice. Query: Does that make Kerry look less like a kept man, or more?

Great Bush moment: The "painting on the wall" story. Bush's great unstudied talent is to take an obviously scripted moment like this and make it human and compelling. (He's better at this than Reagan, who always sounded scripted, but charmed you into forgiving him for it because it was a damned good script.)