Wow. Kerry starts off immediately negative. Not so sure that’s a good idea. Well, at least it’s not wishy-washy. Bush comes out immediately on the offensive as well, with his favorite flip-flop attack. I notice also that Bush said that Hussein was a “grave” threat–but that’s not what he said before, he said “grave and gathering threat.” He drops the “gathering” now because his own people (Duelfer) say that it was a diminishing threat.

However, however weak Bush is on the facts, so far he is winning on delivery. Kerry’s start was a bit muddled and stumbling, Bush has had a smooth delivery so far. Kerry’s also worrying me because of his stage presence–he doesn’t walk around casually, he tends to shuffle.

I’m not sure that I like the moderator’s style–he refused a follow-up for Kerry but gave one readily to Bush. At least right at the start, he should be more even-handed.

But, wow–Kerry just shot back a great response to Bush: he quoted the Duelfer report, what I was waiting for, and faced Bush directly and told him squarely that the sanctions and inspections were to keep WMD out of Iraq, and that’s what they did, and Bush went to was unnecessarily. Bush just laughed at him–and that could be a mistake. Did we get a good shot of that on video? It would make a great campaign commercial for Kerry.