So who won the debates?

The question, of course, is how you define a win. Going into the debates, I thought that for Kerry to "win" the debates, he had to seize the momentum from Bush by either pushing Bush into making a serious gaffe or by scoring a knockout on the issue of Iraq. Anything else would not be sufficient to halt or reverse Bush's momentum. So while the mainstream media was all agog with how well Kerry performed during the three debates, the fact remained that Bush committed no gaffes and Kerry was revealed as the inconsistent weakling on Iraq and terrorism that he truly is. After the third debate, I said that the election polls in the week following would show you who truly won the debates.

These results tell the tale. And this longterm trend is even more telling. Complacency should definitely be avoided like the plague, but I feel rather comfortable in predicting that Bush will be re-elected in 15 days. Kerry's best hope now is the DNC's planned election-day chicanery. While I am concerned about the high possibility of fraud, it is reassuring to know that the Democrats have nothing else to rely on.