War Is Hell ... To Watch. During the debate, Bush had this to say about the war in Iraq: "I understand how hard it is. ... I see on the TV screens how hard it is."

Can you imagine the Republican/media shitstorm if Kerry had said that? Or the ridicule if Kerry had referred to terrorists as "a group of folks," as Bush did? (This also brings to mind Bush's first public comments on September 11, 2001, in which he vowed to "hunt down and to find those folks who committed this act.")

And if you note how often Bush used the phrase "hard work," you'd never know that he's been on vacation for 40-50% of the time he's been in office. ... I watched the debate on PBS, so I didn't know that some channels (like C-SPAN) showed a split-screen until I watched "The Faces of Frustration."

Fair and Balanced: "Fox News apologized Friday for posting phony quotes from Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry on its Web site. Carl Cameron, a Fox reporter who covers the Kerry campaign, wrote an item that looked like a news story with made-up Kerry quotes..." According to Fox, this whole unfortunate mess "occurred because of fatigue and bad judgment." Josh Marshall has plenty to say.

Marshall also notes that the Miami Herald and a local Florida TV station spoke with a panel of eight undecided voters after the debate. One of them, Ted Lyons, thought Kerry sounded like "an idiot" in his response to several questions. Later on in the article, we discover that Lyons is a Republican political consultant. ... And perhaps not so "undecided" after all.