Now that the first debate is over, the spin is in and SNL has spoken, we can all conclude that Kerry won the debate. Perhaps more importantly is that it seems people were tipped off their undecided posts by Kerry's performance or, at least, supports were moved to support Kerry. The DNC reported that hits to the Kerry (or DNC?) website were up 20 fold and that 20,000 new folks donated money. That's tangible results.

The Bush/Cheney lying machine were a victim of their own creation. They lied and smeared people into thinking that Kerry was a hapless flip flop that people were floored by what many of us already knew, that John Kerry is solid.

One strategy that worked for Kerry during the Iowa primaries was the town hall format. The reason was the people got to hear Kerry upclose and question him and what they found was a sincere, earnest, honest and competent man.

The same thing will probably happen again during the next debate as people try to confirm what they witnessed in the first debate, that Kerry is a solid, sincere and competent person, and they will see that. Now we are beyond the media spin and right wing noise chamber and the candidates are now head to head, juvenile ads cannot help George Bush now.

BTW, Archbishop Burke is at it again with a "pastoral" letter. Basically, abortion and same sex marriage are intrinsically evil, while war and death penalty are not, ergo. I submit such an argument to Catholics of goodwill and commonsense. There is a reason why people think the archright have no souls. I'd like to Archbishop Burke to talk to the thousands of mothers in Iraq who have watched their sons and daughters die for a lie and tell them they died not for an intrinsic evil AND we have more pressing evils to deal with, i.e., same sex marriage before we address this war thing. The man does not care for life, period.

Catholics deserve a president like John Kerry who resonates with Catholic values. We need to say no the Tom Delays, Cheneys, Abp Burkes of the world, who do not care for human lives.