Funny, That

I didn’t watch the debate last night (I was engrossed in this instead), but I can’t help but notice that all the liberal sites are declaring Kerry the winner, while all the conservative sites say Bush cleaned his clock.

To wit:

“Kerry Closes the Deal” by William Saletan at Slate (tagline: “Kerry Crushes Bush”)

“Strike Three!” by Tim Grieve at Salon (“Bush gets that sinking feeling as a steady and presidential Kerry sweeps the series”)

“Winner Take All” by Ryan Lizza at the New Republic (“Kerry won the third debate the same way he won the first two: by foiling Bush’s attempts to label him.”) (subscription req’d)

“On All Cylinders” by Fred Barnes at the Weekly Standard (“Bush does everything you want from a candidate in a debate”)

“Bush-Kerry III: Return of the King” by Jonathan Last also at the Weekly Standard

Jay Nordlinger at National Review: “That’s my boy. That’s my Bush. He a hoss — a debatin’ hoss. Last night, he was flat-out marvelous in debate. I said, following the second debate, that he had done well, but not his best. (Who does his best all the time? That’s why we call it ‘best.’) Last night, he did his best — and his best is superb. And I say this as an analyst, not a Bush partisan.”

You get the picture.

For what it’s worth, the polls seem to be showing a fairly decisive Kerry victory (see here for summary), whatever “victory” means in this context.