Round 2: Bush vs. Kerry

Here are the links to the transcript of the presidential debates, for those who missed them:

First Debate

Second Debate

They are a lengthy read, but worth reading. You may pick up some points you didn't get to when listening to these candidates live. I also missed the second debate because I was at work. Well, this morning, I read through the entire thing (took me a good hour and half) and had some lunch, and now I'm about to read through the responses of the well known Hardbloggers at Hardball with Chris Matthews.

With just 23 days and 8 hours left until election day, the polls are still locked tightly, not giving way one way or the other. It is also surprising that while most of the viewers who responded to the polls posted at MSNBC.com stated that Kerry had won both debates -- just a bit ahead of the president on the first one, and an overwhelming victory over the second one -- the national polls still show the incumbent president in the lead, although slightly. Kerry is gaining grounds, but just too slowly.

As stated on MSNBC.com, President Bush has 172 solid reds with 45 pinks (leaning towards Bush), for a total of 217, and Senator Kerry has 168 solid blues with 32 baby blues (leaning towards Kerry) for a total of 200. That leaves a total of 121 in the toss up and 270 is needed to win. This is going to be another close one -- seems like Bush has the tendencies of close calls. Just hope that we don't have another fiasco like Florida of 2000. We're already the laughing stock of the world because of Al Qaeda and Iraq.

As far as California, my home state goes, although the on-line encyclopedia, Wikipedia, states that California is a possible swing state, it doesn't look like it. The democrats have held firm ground in Cal for ages, and although our governor is a Republican, due to a recall circus, he has yet to have "terminated" any democrats currently holding office. Both our Senators are fierce women in blue, and the House Reps are over 60% dems.

During the recall of Cal's governor, I almost predicted that Davis would be kicked out. But I kept thinking that people would vote for Ah-nold just for the saking of voting for Ah-nold. Perhaps the voters were being whimsical. And when the polls showed him terminating the competition except for Cruz Bustamante who was following rather closely, I was surprised! Ah-nold just might win! If Bustamante had won, the recall election might not have been the memorable infamous fiasco it seems now -- other than anyone who's anyone running, like Gary Coleman, and a self-proclaimed porn king. But because the Kindergarten Cop won, it made a even bigger mockery of Cal politics. I'm digressing again, but let me just close up by saying that Ah-nold is doing a surprisingly good job -- not fantastic, but better than expected. Not dismal.

My point was that more and more, the challenger seems more likely to win. Kerry just might win.