By now, it's starting to sink in. The smirk, the defensiveness, the highly scripted answers, all the verbal and physical tics that the President exhibited on Thursday add together to produce one result: the President did not look very presidential.

To call someone the winner of a presidential debate is somewhat difficult. Unless Bush had sat down, had himself a good cry and handed the keys to the Oval Office to Kerry, its unlikely anyone would say Kerry "won" the debate.

We're uncomfortable giving people a winning or losing title in a debate because the idea is that we're comparing and contrasting ideas, and technically, we the voters will decide the winner. So in that vein, I won't call a winner, I'll just comment on what I saw.

First, Bush's body language was terrible. He leaned forward over the podium and pounded it repeatedly while making his points. This made him look too relaxed, not serious enough. It reminded me of a drunk trying to convince me that Brett Favre is the greatest quarterback of all time.

If Bush intended to look forceful and emphatic, he actually looked a little unhinged.

Let's also not forget the reaction shots of Bush looking peeved and annoyed by Kerry's answers. What we saw was the king's edict called into question and the king not happy. The press had been told that it couldn't show reaction shots of the president, but of all channels, Fox News did it worst with a split screen showing both candidates simultaneously.

While Kerry spoke, Bush looked like he was getting a rectal exam. While Bush spoke, Kerry wrote notes furiously. Like all fortunate sons, Bush doesn't like his record being questioned. There is no more telling clue to the arrogance and ignorance of our current president than what was revealed on his face during Kerry's answers.

By contrast, Kerry stood incredibly straight, kept his hand movements clean and his body language confident and still. He also did this without seeming stiff or robotic, of which Gore was frequently accused. All in all, Kerry looked far more comfortable and confident than Bush.

Then there's the language difference. While Bush has been frequently derided as an inarticulate strangler of the English language, he didn't mess up too bad on Thursday.

His more frequent gaffe was being unable to speak at all. At one point he demanded a rebuttal of Kerry (explicitly contradicting their debate agreement), then stood and blinked for a number of seconds before spouting some scripted nonsense. It was a terrible moment for the president and it was right around the 30 minute mark where just about everything fell apart for the president.

Kerry, on the other hand, knocked it out of the park when it came to his answers. He was confident and filled his two minutes of speaking or ninety seconds of rebuttal time. Why the Bush team agreed to the tight answer format when they know Kerry is frequently accused (and rightly so) of being a bit of windbag escapes me.

Bush frequently couldn't fill his response or rebuttal time and repeated the same answers over and over. "Wrong war, wrong place, wrong time," and "cannot send mixed signals" were repeated ad nauseum, but just didn't stick. They sounded too scripted and too familiar.

Not that Kerry didn't indulge in some campaign speak of his own. Personally, I think "Help is on the way" isn't the strongest campaign slogan, but there it was in the debate.

Let's finally get to content. In that regard, I had issues with both candidates. Kerry has frustratingly vague answers on Iraq that generally add up to "I will bring in the international community and wage this war better than the president." I believe that, but I don't know if the undecided voters of America will think that's enough.

On the other hand, Bush is equally guilty of a non-answer. We will be in Iraq because we have to be in Iraq for however long it takes to be in Iraq. This answer is consistent for the President because, just as he cannot say when or how we'll get out of Iraq, he's currently unable to say why we went in.

All the reasons he used to give for going into Iraq have evaporated and he's left with, "Hussein was a threat, don't you think?" A terrible answer and the worst example of Monday morning quarterbacking I've ever seen.

So Kerry is back to even in the polls, Bush sounded and looked very un-presidential, and right now there is no one I know who can call this election.

What an exciting time if you're at all interested in politics! And you should be, because these days they really mean something.

Rob Deters ([email protected]) is a third-year law student.