The news-junkies in my family have made it inevitable that I've now seen and heard last night's debate FOUR TIMES. My assessment hasn't changed but merely solidified. Bush, on second, third and fourth viewings, resembles nothing so much as an arrested-development adolescent -- no! with the experience of giving birth to and raising five young adults, I'd have to say more like an EIGHT-YEAR-OLD. "I know you are, but what am I?" was the gist of Bush's presentation. He has absolutely no achievements to boast of other than the benefits he's heaped upon corporations, his most valuable fundraisers and donors, and other wealthy friends. But who cares? The rich have gotten richer and the poor have gotten poorer, but a significant part of the middle class has been persuaded to vote against their economic interests in order to preserve, or renew, some kind of demented social agenda that means pro-choice and pro-separation-of-church-and-state infidels will no longer tempt their children and spouses to threaten their sense of personal emotional security by thinking, and deciding, for themselves.

Bush didn't mention Missouri once. Kerry repeatedly used Missouri statistics as a microcosm of the issues we face. He connected. Bush didn't. Well, maybe with the True Believers who worship at his shrine. But not with anyone outside that cult.

Bush laughed as Kerry cited the Duelfer report, which stated that inspections worked, Saddam was a "diminishing threat" rather than an escalating one, and had no ability, no facilities, to reconstitute a WMD program. Yeah, he laughed. Just like he made fun of the failure to discover Iraq WMD at the National Press Club. I want to wipe that disgusting, arrogant smirk off his face.

EVERY VOTE COUNTS.