October 1, 2004 - I tried to watch last night’s event with an unbiased eye, evaluating the contestants and their performances as an exercise in political theater. The fact that I am not among the unconvinced and undecided made that task a bit easier. I had nothing riding on the outcome and was thus freed to step back and watch the game for what it was the latest renewal of the quadrennial political blood sport that had its origin 44 years ago. I have seen every one since Jack Kennedy stole the mantle of incumbency from Richard Nixon right there on live TV. Kennedy seemed Presidential while Nixon seemed scared. Nixon’s performance was blamed on his make-up; it was blamed on an injury to a knee suffered on the way to the studio but whatever the cause that first televised Presidential debate closed the gap in the polls and made the Junior Senator from Massachusetts a viable contender for the Presidency.

Something similar happened last night. John Kerry came into the Miami as the underdog challenger and stole the incumbency from under the President’s nose. Neither the Senator nor the President made a case on Iraq beyond sounding the same themes that they have sounded on the stump. That is what happened in 1960. There was nothing new said in that debate either. No one remembers the significance of Quemoy and Matsu. What they do recall was the images the contestants left with the public. That is what the public took away from the 90 minutes of Television broadcast last night.

In the last 44 years the political machinery has grown more sophisticated at spinning the content of every word. This morning the representatives of each camp are populating the morning shows explaining away the favorable aspects of the other’s performance trying to change the dynamic of public perception. What the spinsters cannot change is what people saw. Images of a confident and firm John Kerry contrasted with a frustrated and confused George Bush. In 1960 people who saw the debate on television saw an overwhelming Kennedy win. People who heard the debate on radio, without the men’s images on the screen, scored it as a Nixon runaway. What lasted was the image of a cool and collected Kennedy in command of the space and in command of the facts.

Kerry did not land a knockout punch in this first round. Neither did Kennedy in 1960. What he did do and what John Kerry did last night was to show the American people the image of a decisive and secure leader who was up to the task of being President. What Richard Nixon showed was a tentative and defensive demeanor resistant to any change, just as George Bush demonstrated last night.

Now the fighters retire to their corners to catch their breaths for the second round in Saint Louis. Their cornermen will get out the cotton swabs and give them a whiff of the salts to revive them and get them ready. The rules will be different and each fighter will concentrate on making one-on-one connections in a town meeting format. This is supposed to be George W. Bush’s greatest strength – the ability to make a connection with the ordinary Americans who will decide how the bout is scored in the end.