So, who won?

First of all: Schieffer (and consquently CBS News) blew it, big time. That was probably the worst performance of a debate questioner from the Dinosaur media since Bernie Shaw's 1988 fiasco.

What did the markets think?

Here's Kerry's election contract at Tradesports for today. Notice the drop during the debate:

Here's the same time period for Bush:

True, the market showed Bush doing well in the first debate, but I have a hunch about this one. The test will be what the market is thinking in about 2 hours.

Bush certainly looked, acted, and spoke human today. If he had this type of performance in Debate 1, we'd be still talking about Oompah-loomphagate and Kos would be strapping on the vest and heading into the nearest Sbarros, only to accidently blow up Oliver Willis, drowning his sorrows in a gallon of calzone dipping sauce.....

BLOGISTAN TECH ROUNDUP:

The creator of worlds is not in the house, but I'm sure for a divine reason. Our pal Nicole at Potomac Ponderings has a great blow by blow, partially via IM with an imaginary friend. Dean gives it to Bush, but hey, what does he know he says? Gordo has no opinion, but an idea for political mischief--count me in! Right on Red weighs in:

Kerry was better than Bush in general, but that’s not hard to do when that vintage relic Bob Schieffer keeps throwing soft balls right up the middle of the plate to Kerry. Nearly all of the questions seemed completely irrelevant, post 9/11. It was just retro. I kept waiting for Willie Horton to show up.

That's perfect---zombie ghost of Lee Atwater walks in, dragging Willie Horton, sits in the front row screaming to Schieffer like Horseshack "OOOOOOO! OOOOOOO! Pick me! Pick me!"

Okay....back to the roundup. Goldstein's nipples are cutting glass, but I'm not sure if the Goldstein Nipple Index is a reliable election indicator. I guess that's why I got into political science..... Steve Green is declaring John Kerry to be the Panderer-in-Chief--but didn't we abandon the 25th Amendment to give Billy that title for life? Glenn sees a crack in the Kerry PR facade. The Brain is still processing, but links earlier to this interesting observation on poverty rates. Bill must be out smoking crack with Marion Barry again, because he thinks Scheiffer did alright. Currying favor with your new pals, Bill? (I'm yanking your leg, buddy!) Ann Althouse gives the verdict that keeps Susan Estrich up at night, screaming: "Dukakis-like." Kevin at Wizbang sees a draw.

Is it just me or is debate night no fun without Allahpundit?

BTW, if you haven't seen it, Bill Hobbs' CNN parody page is a hoot.

ONE HOUR LATER: Bush is down $4 and Kerry up $3.90 since the end of the debate, putting things back where they were before things started.....Kerry right now is at his peak on Friday night, $44.

UPDATE: The Fox local news from DC has just run with the Tony Soprano quote 3 times....the Dick Cheney's a lesbian quote just ran twice.

UPDATE: Glenn links, but with the caveat that he thinks people might be gaming the market to create the appearance of push. I have a hunch that he might be right---the question is whether that continues over the course of the following days. Here's our post on the markets following Debate Two, with the following comment:

The one flaw in the markets is that they could be manipulated by people dumping money to give the appearance of momentum. I don't know if that's the case here---to be perfectly honest, I would be suspicious of that view. But then again its not like George Soros has no experience with this

I've waited a year to say this: Advantage, LLamabutchers!

ALMOST TWO HOURS LATER: Well, I did say check back in two hours, and here goes:

LLama Jinx or the Revenge of Soros? You make the call.

12:31 AM TWO HOURS LATER

I'm going to bed, as I have to rightwing radio tomorrow morning at 7:10 AM.

More on how efficient these markets are in a post above.