President Bush isn't exactly a great orator. The mangled speech gets a little tiresome. However, as he warmed up he seemed to get more fluent in the english language. A hopeful sign.
John Kerry does well in this environment. If you ignore the content of the crap he's spouting and you can actually convince yourself that he believes what he's saying, he's a good orator. His joke about "marrying up" was genuinely funny. The last question about being surrounded by "strong women" was a little weird but wrapped up the debate on a light note.
There were several softball questions thrown to John Kerry and a few "god-baiting" types of questions meant to paint Bush as some kind of fanatic. He got a few more opportunities for rebuttal. I'm not surprised.
No knockout punches were delivered on either side. Both candidates succeeded in staking out their philosophies. To the extent that they did so, the American citizen wins these debates.
My verdict: A Tie.
Post Debate Note:
So far the pundits on Fox News seem to think that Bush won this one. Go figure. If CBS is saying that this was a tie - I'll believe Bush won. Otherwise, I still think it was a tie.