Mark Steyn analyzes the second debate

It was a face-off without their faces on writes Mark Steyn in his analysis of the second Presidential debate between President Bush and John Kerry. Like most pundits, Steyn thinks Bush improved dramatically this second time around.

I wrote here last week that Bush owed the American people a "performance". Television types define performance very narrowly - the kind of accomplished blandness of a smooth news anchor or financial reporter or weather girl - and they tend to measure political performance in media terms, too. But what the over-caffeinated Bush communicated on Friday was his passion, his energy, his resolve, his sense of humour and his authenticity. If he yells and waves his arms around too much to make a convincing weather girl, big deal.

Kerry, on the other hand, was accomplished only in media-smoothie terms. At Friday's debate, the Senator pledged that he wouldn't raise taxes on families earning over $200,000. Then he gazed out over the audience and said: "And looking around here, at this group here, I suspect there are only three people here who are going to be affected: the President, me, and Charlie, I'm sorry, you too," he added, chuckling clubbily with the debate moderator, big-time ABC News anchor Charles Gibson.

Well, he has a point. Bush is a millionaire, Gibson's a zillionaire, and Kerry's a multi-gazillionaire. But how can you tell by looking at people that they earn under 200 grand? And, even if you can, is it such a great idea to let 'em know they look like working stiffs and chain-store schlubs? But, when you've married two heiresses, it's kinda hard to tell where the losers with mere six-figure incomes begin: it's like the 97-year-old who calls the guys in late-middle age "sonny".