Debates Draw Large Audience Overseas

Overall Consensus is that Kerry Beat Bush

-Regardless of who won the debate, the performance last night was seen on television sets across the world, with people in Europe staying awake past 4 a.m. in the morning just to watch it in its entirety while some Asian countries carried the program well into Firday morning. One welcome point in the debate for Europeans was Senator Kerry's promise of a multilateral U.S. foreign policy. With international support for the United States plummeting (especially due to Iraq, a main focal point of the debate), there is no surprise that Kerry was declared the winner by many foreign media websites. Most foreign analysts, however, said that this still may not be enough for Kerry to pull a comeback, but that it did put him back in contention. The exception to overall opinion overseas was in London, where the outcome was portrayed more like a draw. Many overseas thought that the President "looked quite weak," referring to how he was constantly on the defensive and sometimes forced to explain himself. In the end, however, international opinion seems to remain that neither side delivered a much needed "knockout blow."