I'm not going to comment in detail about the debate. There's a world of people on TV, radio, the press and the web doing just that. But there was one feature of the debate that so far has gone unremarked.

There was an interesting difference in point of view of the speakers that emerged early on and continued throughout.

When Cheney spoke, he spoke of "we"—what "we" have done, what "we" are going to do. You seldom heard the name "George Bush" fall from his lips. Edwards, on the other hand, kept the focus on John Kerry—to the point of being reprimanded during his response to one question in which he had been asked to speak only of himself.

It appears that Rove has decided that the most effective strategy for presenting an image of competence is to keep Bush out of the picture as much as possible. Cheney, who does have "gravitas" however fraudulent, is a much better communicator of the notion that this administration is "in charge" than Bush can ever be.

I believe the technique that Cheney used reveals the depth of the malaise in Republican power circles with regard to the real George Bush. It's going to be a trick to have Boy George out campaigning while they do their best to "hide" the real George from the public. He still has not appeared before the public—an audience that is allowed to react—only his audiences of pledged supporters.

My impression: Bush is going down.

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Well, I wasn't the only one who noticed the strange absence of George Bush from the debate. Here's Chris Matthews of MSNBC's HardBall,

But there's something that is dramatic about the evening. We are having a vice presidential debate with an incumbent president, George W. Bush, who is running for reelection, I believe on the same ticket as Dick Cheney. I never heard the president's name, except that he was the gay basher. He was the one, according to Cheney, that wouldn't let his daughter off the hook. I just thought that was the strangest absence. Edwards, to his credit, was at least there as the vice presidential candidate, talking about his presidential candidate.

And Cheney, to his credit, kept bashing Kerry. But the president's name never came up. I found it fascinating.

Matthews may have found it fascinating, but apparently the fascination did not lead to revelation—as to just why Cheney wasn't mentioning Bush's name.

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Obviously Chris Matthews had missed out on the latest spin. Judy Woodruff of CNN had Bill Schneider pontificating on the debate, and to my astonishment here's what he said:

You'd think the main topic would be the president's record. Did the debate really focus more on Kerry than on Bush? Let's look at the record. During the debate, Kerry's name was mentioned a total of 65 times. How many times was Bush's name mentioned? Answer -- 8. OK, but to be fair a lot of times Bush was referred to as the president. So let's add those mentions and see what we get. Total mentions of Bush by name or as the president, 35. The debate gave nearly twice as much attention to Kerry than to Bush. That's a problem for Kerry. The election is turning into a referendum on the challenger. Why? Because Republicans are keeping up a relentless focus on the challenger. Kerry's approach to world affairs.

It must be wonderful to get paid to be stupid. Of course, that's not what Schneider gets paid for; he gets paid to spin. But the best spin comes from slap-happy, dumb-as-a-post ignorance—and I believe Schneider just may have what it takes.

Schneider's gives a count of the number of times Kerry's name was used but forgets to check who was using it. My count is: Edwards 33; Cheney 18; and Ifill 13. It doesn't seem like Edwards was exactly trying to keep Kerry out of the spotlight, does it?

Edwards said early on,

The American people saw John Kerry on Thursday night. They don't need the vice president or the president to tell them what they saw.

They saw a man who was strong, who had conviction, who is resolute, who made it very clear that he will do everything that has to be done to find terrorists, to keep the American people safe.

So Bill Schneider thinks the Republicans are keeping a relentless focus on the challenger by Edwards using Kerry's name every chance he got.

Ever hear of the power of repetition, Bill?

Just say after me: "John Kerry...John Kerry...John Kerry...John Kerry....John Kerry...John Kerry...John Kerry...John Kerry....John Kerry...John Kerry...John Kerry...John Kerry....John Kerry...John Kerry...John Kerry...John Kerry....John Kerry...John Kerry...John Kerry...John Kerry....John Kerry...John Kerry...John Kerry...John Kerry....John Kerry...John Kerry...John Kerry...John Kerry....John Kerry...John Kerry...John Kerry...John Kerry....John Kerry...John Kerry...John Kerry...John Kerry....John Kerry...John Kerry...John Kerry...John Kerry....John Kerry...John Kerry...John Kerry...John Kerry....John Kerry...John Kerry...John Kerry...John Kerry....John Kerry...John Kerry...John Kerry...John Kerry....John Kerry...John Kerry...John Kerry...John Kerry....John Kerry...John Kerry...John Kerry...John Kerry....John Kerry...John Kerry...John Kerry...John Kerry.

Feel the effect?