The best way I can think to describe the last hour and a half is assisted suicide. Gore was wooden, condescending, boring, preachy, very liberal. Bush was a human being, good-natured, reasonable, smart, sane. It was a knockout.

Lucianne Goldberg is a literary agent and a sponsor of Lucianne.com.

Well, I'm not thrilled. I finally was reduced to thinking, "If I had to be in traction for six months, who do I want in the next bed?" Under those circumstances, Bush won. He's more interesting. If that's what people vote on, and I have a feeling they do, then Bush won. God knows we've had an interesting person for the last eight years.

I'm of the school that believes if it isn't fun, don't do it. So if it's a question of who's the most fun, in a two-man race, Bush would be more fun. But I don't think you're supposed to elect presidents that way.

Gore looked like a holograph, a really plastic man. And the whole debate was so wonk-saturated that only the die-hard junkies could sit through it. The depressing thing was when Jim Lehrer gave out the schedule at the end. I thought, "I can't do this anymore. Don't make me watch it again." But we've got to sit through this two more times! Now, the vice presidential debate may be fun. At least we'll get some schtick out of Lieberman. If the election has to ride on this, we're in a pretty dull, calm sea.

David Horowitz is an author and a Salon columnist.

If being a rude, obnoxious, repetitive and overbearing jerk; if interrupting your opponent and even your moderator; if rolling your eyes at views you can't handle and posturing for the cameras in between; if talking over your allotted time and ignoring the rules and attempting to control the stage and everything on it -- if all of that is what wins, then Gore won.

Oh, and don't forget the baldfaced lying. My favorite whopper was when Gore said that Bush's education plan would let kids languish for three years in failing schools and then give their parents a pittance (because all of the tax cut, of course, was going to the rich). One thing this shows is what a wonk Gore is, because not one person in 10,000 would know enough about the details of the Bush plan to twist them so maliciously. Bush's plan is actually a reform of Title I spending, a federal program that has been in place for 35 years. Since its inception, $120 billion has been targeted to help failing inner-city schools. The result of all of those billions squandered on the current bankrupt system is not a single point of improvement in the test scores of the disadvantaged children in those schools. The reason? The money is going into the pockets of government bureaucrats, administrators, teachers and suppliers who haven't either the incentive, or the ability, or the imagination or the interest to raise those kids' scores.

Bush's proposal? Let the government give an ultimatum to the adults who run these schools. If any school receiving Title I funds does not raise its children's scores in three years, then the parents of the children in them will get the Title I funds themselves, so they can use them to find a school that will teach their kids. The reason for the three-year wait is to see if the incentive (the threat of removing the funds) works. It's fair. And yes, it's cautious. But at least it's a reform that tries to do something for those kids. Al Gore has done nothing for those kids his entire 24-year political life.

Who won the debate? Bush had to defeat the expectations that he was a lightweight. He did. He showed intelligence and comported himself with dignity. Al Gore had to show that he was not obnoxious, hectoring and the kid you hated most in the class. He didn't. Watch the gender gap close.

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