Was there still too much pepper in Gore's punch? Or did Bush squander the gains he made in the second round? For Salon's presidential debate panel, it was a split decision.

Todd Gitlin, professor of culture, journalism and sociology at New York University

For anyone with an open eye and ear, Al Gore revealed himself to be an intelligent, thorough and confident figure who one could imagine -- without much difficulty -- mastering the Oval Office. And George W. Bush revealed himself to be a shambling, evasive babbler. Now it's evident that there are a substantial number of Americans, especially in the contested states, who want their president stupid. If there are enough of those people, then Bush won this debate by losing it, by demonstrating his hapless incompetence and almost daffy incapacity. If the majority of the American public is unstampeded by the argument that this empty-headed jokester is a "uniter and not a divider," then they will see that Al Gore is up to the task of governing, and W. should return to running ball teams, especially with public subsidy.

I'm aghast at the shallowness and sheer incompetence of the man. I was trying to figure out how he could have been so dopey, and I'm wondering if he got some disturbing news or a punch in the head before the debate, because he struck me as surprisingly feeble and diminished. He couldn't budge from his script, and he seemed like a drugged Stepford husband.

That this man could be close to the presidency is appalling beyond words. How any serious person could find him persuasive is beyond me. I think the mindless repetition of Republican pieties is what he has to offer. And if there are enough Republicans out there who think intoning "tax and spend, tax and spend" is the answer to the problems of the modern world, then Bush wins. And God help us all.

Stanley Crouch, critic and author of "Don't the Moon Look Lonesome"

It might be possible to have a more boring debate than was had between Al Gore and George W. Bush this time around, but I can't actually imagine it. The biggest problem is in the favor of the Democrats because the issues facing the nation do not have much dramatic appeal although, untended, they could become catastrophic in the future. How does one make expensive prescription drugs or low-performing public schools or tax cuts or Medicare or extraordinary vulgarity in popular culture sufficiently dramatic to create interest, suspense and curiosity in an audience? Well, there might be a way to do so, but neither man figured that out.

Gore seemed intent on becoming more ardent this time around but seemed phony and only too willing to ignore the rules that he and Bush had agreed upon if they got in his way. On the other hand, Bush came off well more often than not but seemed to have memorized his answers to questions about subjects such as the Middle East, which resulted in his response using almost exactly the same words heard in the second debate when the same issue came up.

That makes the exclusion of Ralph Nader and Patrick Buchanan even more unfortunate. Both would have heated matters up, attacked policies vehemently and brought to the table a whole other body of ideas and information. Nader, for one, would have accused both of selling out to the powerful, and would have brought serious environmental charges against the Clinton administration. He would have called into question policies both national and international. So, in his way, would have Buchanan. Immigration would have been an issue and its effect on American workers, as well as trading policies.

So, once more, the public has been cheated out of hearing a fiery and substantial debate. But that lack of fire is something we have become accustomed to, sometimes mistaking it for ease. But, as one great American said so many years ago, you can't fool all of the people all of the time.

Ann Coulter, columnist for George magazine

Despite the media propaganda machine trying to hypnotize the American people into believing George Bush is a nincompoop and Al Gore is a genius, the Dope keeps performing well while the Intellectual Colossus keeps frightening small children. Even the media is starting to lose its confidence, and is not so persuasive in announcing each successive debate a "draw." (What exactly would have to happen in these debates for Dan Rather to proclaim Bush the winner?)

In the first debate, Gore was insufferable -- constantly interrupting to get in just "one more" point, heaving loud sighs, hogging airtime and reminding the teacher that she forgot to assign homework. (To say nothing of launching all-new whoppers about his heroic feats, which -- given his claim to have invented the Internet and to have been the inspiration for "Love Story" -- was roughly equivalent to Bush's having gotten the name of a major country wrong.)

By the second debate, Gore had transformed himself. No longer the know-it-all brown-noser, Gore had miraculously become Norman Bates in the last scene of "Psycho." He was so tightly wound for that you could almost hear him thinking to himself, "I hope they are watching; they will see, they will see and say, 'Why, she wouldn't even hurt a fly.'"

So naturally, the entire nation was on tenterhooks to see what weirdness Gore would unleash at the final presidential debate. The answer is: Tracy Flick from the movie "Election." Gore's various personalities are like the unhappy families described by Tolstoy: He's always weird, but he's weird in different ways.

One of the Populist Pinocchio's more self-important boasts was this: "I have helped to ... pay down the debt." If this is true, we're paying our vice presidents too much. Is Gore claiming that he was writing trillion-dollar checks on his personal checking account to help pay down the debt?

But best of all, Gore prefaced his claim to have been funding the federal government for the past eight years with this explicit disclaimer: "I'm not just saying this; I'm not just talking." It's nice that he's at least trying to give us advance warning when he's not lying. Too bad he was lying. The heaving sighs are gone, but Fibber McGee will not be repressed.

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