October 4

After the main event, the undercard.

Simply put, the most powerful vice-president of the modern era faces off against one of the nation's leading trial lawyers. Nice piece here from John Edwards' home state, looking at his courtroom skills. Expectations are high, particularly from the Bush team, who are looking to Dick Cheney to redress the balance after the top of the ticket showdown.

Polls in the wake of the opening debate showed Kerry benefiting from varying degrees of bounce - some numbers showed people saw Kerry as the stronger leader 47 to 44 and as more likable by 47 to 41 - but where he probably benefited most was in his dominance of the news cycle for the best part of a week and left Bush on the back foot.

Chris Matthews had an interesting take, when he said that a crucial part of the debate was when Bush admitted it was al-Qaeda, and not Iraq, that attacked the US on September 11, despite the fact that some 40 per cent of the country still believes that the war in Iraq was directly related to the attacks.

There was also a Newsweek poll which actually put Kerry-Edwards on top nationally for the first time since the GOP convention.

And finally, a sad story, but you just have to love this....