Ramesh jokes that Bush’s shortfall in the first debate was part of his rope-a-dope strategy. I think there’s actually something to that. No, I don’t think Bush lost on purpose — I actually think he did a very good job. But there are two more presidential debates to come and Kerry can no longer successfully downplay expectations. The media hype about Kerry’s victory (Kerry won, but he didn’t blow Bush out of the water or anything like that) has now set the stage where Kerry will be expected to be the master debater (shhh), while Bush will be underestimated. That might be a real advantage in a townhall style debate.