Body language at debate told a lot about candidates

When President Bush leaned over his podium and talked directly into the camera, he had the same firm, squared off look he brings to a presidential address from the Oval Office.

When the networks (flouting the debate rules) cut to Bush while Sen. John Kerry was speaking, the president had the hunched shoulders and the peevish, defensive look of an incumbent under heavy attack.

And it was body language as much as rhetoric and one-liners that distinguished the two candidates in Thursday night's debate. The networks were right to disregard the campaigns' ban on cutaway and reaction shots. Instead, all the networks, including Fox News, lavished viewers with split screens and shots of the candidates from almost every angle, including shots from behind of the president's tensely knotted back.

Television homes in on feelings hidden underneath well-rehearsed words and reveals instinctive responses and glimmers of personality.

The cameras demonstrated that Bush cannot hear criticism without frowning, blinking and squirming (he even sighed once). They showed that Kerry can control his anger and stay cool but that he cannot suppress his inner, over-eager A student, flashing a bleach-white smile and nodding hungrily at each new question.

Kerry's confident, calm manner may have paid off. CBS was one of several news organizations that conducted instant focus group surveys during the debate. A few minutes after the candidates had finished their closing statements, CBS News said that 53 percent of the 200 uncommitted sample voters thought that Kerry had a clear plan for Iraq. Only 38 percent thought that the president did.

Even Fox News analysts thought Kerry had won the debate. Mort Kondracke from Roll Call said John Kerry looked like a "commander in chief," while Bill Kristol, editor of The Weekly Standard, said that he thought the polls would tighten a little after the debate.

The moderator, Jim Lehrer, asked polite, obvious questions that failed to take either candidate by surprise. Going into the showdown, Bush had clearly planned on seizing the offensive. He walked out first, moving so fast that he met Kerry past the midpoint of the stage, in front of Kerry's podium. Face to face, Kerry told a joke, and clung to Bush's hand, perhaps seeking to hold the president in close enough to flaunt his greater height. Bush gave a polite laugh, turned away from the handshake, and his body had left while Kerry was just letting go of those fingertips.