Round 1: Kerry
Before the debate started last night, I was nervous as hell. As I drove to pick up some pizza, I couldn't listen to NPR as I normally would have (we were watching the debate after it started, thanks to the TiVo), so I listened to bombastic classical music that really wasn't setting me at ease. But once we started filling up on yummy, doughy pizza (we said goodbye to the South Beach Diet for the night) and got into the swing of the debate with Kerry, I was put at ease.

Kerry was crisp and to the point and he was actually making points against his opponent, who seemingly could only parrot about a dozen talking points over and over and over again. I would love to get a count of the times that Bush used the phrase "mixed messages"--it was like the ballpeen hammer effect. Though repetitive, Bush was forcefully on message and at times he just looked perturbed. But the main thing was he was on the defensive most of the night, and Kerry looked more "presidential." Here's what The Guardian says:

But at other moments in the contest, Mr Bush seemed to lose track of his point between sentences and seemed to struggle to fill his allotted time for each response. Challenged by Mr Kerry for awarding tax cuts to wealthy Americans while the money could have been used to improve America's counter-terrorist defences, the president reply was vague and hesitant.

"Of course, we're doing everything we can to protect America. I wake up every day thinking about how best to protect America. That's my job," Mr Bush said. "I work with Director Mueller of the FBI; comes in my office when I'm in Washington every morning, talking about how best to protect us. There's a lot of really good people working hard to do so. It's hard work."

And here's what the conservative Weekly Standard has to say:

Bush was, as someone once put it, more tart than sweet. At times the president faltered and you could see the wheels spinning as he flipped through his mental Rolodex, looking for the right card. Peevish is the word which kept coming to mind. He was, however, ruthlessly on-message. If Kerry really is being damaged by the sense that he's a flip-flopper who doesn't know his own mind--and the higher-ups on Team Bush insist that this is the key to beating him--then the president did exactly what he wanted to do. But if the central issue of this election is the September 10 party versus the September 12 party, then Bush may have let slip a fair opportunity.

Both sides played a little loose with some of the facts, but this fact checking article compiled by the Seattle Times comes up with more stretchs of the truth from the Bush side (there are more instances in the article--I'll just post the key items):

Bush, for instance, praised reports that "10 million people have registered to vote in Afghanistan in the upcoming presidential election." While that may be true, there are also fears of massive vote rigging in advance of the country's first-ever presidential election Oct. 9, because the registration numbers are in some places significantly higher than what had been estimated for eligible voters.

Bush reprised a standard attack from his stump speech, as he presented Kerry as a flip-flopper who once said he "actually did vote for the $87 billion before I voted against it."

The quote, something Kerry has acknowledged as an inarticulate moment, was in reference to a military funding bill that included money for troops in Iraq.

But the reality is a little more complex. The senator did vote for an amendment approving the money, but only if it was paid for by repealing tax cuts pushed by Bush. When that proposal failed, Kerry voted against the bill to protest what he considered a flawed and costly war.

[...]

Kerry suggested that the U.S. has spent $200 billion on Iraq, largely because it supplied the bulk of the troops. This is an exaggeration, because it combines the amount already spent — about $120 billion — with money that is expected to be spent in the coming year or requested by the administration.

[...]

On North Korea, Bush charged that Kerry's proposal to have direct talks with North Korea would end the six-nation diplomacy that the administration has pursued over Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions. Kerry has said he would continue the six-party talks as well, but Bush said direct talks with North Korea would drive away China, a key player in the negotiations.

But each of the other four countries in the talks has held direct talks with North Korea during the six-party process — and China has repeatedly asked the Bush administration to talk directly with North Korea. Moreover, the Bush administration has talked directly to North Korean diplomats on the sidelines of the six-party talks, and Powell met with his North Korean counterpart over the summer.