Backwards spin

Pick the worst spin line so far from debate number one, both conveniently located in the same article. Choice 1: On the President's belligerent, petulant facial contortions:

Nicolle Devenish, spokeswoman for the Bush campaign, said the president knew in advance he would be on camera during the entire debate and was aware that the networks had said they would show both men at the same time.

"The president reacted honestly. It showed the president really believes in his convictions," she said.

His convictions that being President is hard work? Or that Poland is a big ally in the War on Terror? Or the overall demeanor that he is above debating? Which conviction is she talking about?

Choice 2: Ken Mehlman, Bush's campaign manager, on Bush's loss in the polls:

"Instant polls focus not on what people's judgment is, they focus on the fine points of college debating and we're up against a college debater, you expect him to do well," Mehlman said.

Yeah, you would expect a guy who took debate at Yale to do well, wouldn't you?

It turns out that Mr. Bush and Mr. Kerry, two years apart in New Haven, shared the same oratory teacher and debate coach, Rollin G. Osterweis. Their training in speaking and thinking under Professor Osterweis influenced the kind of candidates they became, and will be part of their performances in Coral Gables, Fla., on Thursday.

Professor Osterweis, who died in 1982, was a courtly Yale professor who taught a popular and easy class, History of American Oratory, for a quarter-century. Both Mr. Bush and Mr. Kerry took the course, which consisted of studying famous addresses by William Jennings Bryan, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln, among others, as well as delivering a speech to Professor Osterweis and the class.