DEBATES5.CBS 10/14/04 7:48 AM-DLR   1:27
America tunes in.  This is Dave Ross on the CBS Radio Network.
The last debate is over, which means it's time to debate the debate, and if I had to pick the two biggest gaffes, it would be - President Bush forgetting that back in March of 2002, he did indeed say, when asked about Osama bin Laden, QUOTE "I truly am not that concerned about him."
And on John Kerry's side - it was referring to the Vice president's lesbian daughter in his answer about whether being gay is a choice.  It may be true, and she may be all grown up now, but it reminds you about how as a kid you HATED being used as an example by your parents in public.
However, I've noticed something even more important, beyond the "debate over the debate."  What impresses me is how many people were INTO it.
People were INTO it.  The feelings were of an intensity usually reserved for football.  And it's not like nothing else has been going on - we saw the X-prize awarded, Mt. St Helens erupting, new episodes of Survivor - not to mention that there's a war on -  but the debates topped them all.
- It was two guys flinging words at each other in front of an audience that wasn't even allowed to FIDGET, and yet you could drive by house after house and in every living room were flickering images of men behind podiums.   There was trash talk; neighbors held debate parties.  People packed THEATRES to watch it together.  They blogged every talking point.  They hatched conspiracy theories about Kerry furtively taking out a pen, and the bulge in the President's jacket.
 Millions of people tuning in instead of tuning out.
I don't want to be overexuberant, but I think democracy may taking root here.
Now this.
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