Amid claim and counter-claim, the women in white came joint first

DID JOHN Kerry edge the debate, or did a testy Dubya, plainly up beyond his normal 9.30pm bedtime, do enough to hold his own? The argument will rage for weeks (or at least until next Friday when the two hook up again for round two in St Louis). But there's no argument about the spousal match-up here - a perfect tie between Laura Bush and Teresa Heinz Kerry.

Moments after hostilities ended, the current and possibly future first ladies bounded on stage to congratulate their husbands. Both wore white two-piece suits that seemed identical - well, at least to this observer's untrained eye. Had there been collusion beforehand, a deliberate display of unity to transcend the hostilities that had gone before?

The mystery of this sartorial pas de deux was about the only aspect of proceedings not broached upon in "Spin Alley," the press centre at the University of Miami gym. As Laura and Teresa gave each other a wifely hug, "surrogates", as they are known, of each of the candidates were giving their competing takes on what had gone before to anyone who cared to listen.

It was a political fairground, a jumble of itinerant stalls, laid for the thousands of media-folk in attendance, all in desperate search of an instant verdict. The star spinsters trawled the hall, each with an escort carrying a large white sign with his name and team. "Rove/Bush- Cheney" said one - and lo and behold, there was the legendary usually taciturn adviser known as "Bush's Brain," dispensing his vitriolic verdict on proceedings.

Could he name Kerry's best moment, Karl Rove was asked. Best moment?, snarled Rove. Kerry had only offered "an unbelievable set of contradictions' and an "appalling incoherence". As the master of campaign dirty tricks quickly moved on, a new figure hove into view - and a Bush no less. This one was George P, grandson of the first President Bush, nephew of George W, and son of Jeb, the governor of Florida.

Students of the Bush dynasty regard the winsome George P as the family's great hope for the next generation but, on Thursday night, he provided no fireworks. Uncle had done "pretty well," was his considered judgement.

We were into the debate about the debate - even a debate about the debate about the debate. Are those first judgements to be trusted, does the press chatter matter? Words, words, words ... In the end everything, claim and counter-claim, fact and fiction, truth and lies, were merging into a single inchoate blur - just like those two white dresses.

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