An overwhelmingly Democratic crowd at the ARCO Forum cheered the debate performance of Vice President Al Gore '69 last night.

In an informal straw poll of 130 who watched at the Institute of Politics (IOP), 12 percent felt that Bush "won" the debate, while 80 percent felt that Gore had "won." (National tracking polls taken immediately after last night's closing statements showed that likely voters scored the debate a tie).

"I almost couldn't believe how many times George Bush put his foot in his mouth," said Nathan R. Perl-Rosenthal '04, whose comments were typical of the crowd.

"Clearly, Gore won the debate," said Raj Prabhakar, a student at Harvard Business School. "Bush didn't have the intellect to compete."

Ivan D. Barron, a Kennedy School student, said that though Bush presented some interesting ideas, he also thought that Gore won the debate.

"I thought the governor had nothing substantive to say," he said.

There were, however, a few supporters of the Texas governor in the crowd.

"I have decided [to vote] for Bush, but some things I saw tonight made me a little concerned with my choice," said Matt E. Sonnesyn, a student at the Kennedy School. "He had a couple of serious slips of words."