The last and final debate played out much like recent polls have shown – a dead heat. President Bush seemed more poised and less irritated as he jokingly remarked at the end of the debate. And the liberal, Sen. John Kerry, “on the far left bank” of mainstream politics, as dubbed by Bush, looked and smelled more human.

It took a mere 30 seconds for Iraq to be infused into the debate, but as quickly as the President’s “mistake” appeared, it was dashed into the hyperbole of Washington and the grey of budget jargon.

There was no mention of the $3.5 trillion surplus disappearing and $415 billion of debt appearing in just four years, but there was talk of God.

The oddest infusion into the state of domestic affairs seems to be the current obsession with what the man or woman upstairs seems to think of earthly topics, but where does this play into the largest job loss since Herbert Hoover.

And much of that seems to be owed to the religious revival Bush’s policies and words have caused.

Only this time Kerry, in a rush to prove that he too can play a Holy card in his campaign for the Oval Office, “worships” and is not the Godless man many have viewed him mentioned God several times in his rhetoric.

Once about his choice to support abortion, amid a contentious atmosphere of Colorado Catholic bishops denouncing the candidate for his abortion stance, he reaffirmed that he ventures onto God’s scared ground and said abortion is “between a woman, God and her doctor.”

The President responded with a plea for a “culture of life.”

Yet finally the trump card was played, the much debated Healthcare plan, which has been spun into a pundits Pandora box of mystical outcomes, left the President quite dismayed with Sen. Kerry’s plan of a government-run Insurance plan under the Medicare label.

Bush jabbed “If every family in America signed up it would cost the federal government $5 trillion over 10 years. It’s an empty promise. It’s called bait-and-switch.”

But instead of mentioning the disappearance of $3.5 trillion and a newly found $415 billion deficit, Kerry chose to state that five million Americans lost coverage under Bush’s regime and the president “turned his back on the wellness of America, and there is no system, and it’s starting to fall apart.”

Both men stood strong and will have a brutal next few weeks. It was even mentioned after the debates that Bush’s head appeared larger than Kerry’s giving him a heady advantage. Ahh, the sweet smell of nuanced American politics complete with substance infused discourse.