LAURA BUSH: Competent, but no Arnold. Stem cell research must be polling strongly.

UPDATE: ABC’s insta-analysis says she played well with women. Well, I’m not a woman.

ANOTHER UPDATE: But Halley Suitt is, and she loved Laura’s speech:

I thought Laura Bush was excellent tonight. She delivered a great speech, hitting just the right note, with her remarkable dignity and integrity which gives her an awesome quiet power.

I suspect she touched a nerve in many people, but especially in mothers. She dared to say our children will be safe again and her husband will make that happen.

If it had this much impact on Halley, of all deeply-Bush-disliking people, then it obviously delivered a punch that those of us with Y chromosomes can’t fully appreciate.