"The Kerry campaign [3] has enlisted congressional Democrats to play down expectations of the challenger's performance in the first presidential debate [4] this Thursday, and then flood the airwaves with jubilant analysis that he has won it." Kerry campaign officials asked press secretaries of Democratic members of Congress "to schedule their bosses on television and radio so that Democrats could create an 'echo chamber [5]' where the sounding of pro-Kerry spin would create its own reality." Aides were told that "the perception of a Kerry victory would be easier to achieve if post-debate analysis" focused on substance, not questions of style like "Bush's syntax or Kerry's demeanor."