<div style='font: 12pt Arial; text-align: left; '>This one really seemed less like a debate... I think it was the townhall format. Or maybe it was my fellow St. Louisans answering the questions? Hmmm... :) I felt that this debate was more or less a continuation of the last debate: Kerry acting distinguished, giving clear concise answers (more so that anyone expects him to give), and Bush seeming agitated, annoyed, and having difficulty forming his thoughts into words. In the debate you could tell that Bush was trying much harder, this may have been the cause of his visibly increased frustration, he even got into a verbal spat with the moderator at one point. I think the open format that allowed the candidates to move around was a plus for Bush, he didn't have to stand there looking like he was going to explode at any moment like in the last debate.
I didn't think that Bush did a good job AT ALL in trying to lay out his vision for what he wants to do in a 2nd term. I though Kerry did a semi-decent job, although he spent most of his time going after Bush. I think Kerry could have used the weapons inspection report that came out this week to his advantage, instead he let Bush spin the findings of the report and use it to <i>his</i> advantage. I also thought that Kerry depended way too much on repealing Bush's tax cuts for the wealthy as a panacea for the nation's problems and that he never really answered the question about how exactly he would cut the deficit in half in four years. His response to the question on abortion, although it made sense, seemed wishy-washy in a kind of "make everybody happy" kind of way. Abortion is basically the only issue that I disagree with Kerry on. Other than that, I thought that Kerry hit Bush hard on areas such as Iraq, the environment, the deficit, the economy, healthcare and did a fairly decent job selling his own healthcare plan. Kerry also did a good job defending himself. He left no opening uncovered and nullified Bush's attacks on his "liberal record", on his assertions that he would raise taxes, and his and John Edwards law careers. I thought Kerry's best attacks were on Bush's environmental record and his statement that if Missouri were counted as one of the member nations in the "coalition of the willing" that it would be the third largest member nation in terms of troop commitment.
During the debate Kerry sucessfully differentiated himself from Bush on most issues and made himself seem like a viable alternative. Bush attempted to make him and Kerry look the same on Iraq (to scare anti-war people away from Kerry) and to look very different on issues such as taxation, healthcare, abortion, stem-cell research, etc.. Bush offered little new but a restatement of his beliefs, a defense on his records and (mostly) baseless attacks on Kerry.
Overall this debate seemed much more confrontational than the last and both candidates continued to "spin" the "facts" to support their purposes. How will the next one go? Time will tell. The next one (on Wednesday) will be over domestic policy. Hopefully Kerry can come with a more detailed plan for how he'll reduce the deficit, provide tax cuts, expand healthcare coverage, *AND* fight a better war in Iraq all at the same time... and hopefully Bush can come up with something, anything, good to say about why we should re-elect him and be able to speak distinctly enough to convey it.</div>