Ok, so I think at this point we all know that Bush probably isn't the smartest guy in the world. But seriously - I have had a real hard time trying to decipher any point he's been trying to make. On several occasions, he didn't even seem to be answering the same question that he was asked. It's like he was cheating on a test but missed one of them and all his answers after that were wrong.
At one point, he actually said he can't admit to the troops that the war was unjust because that would just undermine his ability to lead them. What? Not that the war wasn't unjust, only that we can't admit so much to the troops.
Then, as Uncivil Litigator mentions, he goes on to attack Kerry for believing him when he went to war.
[Bush] admits to making no errors in judgment, he pompously tells us he would do everything the same in Iraq if he had to do it all over again, and when Kerry attacks him on those grounds, his response isn't to say, "You're right. I made an error and the buck stops here." No, his response is to say, "Let's ignore whether or not I made an error in judgment, and instead look at the fact that Kerry failed to disagree with me when I was making my decision to go to war."
Ok, I appreciate the fact that Bush is firm and unwavering but as Kerry said, you can be certain and still wrong. Staying the course is great, but at what point does perserverence become stupidity? Personally, if I am off course, I'd rather stop and right the ship instead of blindly plodding along pretending like nothing's wrong. Like anything else, it's a lot easier to correct if you catch it early.
Another thing I thought was evident in the debate was Bush's ethnocentric view of the world. We've all heard the rhetoric in the past. Us and Them. The Good Guys and the Evildoers. And you're with us or against us.
Regardless of whether Saddam was really a threat, I now realize how Bush could plausibly make the jump from 9/11 to Iraq. He doesn't see the world in shades of gray, he seems them as black or white. Like a comic book, we're the superheroes and they're the villians. Kerry sort of called him out on this, pointing out the missing link between 9/11 and Iraq, which led to my favorite quote of the night: something to the effect of “I know Osama Bin Laden attacked us. You don't think I know this?” (Still looking for the exact quote).
The black and white of Bush also seems to extend to the American perception of him. You either love him or hate him. I've never seen anyone with the ability to polarize as much as Bush.
NBC interviewed a Hunter College student who insisted that “Bush made Kerry look like a bumbling idiot.” Look, whether you support Bush or not, let's be honest - he's not the most articulate speaker in the world. If there was a bumbling idiot on the stage last night, it wasn't Kerry. As Tucker Carlson just said on the Bill Maher show, “no matter how you feel about Bush, watching him speak is painful. It's like watching a drunk man cross an icy road.”
I'm haven't been overly impressed by Kerry so far, but Bush is making the decision a lot easier. I've given him every opportunity to win my trust, but as time goes on I have less and less confidence in him.