I think Bush's strength, that of staying on message, actually worked against him this time.
Instead of looking focused, he looked as if he couldn't come up with good responses to Kerry and so just kept repeating himself.
I think Kerry took advantage of that to set himself up to appear as though he has more breadth of knowledge & experience than Bush.
Bush can't give an off-the-cuff multi-faceted opinion on foreign policy while at the same time continually repeating the same two paragraphs that he said moments before.
Kerry really gets on my nerves, but I think he did a lot better than people thought he was going to do. He looked focused, intelligent, and attentive. Bush's "folksy charm" didn't quite compare as well to Kerry's style as it did against Al Gore's droning rhetoric. It tended to make Bush look unprepared, rather than relaxed.
I think independents will take another look at Kerry. We will have to see at the next debate whether the President changes tactics.
Round 1 - Kerry.
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