Bush did not put away his challenger, says someone else on CNN
Candy Crowley says both stayed on point, hard pressed to find anything new. not a combustable debate.
CNN's John King says Bushs repeated about Kerry's vascillation, Ceci connelly said Bush was ready to go after Kerry's wrong war, wrong time. She said Kerry showed a wealth of knowledge...that Bush ran out of stuff to say. Ceci liked it that Kerry mentioned his Viet Nam service. She thought Kerry would have mentioned "Mission Accomplished". She said Bush stuck to his "resolute" theme.
bill Kristol thinks Kerry did pretty well, and now we've got a real race. Mort Kondracke says Kerry looked like he could be a commander in chief.
Fred Barnes thinks there will be less complaining from democrats who have been complaining about about Kerry.
Brokaw said Kerry did what he had to do, he articulated clearly, and he appeared presidential and commanding tonight. He "kickstarted" his campaign, and maybe gave undecideds a reason to vote for him. Brokaw says Bush did the same thing.
Russert says Kerry was the candidate the democrats thought they were nominating back in the primaries. He said this was the kind of debate the country needed. Each base was secured, and now the undecideds have the information they need.
Brokaw says Kerry had his act together more tonight, but it's easier to be the challenger when things are going tough.
Bush was impatient, smirking, Kerry was never disrespectful of the president ,said Andrea Mitchell on MSNBC. Rather looks happy which troubles me.
David Ensoir on CNN is catching all the mistakes (LIES) Kerry said. he's reading, I think, from Bush site. Tommy Franks on CNN said Kerry is like lite beer, less filling...he refutes what Kerry said about Torra Bora. and catching bin Laden. Franks says what Kerry said is absolutely incorrect, the difficulty is, he says, our media built expectations.
Wesley Clark on CNN is asked about Shinsecki retiring,not being fired, Blitzer makes Clark admit that Shinsecki was not fired, that he served his full 4 years, and then retired as he had planned to do all along.
Clark says I agree with Kerry that the war with IRaq was a distraction against the war on terrorism, and we don't have enough forces,
JUdy Woodruff says everybody agrees no homeruns, but Kerry people feel really good, that they kept Bush on the defenses. Nothing dramatic happened.
Bill Hemmer on CNN is with a group of undecideds. they LOVED it when Bush said you can't say have a president denigrating our allies.
Mike McCurry has had his eyes fixed. Karen Hughes says the president made it clear tonight that he is the commander to lead us sthrough this. She said they saw the president's heart.
McCurry says the president is so stubbornly arrogant that he won't admit he's made mistakes.
Joe Biden says this administration is incompetent INCOMPETENT!!!
George Stephanopolis says Mark Halperin will be telling the world how agitated the president
Great synopsis of the pundits reactions! Thank you so much!
Prairie
I think Bush had the critical, and perhaps determinative retort when he went after Kerry's "global test" for preemptive action.
Bush said he won't ever have a 'global test' to protect America.
This difference is the whole ball of wax.
Bush will act preemptively to protect, defend and preserve America. Kerry will require international approval. Kerry will, in the final analysis, NEVER act preemptively.
THE SECURITY MOMS HEARD THIS EXCHANGE AND WILL VOTE ACCORDINGLY. OF THAT WE CAN BE CERTAIN.