I’m sort of in the Hugh Hewitt camp (Bush always wins), but I think this really was Kerry’s weakest performance. He had the most stumbles. And he especially stumbled on the personal/warmth questions. On his “articles of faith.” On prayer. And as Kate said, a very weird answer on his wife that didn’t even include the word “Teresa.”
I would guess that the liberal Democratic base liked his aggressive liberal take against Bush on the issues. But he sounds awfully goofy trying to insist his agenda is not (1) about government-takeover liberalism or (2)expensive, and not easily paid for as you pledged to hold taxes down on everyone making less than $200,000.