Many punches, no knockouts

The debate fodder was spurred by questions from St. Louis area residents.
SCRIPPS HOWARD NEWS SERVICE
ST. LOUIS -- It was billed Round Two, and both prizefighters came out of their corners more aggressively this time, with Sen. John Kerry getting off the first punch, saying President Bush has "turned his campaign into a weapon of mass deception." Bush fired back minutes later saying Kerry's diplomatic plans are "naive and dangerous."
There was no letup and very little levity. The candidates sharpened their differences on a variety of domestic and foreign policy issues posed by an audience of 140 St. Louis area residents selected by the Gallup Organization. Participants submitted their questions in advance to ABC News anchor Charles Gibson, who moderated the high-stakes rhetorical duel at Washington University in St. Louis.
The debate ranged over prescription medicine from Canada, the possibility of a draft, the huge deficit, the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden, the Kerry health plan and North Korea policy. The candidates also sparred over jobs creation and tax policy, sneak-and-peek searches under the Patriot Act, embryonic stem cells, Supreme Court selections and the environment.
Iraq
The two tangled early on Iraq, with Kerry pointing to the newly released report of Charles Duelfer, head of the Iraq Survey Group, which indicated Saddam Hussein was not planning to produce weapons of mass destruction while Iraq remained under U.N. sanctions and had disbanded the programs years before. Kerry suggested the threat of weapons of mass destruction had been declining at the time Bush sent troops to invade.
Bush responded that both he and Kerry agreed that Saddam Hussein had been a danger in the region and the world is better off with the dictator removed.
"I tried diplomacy," Bush said. "He [Saddam] was trying to get rid of sanctions for a reason ... Saddam Hussein was a unique threat. And the world is better off without him in power."
In his follow-up, Kerry pointed out that the sanctions had been intended to remove weapons, not to capture Saddam, and that the sanctions had been working. "He didn't have weapons of mass destruction, Mr. President. That was the objective."
Washington University political science professor James Davis said before the debate it would be critical for Kerry to press Bush on the evidence suggesting the threat from Iraq was actually diminishing when the U.S. invaded, and equally important for Bush to explain clearly how the collapse of the original rationale for the war still justifies the invasion.
The Duelfer report came out at the same week as Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld sent mixed signals about the link between Saddam and Al-Qaida, while former U.S. Iraqi administrator Paul Bremer suggested the Bush team never put enough boots on the ground to stop the initial lawlessness.
Key differences
Kerry, 60, and Bush, 58, clashed on almost every topic, demonstrating serious philosophical differences, but they battled with evidence.
Bush blamed the deficit on a recession and the cost of running a war. Kerry noted that the current administration is "the first time we've had a tax cut while we've been at war."
Kerry was challenged by one questioner to look into the camera and say he wouldn't raise taxes on families making less than $200,000. Kerry did it.
"I'm going to restore what we did in the 1990s: Pay as you go," he said.
Kerry acknowledged that he would roll back tax cuts for some -- people like himself, the president and Gibson.
Bush said the way to grow the economy is to keep taxes low. He said the issue is "the fundamental question of the campaign."
Everyone in the red-carpeted auditorium had been reminded that Missouri has been on the winning side in every presidential contest except in 1956. The Missouri debate took on added significance because of Bush's perceived poor performance at the first debate in Miami, and news developments that had the president again defending his decision to invade Iraq, where the 1,064th soldier died Friday.
Global reputation
Both candidates were asked about the reputation of the United States overseas. Bush acknowledged that his policies against the International Criminal Court and his refusal to deal with Yasser Arafat were unpopular in Europe, but that he intended to stand on principle.
"Sometimes in this world you have to make unpopular decisions because they're right," he said.
Kerry said that Bush's "go it alone" approach has alienated the rest of the world and undermines America's security. He said Bush "rushed to war" without consulting allies.
Bush, stung, responded in a follow-up: "Tell Tony Blair we're going it alone," referring to the British prime minister.
Economy
With help from Friday's jobs report, Kerry again made the point that Bush has seen recent, modest job gains but is the first president since Herbert Hoover to have presided over a net loss in jobs. Friday's disappointing job-creation figures kept the unemployment rate at 5.4 percent. Some 96,000 jobs were created in September when Wall Street had expected 150,000. August figures were revised downward.
As he did in Miami and does on the campaign trail, Bush characterized Kerry's plan to roll back his administration's tax reductions for those earning over $200,000 a year as a plan to increase taxes, and asserted he has taken the wrong position on defense spending initiatives during his long tenure in the U.S. Senate.
Kerry, borrowing a page his running mate John Edwards used in Tuesday night's vice presidential debate, said he would work to shore up a shrinking middle class.
"You're my priority," he said.
Although both candidates have had extensive practice with town hall-type formats (Kerry with 73, Bush with 19), both have had difficulties with the medium. Kerry's aides were keenly aware that it was at an unscripted event before an audience in March that he made the now-infamous remark about voting for an $87 billion military appropriation "before I voted against it." Bush's experience has been limited to mainly friendly, screened audiences of supporters where he's fielded softballs like whether he, like his father, hates broccoli.
Before the debate, a small crowd of Ralph Nader supporters and others left a church two blocks off campus and marched carrying placards critical of the process that limited the discussion to the two major party candidates. On campus, students vied for face time in front of CNN cameras with placard messages like "The Patriot Act Bugs Me" and "Mission Misunderestimated."
Observers
Besides substantive hyperbole, the debate was closely watched by the drama critics ready to pounce on the sweating brow or dry lips of the next commander in chief. Most appeared to agree that Bush avoided the frowns of the first debate. Both candidates attempted to disarm with charm, with mixed results. At one of Kerry's critiques of his diplomatic strategy on nuclear proliferation, Bush said, "That answer almost made me want to scowl."
Round Three of the debates moves to Tempe, Ariz., next week.