Bush's Problems

One of Bush's problems is that he doesn't blow Kerry away on points where he could have;

A lot of Kerry's "tax cuts" sound like welfare proposals in disguise.

Bush could have answered the abortion question by saying "What Kerry means is 'Yes, I WILL force you to pay for someone else's abortion.' Because he really isn't pro-choice. He's pro-abortion. He believes that the government should force all taxpayers to pay for abortion. That's anti-choice for the taxpayer."

Bush should have had an explanation in hand for why Kerry's tax increases could not cut the deficit by the amount he claimed, a few numbers memorized in his head.

When asked about mistakes, Bush should have said "Well, one mistake I made was that I assumed that Turkey would be more accomodating than it was. I should have put all of the troops in the Persian Gulf. By the time Turkey refused us entry, it was too late to get them into the Gulf in time for a timely invasion; if we had waited for them, the invasion would have happened in the hot summer, which would not have been possible, so we were forced to go in with fewer troops than if the Turks had been more accomodating.
"I also made a mistake in suggesting that elections be put off in Iraq and that caucuses be used to select their government, but I corrected that mistake early on.
"Finally, I think I made a mistake in not getting tougher with Ted Kennedy and the other liberals in Congress early on. It's a mistake I intend not to repeat.

Instead, Bush did the same thing he had done with Al Gore, repeat stupid insults and avoid substance. Unfortunately, Kerry has more personality than a piece of wood, so this tactic didn't work on him.