Blogging the New York Times Transcript of the debate
STarts out with standard stuff. I think Bush got in trouble when he had to "rebut" and thus think of something new to say after he had given his standard little speach on a topic

"MR. GIBSON: Mr. President, I do want to follow up on this one, because there were several questions from the audience along this line.

PRESIDENT BUSH: (Off mike) -- rebuttal thing --

MR. GIBSON: Go ahead. Go ahead. Well, I was going to have you do the rebuttal on that, but you go ahead. (Laughter.) You're up."

sounds like Bush is afraid to have to follow up on anything and it soon becomes clear he should be.

PRESIDENT BUSH: (Laughs.) You remember the last debate? My opponent said that America must pass a global test before we use force to protect ourselves. That's the kind of mindset that says sanctions were working.

That's the kind of mindset that said let's keep it at the United Nations and hope things go well.

this is crazy. He left himself wide open. This also means he has burned the "global test" talking point.

Saddam Hussein was a threat because he could have given weapons of mass destruction to terrorist enemies (how ? Given that he didn't have any ?). Sanctions were not working. The United Nations was not effective at removing Saddam Hussein.

MR. GIBSON: Senator?

SEN. KERRY: The goal of the sanctions was not to remove Saddam Hussein, it was to remove the weapons of mass destruction. And, Mr. President, just yesterday the Duelfer report told you and the whole world they worked. He didn't have weapons of mass destruction, Mr. President. That was the objective.

And if we'd used smart diplomacy, we could have saved $200 billion and an invasion of Iraq, and right now Osama bin Laden might be in jail or dead. That's the war against terror.

Brilliant although hard not to sound brilliant given the opening Bush gave him. Bush was totally lost when he had to go beyond his set Iraq speech.