Bush rebounds, but Kerry is formidable

Friday’s second presidential debate in St. Louis saw both candidates in prime form, giving voters a good picture of each. President Bush did much better than in his first debate, this time not grimacing and mostly avoiding the twisted syntax, repetition and lack of compelling detail that hurt him the first time around.

But Sen. John Kerry probably made incremental gains by doing what he needs to take the election down to the wire. He looked like a credible challenger, armed with reasons for replacing the incumbent.

The first half of the 90-minute debate was about national security. The president defended his decision to go to war as ably as could be expected. But Sen. Kerry pointed to recent reports showing that Saddam Hussein didn’t have weapons of mass destruction and that the money spent on the war better could have been spent hunting for Osama bin Laden, the mastermind behind the 9/11 attack. The challenger also insisted that he would “reach out to our allies” to win the war in Iraq and rebuild the country.

The president’s response was to point to Sen. Kerry’s early support for the war. Bush also defended the war in Iraq explaining the war on terror is not just about Osama bin Laden, but “to make sure the terrorists don’t get weapons of mass destruction.” And, he added, Saddam was waiting for the U.N. sanctions to be lifted before building such weapons again.

Although it probably didn’t lose him votes, Kerry again advanced his promise to increase the military’s strength by 40,000 active-duty troops, something that may be hard to do after the problems in Iraq, whoever is president.

On domestic policy, the president scored best on tax policy, but struggled in a bidding contest to dangle the most number of new or expanded government programs in front of voters. Kerry kept promising to pay for his new programs with tax increases on those making $200,000 a year or more.

As the president pointed out, that new tax would hurt small businesses that create jobs, and in any case wouldn’t cover the $2.2 trillion in new government spending Kerry is proposing.

Kerry appealed to envy by portraying the president as someone caring most about “the power companies, the oil companies and the drug companies.” But Bush also scored points by critiquing the senator’s socialized medical plan and liberal voting record.

Now we move toward what could be the deciding clash, next Wednesday’s debate. If the president doesn’t win that contest, it may be difficult for him to forestall a Kerry victory in November.