Kerry’s getting some good shots in there, but he’s not calling Bush directly enough on the facts. He should be noting every misstatement or wrong/misleading fact by Bush and trying to work them into every reply, bringing in the line, “and the president is wrong on that, too.” Well, there’s still time, and maybe I don’t fully understand the subtle touch.

On the question of why people overseas dislike us now, Kerry is responding with an account of how Bush bungled the job in Iraq, and mentioned what Bush said in the 2000 debate. If you ask me, he should have quoted Bush’s “we have to be a humble nation” instead of his promise not to go to war without and exit strategy. It would have been sharper and more to the point of the question.

Bush is now blaming the war on the generals–do we have the right plan, the right troop levels, and the generals told him so. That may have been true for the invasion–but not for the occupation, when generals asked for more troops, and Bush didn’t deliver. Kerry is getting on surer footing, and Bush is stumbling a bit more. We’ve got another hour and more, there’s a lot of game left. But so far, it seems like a draw.