Bush kept beating a dead horse, and whereas I think this horse served them ok so far in the campaign, he beat it beyond reason tonight, didn't even do it effectively, and came across looking like he had nothing else to say but:

"Consistency! You can't say "wrong war, wrong place, wrong time" and be president! He's not consistent!"

That's all he had to say. When given the opportunity to give specifics, he just accused Kerry of being inconsistent. When given the opportunity to provide details on his plans with Iraq, he just accused Kerry of being inconsistent. When given the opportunity to discuss homeland security of North Korea or anything else, he just accused Kerry of being inconsistent.

Again, that may work at campaign rallies and it may have struck a chord in campaign commercials and speeches up until tonight, but it's as if he killed it tonight. He took what was a good argument for his campaign and beat it in to the ground and made it look not like a valid assessment of Kerry's inability to settle on a decision, but like the only thing his campaign has to fly on.

And that's not good for him.

He looked flustered. He looked annoyed. At times he sounded like a child.

Bush-
"I did too!"
"I knew that!"
"We had Poland!"
"I know that guy!"

Again, I can't say how bad it looked for him to beat that "consistency" horse tonight. Kerry eloquently gave specifics and laid out plans and policies and firm details and specifics. Bush kept going back to "consistency". It's all he had, and he just totally committed overkill on it.

People went in to the debate worried that Kerry was inconsistent.
They come out of the debate seeing that Bush has nothing better to do than accuse Kerry of inconsistency.

Bush - "The only consistency he's shown is being inconsistent!" I have expected Bush to hold up a big sign that said "PWNED!!!" there. What was that?

Now, whenever the Bush campaign tries to play the inconsistency card, it just makes it look like they have nothing better to say and no real argument to make because they just watched the President flounder with no other point to make than that.

Kerry - "I might have said the wrong thing. But invading Iraq was the wrong thing. Which is worse?" That scored points for him.

Really, Kerry's campaign could not have done a better job denouncing the "inconsistency" accusations from their opponents than Bush did himself tonight by making it seem not like that's a valid point, but instead like it's the only thing the Reps. can think of to say this year.

Kerry did what he had to do. He came across as decisive and Presidential, he came across and eloquent and informed, he came across and aggressive and confident and willing to speak the truth and give details.

Bush came across as annoyed and angry, flustered and frustrated, even childish and arrogant. And unable to offer up anything else than character attacks and an argument he turned from advantageous before the debate to overkill during it.