Yuck. The character question was just asked. Lehrer asked Bush if Kerry had the character for the office.
Your blogstress loathes this sort of thing; at worst baiting, at best leaving the opening for the candidates to enter into an ugly personal game.
Bush was clever enough not to take the bait, and came off looking magnanimous with a string of attributes for which he says he admires his opponent: service to his country, great dad, great daughters who have been kind to the Bush girls. Then he tried to soft-pedal his message of the evening: "My concerns about the senator is (sic) that he changes his positions on the war in Iraq," Bush asserted. "In the councils of nations there must be certainty." (Excellent line, actually.)
Kerry's rejoinder was strong: "It's one thing to be certain, but you can be certain and be wrong...What I worry about with the president is that he's not acknowledging the reality on the ground...[in Iraq, Korea, etc.]" He then made a good case for changing one's position when faced with new information.
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