The second presidential debate was, by any measure, better than the first. Bush recovered from his twitchy, petulant performance of Sep. 30 and Kerry was, if anything, even more concise (lo, a miracle!) and direct. More importantly, the questions from audience members were better -- more substantive, less circumspect -- than anything asked by the "official" media-types refereeing the VP and first presidential debates.
However, Kerry flubbed one question that should have been a home run for him. As you might guess, I'm talking about the environmental question. Here's a policy area where, unlike many others, Kerry has a clear, consistent, and almost uniformly strong record. Bush, on the other hand, is rated the worst environmental president ever by just about everybody -- including, increasingly, members of his own party, mid-level officials in his agencies, and conservationists from the traditionally right-leaning hook-and-bullet crowd.
But Bush dodged the bullet.
