I wonder who advised Kerry to come up with: "Dick Cheney is a good father! He's got a LESBIAN daughter!" (especially considering that John Edwards had already used his opportunity to "complement his counterpart on the parenting skills" during the vice-presidential debate).
Talk about relevance! That almost turned me into a conservative (I even actually stopped yelling at the TV while watching Fox News and currently thinking about dropping Bill O'Reilly a line :))) Is it really so hard to see that Bush is being a lot more personal than Kerry - constantly activates "frames" like we, hard-working folks, while Kerry proceeds with I, I, I with his, according to Lakoff, "perfect intonation" - monotonous as hell, IMHO. During the last couple of weeks Bush started laughin at his very own Bushism (isn't this one of THE most likeable things anybody could every do) basically saying "So what that I can't speak English correctly? I'm alive, I'm human".
Why couldnt' anybody advise Kerry to turn to Bush and ask: "Mr. President? Why do you think those terrorists attacked us in the first place? and take no "value/way of life-hating" BS as for an answer...