Americans think Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry has a stronger command of issues and the English language than President George Bush, experts say.
They also say the former Yale debater resuscitated his campaign with a dominating performance in the first presidential debate and did no worse than Bush in the following two.
Then why have Kerry's numbers slipped in recent polls to where he trails the president by an average of four percentage points?
\It's a mystery,"" said Charles Franklin, a UW-Madison political science professor and elections expert who nonetheless said the president's lowered expectations and simple speaking style won over voters.
Franklin said Bush debated in vague terms, preached staying the course, and generally omitted detailed policy plans. Kerry, in contrast, had a tendency to get bogged down in technical details or speak in convoluted phrases.
Franklin said the president's debate style resonated among undecided voters with a shallow grasp of the issues.
""Bush can kind of step back and say 'I didn't understand all that, did you?' and manage to do that in a way that is actually appealing to voters rather than say 'Well, I don't really understand what's going on,'"" Franklin said.
Bush also wins over voters by taking strong positions and sticking with them, said Charles Jones, a UW-Madison political science professor.
Jones said Kerry presents more nuanced policies but some voters fear a highly intelligent candidate is too equivocal to be president and will see too many complications to take decisive actions.
""What the polls suggest is that Kerry wins the debate because he's more articulate but that Bush wins the polls because [voters] have more confidence in somebody who is straightforward and clear and not so verbose and doesn't see complications,"" Jones said.
Stephan Lucas, another UW-Madison political science professor, said voters had lower expectations of the president during debates because they already knew how Bush would lead despite any mental or oratorical shortcomings.
Many voters will also stick with a poor debating president because Americans have a fear of public speaking and relate to candidates with similar problems, Lucas said.
However, Lucas said Bush performed ""off-the-charts bad"" in the first debate, and Kerry's clear victory rescued his campaign and raised his poll numbers dramatically. According to Lucas, Kerry's numbers fell since that debate as Bush improved on his simple style.
It has not been uncommon for Americans to elect the worse debating president. In 1984 Walter Mondale appeared more intelligent than Ronald Reagan but won only one state. William Jennings Bryan was one of America's greatest orators but lost the presidency three times.
