ST. LOUIS, Oct. 8-With less than four weeks to go until the election, President Bush and Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry both took the offensive in the second presidential debate Friday night at Washington University in St. Louis.
The first part of the town hall- style debate featured questions on foreign policy, specifically the United States's handling of the war in Iraq. The questions were particularly pertinent in light of Thursday's Duelfer report, which concluded that there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
Responding to the report, Bush said that while Iraq may not have had weapons of mass destruction, they had the capability to restart their program if sanctions were lifted.
\[Hussein] was trying to get rid of sanctions for a reason,"" Bush said. ""He wanted to restart his weapons programs. We all thought there was weapons there ... I wasn't happy when we found out there wasn't weapons, and we've got an intelligence group together to figure out why.""
According to Bush, Kerry also believed there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and only changed his position on the war while running for president.
Kerry defended himself against charges of flip-flopping by saying he agreed with the concepts of the war in Iraq, the No Child Left Behind Act, and the USA Patriot Act, but disagreed with how they were carried out.
He added that Bush had failed to use the powers given to him by Congress responsibly and invaded Iraq without long-term planning.
""I would have used that authority wisely, not rushed to war without a plan to win the peace,"" he said. ""I would have brought our allies to our side. I would have fought to make certain our troops had everybody possible to help them win the mission.""
The intensity of the debate increased as Kerry said Bush had ignored the input of his advisors on Iraq. Bush replied that Kerry was denigrating our allies with his negative statements on the war.
As the focus of the debate shifted to domestic issues, the rhetoric cooled down. Bush said that during his tenure in office, the condition of the environment had improved.
""The quality of the air's cleaner since I've been the president,"" he said. ""Fewer water complaints since I've been the president. More land being restored since I've been the president.""
Kerry replied that the Bush had the most damaging environmental policies in recent history.
""The president, I don't think, is living in a world of reality with respect to the environment. If you're a Red Sox fan, that's OK. But if you're a president, it's not,"" Kerry said, getting a laugh from the audience.
The final question was among the toughest. A woman asked the candidates to name mistakes they've made in the past. Bush answered that he believed he had done the right thing on the big issues facing America.
""In a war, there's a lot of tactical decisions that historians will look back and say, 'he shouldn't have done that,'"" he said. ""But on the big questions, about whether or not we should have gone into Afghanistan, the big question about whether we should have removed somebody in Iraq, I'll stand by those decisions, because I think they're right.""
Kerry added that while he had made some mistakes in talking about his votes, the president had made much bigger errors in judgment.
""I made a mistake in the way I talk about it,"" he said. ""He made a mistake in invading Iraq. Which is a worse decision?""
