Fred Barnes on Dubya in the debates

With Bush, there’s a kind of mystique that most reporters and commentators in Washington don’t understand. They still believe the president is a bumpkin. Kerry, on the other hand, is persuasive in the Washington sense, arguing his case knowledgeably with a specific or two. So were Jimmy Carter and Walter Mondale. When Bush connects with voters, the media feels blindsided. Whatever Bush does to reach the public, the press rarely notices. And Bush may have done some of it last night, especially in his strong closing statement and his mention of meeting with Missy Johnson, the wife of a soldier killed in Iraq.

Kerry often fails to connect, though he surely thrilled Democrats or independents already committed to voting for him. This is no small thing. If he hadn’t stirred the faithful, the race would be over. The problem for Kerry, though, is that right now, there aren’t enough committed folks to defeat Bush on November 2. The first debate didn’t change that.