BUSH GOES NEGATIVE...ON CHARLIE GIBSON?
" President Bush smirked and winked and chuckled to himself. He jumped
from his stool, chopped at the air and interrupted the debate moderator.
As he fought to keep his emotions in check in a testy, personal debate
with Sen. John Kerry, the president asserted, 'That answer almost made
me scowl.'" (AP, 10/8/04)

" An angry Bush at one point cut off moderator Charles Gibson to upbraid
Kerry for criticizing the size of the coalition backing the United
States in Iraq, saying it denigrated allies like Britain and Poland."
(Reuters, 10/9/04)

" During his (Bush's) own answers and rebuttals, he was pugnacious. He
overrode moderator Charles Gibson's protests at one point, saying
loudly, 'I have to answer this.'" (USA Today, 10/9/04)

BUSH ON DEFENSE
DEFENSIVE
Mark Shields: "I thought the President played defense on an awful lot of
issues tonight. I mean including the Canadian importation of drugs and
so much on the economy, and as well as Iraq." (PBS, 10/8/04)

Liz Marlantes, Christian Science Monitor: "I actually would in many ways
characterize the president's performance as heated and to me, at times;
it seemed very defensive, actually." (MSNBC, 10/9/04)

John Harwood, Wall Street Journal: "(Bush) was quite agitated at the
beginning. He looked defensive, he looked like somebody who was sort of
trying to push the rock up hill, convincing people why he really should
have gone to war against Iraq even though there were no weapons of mass
destruction." (CNN, 10/8/04)

BUSH'S ANGER MANAGEMENT
" ANGRY MAN"
Jon Meachan: "That was so interesting to me about President Bush is that
he seemed like an angry man tonight, and clearly Kerry got under his
skin in the first debate and instead of frankly not letting butter melt
in his mouth, tonight he seemed to me to be speaking very loudly." (PBS,
10/9/04)

Melinda Henneberger: "(Bush) seemed angry to me." (MSNBC 10/9/04)

" TIGHTLY COILED"
Liz Marlantes, Christian Science Monitor: "(Bush) still has some of
those things...I mean, you look at his face, he's so tightly coiled;
he's got the jaw, he's doing the blinking thing." (MSNBC, 10/9/04)

" TENSE AND ANGRY"
Joe Klein: "...Bush seemed tense and angry. The person who wins is the
person when you turn off the sound, the one who looks better to the
public -- that was Kerry tonight. Bush is supposed to be the laid back
regular guy, (but) he seems more tense than Kerry does." (CNN, 10/9/04)

" When Mr. Kerry accused the president of going to war unilaterally, Mr.
Bush could not suppress his anger. He jumped off his stool and
interrupted the moderator, Charles Gibson of ABC, saying, 'I've got to
answer this.' Mr. Gibson wanted to pursue the subject of whether
deploying Reserves constituted a form of military draft, but Mr. Bush
was adamant. 'Let me just answer what he just said about going alone,'
he insisted. 'You tell Tony Blair we're going alone! Tell Tony Blair
we're going alone!'" (New York Times, 10/9/04)

" STRIDENT AND INTENSE"
" At the outset, Bush seemed strident and intense, as if over-eager to
avoid a repetition of his pained performance eight days ago." (New York
Times, 10/9/04)

" (Bush)...could have used more humility and was almost shrill at times."
(Editorial, Dallas Morning News, 10/9/04)

" The president seemed to fall back frequently on name-calling...."
(Editorial, New York Times, 10/9/04)

NIXON-LIKE
" Bush 'seemed wound a bit too tight. He was a little like Nixon -- sort
of jumping out of his suit,' said David Niven, political science
professor at Florida Atlantic University. 'He looked bad on the TV
close-ups.'" (AP, 10/9/04)

HOT UNDER THE COLLAR
" The president...let his feelings get the better of him, getting hot
under the collar in a medium best served cold. From the outset, his
clenched jaw twitched, and he blinked repeatedly, like a man whose
contact lens hurt. And when Senator John Kerry turned and confronted him
face to face with the latest report on the absence of illicit weapons in
Iraq, President Bush snickered derisively - the first sign that the
president, though more combative than in the first debate, was not on
his game." (New York Times, 10/9/04)

" AGITATED"
" Bush, curbing most of the signs of frustration that marked his
performance in last week's debate, grew agitated after Kerry asserted
the United States is bearing the burden in Iraq." (Houston Chronicle,
10/9/04)

" FLUSTERED"
" (Bush)...did come across as flustered at a couple points in the
evening, referring to his opponent as 'Sen. Kennedy,' who is the senior
senator from Massachusetts. When asked about the draft, Bush declared:
'I hear there is a rumor on the Internets.'" (Chicago Tribune, 10/9/04)

BUSH'S DEJA VU EXPRESSIONS
" Mr. Bush seemed hesitant and spoke loudly when he took the stage...at
times he flashed glances of anger at Mr. Kerry that were reminiscent of
his demeanor the week before." (New York Times, 10/9/04)

" And not unlike that first battle, the president sounded angry and
defensive, as if scolding the undecided. 'Yeah, great question,' he said
when a man asked him about the draft." (New York Times, 10/9/04)

" Bush kept his smirks and other body language in check more so than he
did in the first debate, though at times he still let them roam. At one
point, Bush even interrupted moderator Charles Gibson to lecture Kerry
about the allied coalition in Iraq: 'You tell (British Prime Minister)
Tony Blair we're going alone!'" (Arizona Republic, 10/9/04)