This election is Boobus Americanus (to borrow HL. Mencken's phrase) vs. the rest of the nation. Bush is clearly pandering to the Boobuses and his floundering that sounds just terrible on the radio (as Jon observed) is apparently designed to imitate the Boobus Americanus speech pattern - avoidance of "big" words, cockiness, stubbornness, drawl, extensive reliance on the you-too "argument." Basically, Bush sounded like a redneck caught in someone else's backyard and talking back to his accusers. Obviously, this has zero appeal to the smart folk, but Boobuses can surely identify with it.
The debates are not designed to convince anyone, but to shore up the base support. This is so, because politics is in some ways like farming - you reap in November what you sowed in the the Spring. You do not run your election campaign by introducing new ideas and educating the electorate. You run your campaign by reaping what you and your supporters sowed months and years before. You do not sow in October and hope to reap in November - something that narcissistic Naderites just do not get.
Wojtek