Reply #1: I think if you read things Kerry actually said,

[karynnj]

he did hit Bush pretty hard. I don't think that saying the same things in a ruder more direct way would have worked for the Presidential candidate. Hackett did not have to pass the criterion of being Presidential or likeable enough to be on TV all the time.

Attacking hecklers as Hackett did is tougher for Presidential candidates too - they are given more status (by virtue of being potential Presidents) than a person for Congress is. Responding in anger or rudely brings the candidate down to the level of the heckler. (Dean was hurt in Iowa when he was rude to an old heckler.) Also, I've never heard of anyone being WON OVER by this type of behavior.

The people who saw Bush as a strong leader were already with him before the primaries started. That was the status quo - Kerry had to prove several things that Bush didn't. (that he was Presidential, that he had a clear vision that could make things better, that he could protect the country etc.) Because Bush was President it wasn't a level playing field. If it was, the first debate would have determined the election.

The stronger comments should have come from Kerry's surrogates. (I also wonder if the drop in the polls in August made the surrogates less aggressive - because many may have been already looking to 2008. )