NOW KERRY’S TALKING TOUGH: Don’t back off on Fallujah; close the borders. No long-term designs on Iraq.

His best moment so far. Kind of loses his thread with the training angle, though, as he echoes Bush so closely.

Bush quotes Allawi. Slaps Kerry for criticizing Allawi, Lockhart for calling him a puppet. Good comeback. Bush’s consistent theme: Kerry’s not serious here, and hasn’t made the tough decisions a commander-in-chief has to make.

UPDATE: Reader Doug Jordan emails: “Kerry’s position boils down to: US troops don’t work; let’s use some others. The Prez should say so.”