Bush was consistently staying on message, and the message was that he is consistent and Kerry isn't. Kerry tried all kinds of tricks and Bush didn;'t fall for them he just stayed firm in his resolve. The method reinforced the message.
I'm feeling pretty good after talking to my dad about the debate. He's fairly moderate, and he said that Kerry didn't seem convincing to him. He said that too much of Kerry's message seemed to focus on how he would do better, even though he didn't have a plan that was very different from Bush's, and how he would have done things differently. He thought Kerry had a few good points, but that Bush has done good and he didn't think it was necessary to change presidents in the middle of the war unless Kerry had a vastly different plan that would work better.