Did Bush refer to Kerry as "Senator Kennedy" in the debates tonight?

[Dover]

I'll have to look at the transcript, but I seem to recall him saying Kerry's name wrong about the time he was labeling Kerry a "liberal". Intentional?
Why didn't Kerry correct him?

What's even weirder is that I was watching Jennings and the ABC commentary afterward, and when Jennings posed a question to one of his female correspondents in D.C. he also made this mistake, referring to Kerry as Kennedy. And again, neither the correspondent nor Jennings corrected the mistake.

What's up with that?

Anybody catch this?

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. YES

Precious isn't it

[Barney Rocks]

2. just once.

he was trying to repeat the RW lie about Kerry being the most liberal senator blah blah blah--why Kerry is even more liberal than E. Kennedy. I know the spiel--because I have heard it a time or two..Anyway--Bush mangled it badly and called Senator Kennedy the most liberal Senator--but he was obviously trying to refer to Kerry--he just screwed it up entirely.

[illuminaughty]

3. You caught it right

He called him Senator Kennedy and they were debating whether this was an intentional Freudian slip. In other words, a tactic to associate Kerry with the liberal Senator Kennedy.

I think it was just another "WTF" moment from *. It would be nice to see someone turn it around on him. Suggest that, after all, Kerry has the looks, the eloquence, the linguistic skills and the initials of another Senator Kennedy long ago. And it's understandable that one just can't help but thinking of J.F.K. when they see Kerry debate. Hah!

[SheWhoMustBeObeyed]

4. Olbermann took points off Bush's score for that flub

Keith's blow-by-blow blog here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5445086/

[Dover]

5. The Right has been trying to make the Kennedy connection to Kerry

from the get-go, saying with a snear that "he even looks like a Kennedy". So I really wonder if that 'mistake' wasn't intentional.

[funky_bug]

6. LMAO!!!!!!!!!!

"The scorers table reproaches President Bush for not knowing when he has wood."

Priceless!

[Philostopher]

7. Well, I actually think it's a rather stupid thing to try to do.

There are plenty of people out there who still think well of JFK -- without just outright calling Kerry 'Ted' they conflate Kerry with 'just any Kennedy,' and some might happen to be more likely to think of ... oh, say Bobby or John. That's dangerous territory for the Bush* campaign, I think if it was intentional it could backfire on them.

When I hear Kennedy, the first person who comes into my mind is JFK, and I've been watching politicians play mind games with the general public all my life. I know who Teddy is, I don't have a problem with him, though others do. Still -- when you just fling out the name 'Kennedy,' I honestly believe lots of people who aren't necessarily political freaks like those who are more politically sensitive are just going to think of John, not Ted.

[Radio-Active]

8. I checked the transcript and..

Bush NEVER said Kerry's name last night. The one time he tried, he got it wrong.