Republicans shift tactics

Changing tactics is something you do when what you're doing isn't working. After the first two debates turned out the way they did, Bush dropped the "flip--flop" attacks in favor of the L word, something his father used successfully against Michael Dukakis in 1988.

From CNN:

Bush's internals must show female voters don't like attempts to paint Kerry as a "flip-flopper." It's a phrase, ubiquitous in Bush's stump speeches, that we didn't hear once last night.

Indeed, Bush-Cheney aides say they'll instead focus in the final 19 days on Kerry's "liberal" record -- a strategy that explains Bush's best delivered line last night. "You know, there's a mainstream in American politics and you sit right on the far left bank," Bush said to Kerry. "As a matter of fact, your record is such that Ted Kennedy, your colleague, is the conservative senator from Massachusetts."

Kerry already preempted this line of attack by portraying Bush as the fiscally irresponsible candidate. If "conservative" means blowing a budget surplus and turning it into a strangling debt, etc etc, then being labelled liberal might be a benefit.