The Texas governor declared anew that he supported trigger locks for handguns but doesn't think laws requiring them would be enforceable. "What, are you going to have trigger lock police knocking on people's doors saying, 'Show me your trigger lock?"'

But his questioner noted that most of the proposed laws would simply require gun manufacturers to sell the locks with the gun -- something that could be monitored and enforced easily, and doesn't require police to go to people's homes.

Bush's position on the locks has evolved even as he has accused McCain of flip-flopping on the issue. In a May 1999 TV interview, Bush said he did not favor mandatory trigger locks but supported "voluntary safety locks on guns."

More recently, he said would sign such a law if Congress passed it, but questioned whether it would be effective. On Thursday, he said, "I have no problems with trigger locks being sold."

There were no outright mistruths during the debate in delegate-rich California, as both candidates touched on issues gingerly.

"In the push and pull of this process, some of the natural hyperbole is being toned down because they realize that they can be called on it and they have been called on it," said Kathleen Hall Jamieson, a professor who studies political rhetoric.

Still, she said, careful listeners could find things to balk about.

Bush's chief rival, Sen. John McCain, engaged in some hyperbole while accusing evangelical leaders Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell of leading the GOP down a wrong road.

The Arizona senator declared "we have lost the last two congressional elections." In fact, Republicans retained control of Congress in each of the last two elections, but the size of their majority has shrunk.

In his closing statement, Bush said that taxes today "are higher than they've been since World War II."

While the total tax dollars the government collects has been rising, that's mostly attributed to the booming economy. But the tax load being shouldered by most taxpayers has fallen as a result of targeted tax cuts in recent years, Jamieson said.

For instance, the Congressional Budget Office reported last summer that the effective individual income tax rate is at its lowest point in 20 years for everyone but the richest 20 percent.

Alan Keyes branded McCain "pro-choice" because of comments he made suggesting he would leave an abortion decision to his daughter if she became pregnant.

In fact, the Arizona senator has received a solid anti-abortion rating for many years from the National Right to Life Committee.

But McCain's commitment to opposing abortion has been challenged recently despite that record.

Last August, he told the San Francisco Chronicle he didn't think the Supreme Court ruling that legalized abortion should be repealed. Under fire from conservatives, he backed off the remark.

In January, he answered a hypothetical question by saying his 15-year-old daughter would make the "final decision" on ending a pregnancy if she were contemplating an abortion.

McCain later clarified it would be a "family decision."

At one point, Bush criticized Title I federal school funding because it does not include any accountability standards, such as the standardized tests he proposes.

What he didn't mention is that President Clinton tried last year to attach such standards to Title I but was blocked by members of Bush's own party in Congress, who saw it as federal meddling in local decision-making.