"I don't remember seeing that in print," she said of surely the one magazine cover story about her ever. "I do dispute the veracity of that. The only time the governor believes he was asked this question was in October of 1996 when he was asked if he had ever been arrested for drinking ... and he answered directly 'I do not have a perfect record.'"

You think that's a "direct" answer, Karen? You think that's a candid answer?

"I think that it's consistent with his desires as a father to set a good example for his own daughters," she said.

Is it a better example for your daughters to mislead, or to not tell the entire truth as opposed to just telling the truth outright? Wouldn't that be a better example?

"Again, Governor Bush has been very forthcoming," Hughes said. "He has always acknowledged that he made mistakes. He has always acknowledged that he occasionally drank too much in the past. He quit drinking more than 14 years ago, has not had a drink since. And he has acknowledged that he had a problem with drinking on occasion; this was one of those occasions."

End of press conference.

Off to a rally at a college that has a policy of expelling students for being gay or lesbian. There, in front of an overflow crowd of thousands, Bush acknowledged the scandal, if briefly and vaguely.

"It's become clear to America over the course of this campaign that I've made mistakes in my life, but I'm proud to tell you that I've learned from those mistakes," he said, to accepting cheers. "And that's the role of a leader: to share wisdom, to share experience with people who are looking for someone to lead."

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