PORTLAND – Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean and conservative activist William Bennett on Thursday debated the strengths and weaknesses of President Bush and Democratic challenger John Kerry.

Their appearance before 600 people at the conference of the American Council of Engineering Companies came just hours before Bush and Kerry debated on national TV.

Dean was the one-time front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination this year. Bennett served as drug czar during the Reagan administration and as secretary of education under former President George H.W. Bush.

Dean said most Americans believe the country is headed in the wrong direction, and that the United States was once the moral leader of the free world but is now despised around the globe.

He said Kerry is more thoughtful than Bush, and that the president doesn’t deserve a second term because he has done a poor job managing the economy and foreign policy.

“Protecting America did not involve taking out Saddam Hussein, dreadful as he was,” Dean said. “We are in the wrong war at the wrong time.”

Bennett said Kerry is vague and inconsistent while Bush is focused on keeping America safe.

He said that since Bush took office, 50 million Muslims have been liberated, the Taliban have been deposed in Afghanistan, Osama bin Laden and his top aides are dead or on the run, most of al-Qaida’s leaders have been captured, deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein is in prison and “we are seeing the emergence of the first democracy in the Arab world.”

“The overriding issue of this campaign is the future of civilization,” Bennett said.

Audience members said the face-off was frank and spontaneous.

“They were sincere. They were honest. They said the things candidates are coached not to say,” said Joanne Linowes of Massachusetts.