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| POLITICAL WRAP | |
 October 3, 2000  |
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Syndicated columnist Mark Shields and Wall Street Journal columnist Paul Gigot react to the first debate between Al Gore and George W. Bush.
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| Lockboxes and fuzzy math | ||||||||||||||||||||
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MARK SHIELDS: There were differences. I thought they spelled them out pretty emphatically at great repetition. They returned to their campaign themes over and over and over again. GWEN IFILL: Was that enlightening, Paul?
GWEN IFILL: Mark, did George W. Bush do what he had to do tonight?
GWEN IFILL: Paul, they also seemed both kind of tentative about poking at each other's sore spots. George W. Bush was very tentative about talking about Al Gore's character, and Al Gore, only in the slightest, most subtle way, made a reference to the eight years ago when his father was President. PAUL GIGOT: Yeah. It's clear that they believe the voters don't want that kind of thing, and I thought -- I think that because character is such an undercurrent in this race and is an issue that has helped, by and large, Governor Bush, that's where he missed an opportunity. He really didn't drive that point home when it was offered to him out there, particularly in linking character and credibility to the ability to get things done in Washington. He does that elsewhere. He really didn't do that tonight. And I think he missed an opportunity there. GWEN IFILL: I'm going to give you two a chance to adjust this. We'll get right back to you in a while. But let's go now to Ray Suarez for some partisan reaction to tonight's debate. |
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GWEN
IFILL: This is Gwen Ifill in Washington. You've been watching the first
presidential debate between Vice President Al Gore and Governor George
W. Bush. See the gentlemen on the stage now. They're about to be greeted
by their families. There's Laura Bush in her debate red. And the Vice
President's daughters, you saw a flash of there. Big hug from wife Tipper
and daughters Karenna, Kristin, and Sarah. That's George W. Bush's sister.
As they continue to greet their family, we're going to go to some analysis
and reaction to tonight's encounter. We'll hear from Shields and Gigot,
two partisan strategists, and our historian panel. First, Shields and
Gigot: That's syndicated columnist Mark Shields and Wall Street Journal
columnist Paul Gigot. Mark, we understood that - we heard George W.
Bush just say there were huge differences between the two men. Did we
hear that tonight? 
PAUL
GIGOT: I think it was for a lot of voters who hadn't tuned in do that
don't hear the speeches. I mean, I think you got a real distinction
on several issues, particularly on the philosophical point of the role
of government, which is one of the things I thought that George W. Bush
did well in drawing that distinction between the two candidates. And
there was no question that Al Gore was doing his best to try to cast
doubt in the minds of voters on George Bush's agenda in Medicare, Social
Security, taxes. He has a habit of linking... of locking on to phrases
and repeating them over and over. We heard wealthiest 1 percent-- I
stopped counting at eight -- and lockbox and drains money from the public
schools, that sort of thing. The other thing I thought Bush did well,
I thought he looked presidential. He looked confident. There were only
a couple times when playing defense he seemed to get rattled and that
probably helps him as a challenger. 
MARK
SHIELDS: I'm not sure if he did. Let me just take a little exception
with what Paul said. I don't think Al Gore was the only person that
returned to pet phrases; if I heard "fuzzy math," one more
time, I was going to adopt it as some sort of a little house animal.
But the... to me, I thought Bush did seem more comfortable in himself,
more poised, and yet at the same time, he seemed more tentative at certain
times. Gore, surprisingly, was far more in command and more comfortable
on foreign policy and national defense than he seemed to be in domestic
issues, which is, as Paul listed, where he has had this advantage in
the polls and is sort of touted as knowing so much more. And I thought
that if anything was missing in this debate, it was any sense of spontaneity
or humor. Each of them, given the chance, kind of returned to what had
been his campaign basic pitch and shtick.