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| POLITICAL WRAP | |
 October 3, 2000  |
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Syndicated columnist Mark Shields and Wall Street Journal columnist Paul Gigot offer some closing thoughts on the night of the first Bush-Gore encounter.
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GWEN IFILL: Now some final thoughts and back to syndicated columnist Mark Shields and Wall Street Journal columnist Paul Gigot. Paul, when we walked into the debate, the expectations were sky high for both guys, but especially for George W. Bush. Were those expectation met in any way? |
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| Living up to expectations? | ||||||||||||||||||||
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GWEN IFILL: Mark, did you like the poodle story? MARK SHIELDS: The poodle story left me quite cold. I could not agree more with Doris. To return to Doris's analogy about hitting home runs, I thought both of them blew Jim's question about crisis. I mean, I thought Bush's answer was totally inadequate about hugging somebody. And I didn't think... I thought that was a natural for Gore to talk about as Vice President. And he didn't. And also, in government intervention, in spite of the question of George Bush's philosophy, I didn't think either one of them gave an answer that was particularly interesting or fresh or appealing. I just have to say, I know Bill Clinton wasn't mentioned tonight, but I think Bill Clinton was the big winner tonight. I mean, Bill Clinton, whoever of these two guys wins, six months from now, people will be shaking their head and saying, you know, I miss that guy from Arkansas - you know, he was pretty damn knowledgeable. GWEN IFILL: Gee, Paul, are you going to be saying that? PAUL GIGOT: I'll let... MARK SHIELDS: Paul will be - PAUL GIGOT: I'll leave that to Mark. MARK SHIELDS: Paul will be saying it daily. He got him a Pulitzer. GWEN IFILL: Well, maybe you'll miss him the next two debates. Where do you think this leaves us for the next two debates? PAUL GIGOT: Well, I think there will be smaller audiences, no question about it, for the future debates. But this was the big one that Bush had to pass the test on. I think we'll see more of the same. And Bush... one thing that Bush will try to do next time that he didn't do as well this time is make the case for change, I think, more forcefully than he did tonight on the economy and some other issues. GWEN IFILL: How about that, Mark?
GWEN IFILL: Okay, Mark. MARK SHIELDS: He never said Newt Gingrich's name once. GWEN IFILL: Well, I'm going to have to leave it there on that interesting observation. We'll see you online everyone and again tomorrow evening on the NewsHour. We'll also be here Thursday evening to bring you complete coverage of the Vice Presidential debate in Danville, Kentucky. I'm Gwen Ifill. Thanks for being with us, and good night. |
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PAUL
GIGOT: Well, I think he did show that he could go toe to toe with Gore.
And if there were any doubts in the minds of voters that he couldn't
do that, I think he put those to rest. I mean, his worst moments, frankly,
were the times when he made those... tried to give those one liners.
He should give that up because he was almost searching for them, trying
to pull them out of his hat, so they looked forced. But when he was
dealing on the issues, he looked competent; he looked like he could
control debate and go head to head with the Vice President. So I think
in that sense, he looked like he's up to the job. That was one of the
tests he had to meet. 
MARK
SHIELDS: I think we will see upping the ante in the next one. I think
that Al Gore has to come back. I think that George Bush did meet a threshold
tonight. And I think that what Al Gore has to do... at no point did
he ever say, as George Bush made the case about the seven years …