Vice President Gore's victory in last night's debate was anticipated, given his reputed expertise in debate, but the narrowness of the win was a surprise. Polls taken after the debate by CNN/Time showed that voters felt Governor George W. Bush performed relatively well in the debate, defying the expectations of many. In effect, Gore's mastery of facts and numbers and his control of the tone and topic of the debate was only barely enough to overpower Bush's something. What exactly did Bush have? Ah, yes -- it's not really what he had or what he did, it's more what he didn't do. It's clear that the reason people thought Bush did well is that he wasn't as stupid and slow-footed as they expected him to be. Unfortunately for Gore, Bush was able to talk clearly and explain his ideas most of the time -- this in itself a tremendous achievement for a man who rivals Dan Quayle in the category of verbal blunders. Yet while Bush did manage to capture many hearts with his surprisingly articulate speech, boyish grin, lame jokes and personal attacks, Gore succeeded in showing Americans his position on several domestic issues while casting doubts on Bush's.
Gore seized upon the opening question to pound away at the fact that under Bush's tax plan, the amount of money in the tax cut for the wealthiest one percent of Americans would be greater than the amount of money set aside for defense, education, health care and prescription drugs combined. Of course, all these computations were done on a magic calculator that Gore himself invented, which churned out equally magic "phony numbers" and "fuzzy math" according to Bush. The problem is that Bush never directly refuted these numbers and couldn't come up with numbers of his own. It was obvious that Gore knew more about Bush's plan than Bush did. How did that happen? I guess Gore must have some kind of a magic brain that actually works.
In any case, Gore's magical thinking brain introduced several good points and ideas and presented sufficient evidence to support them. Asking the country to use its prosperity not just for a few but for everyone, Gore explained his plan for balancing the budget, cutting taxes for those who need it most -- the middle class -- repaying the national debt and shoring up Medicare in a "lockbox" where it wouldn't be in danger of having money drained from it for other purposes. Bush, meanwhile, explained his plan in his usual manner, saying that he would use half the surplus for social security, one-quarter for tax cuts, and one-quarter for "important projects." Conforming to his standard techniques, Bush neglected to elaborate on these "important projects," focusing instead on how he's going to be a nice president and give rich folk some money back.
Gore continued to attack Bush's proposals as weak and poorly planned throughout the debate, and Bush continued to make little sense. When describing the one public school in Texas that has made progress, Bush explained how "one of the best schools in Houston" is "full of so-called at-risk children" who "basically can't learn." Interesting school. I wonder how it works. At another point in the debate, Bush complained that the U.S. military has deteriorated under the current administration. He's probably just worried that he won't be able to defend his ranch from all the enemies out there that have armies as strong as ours. Poor, poor George. Doesn't he realize that there aren't any enemies that have armies as strong as ours? And if he's worried that his ranch might be wounded, why does he plan on spending half as much as Gore does on the military? Gore made a point of this when Bush criticized him on this issue. "In fact," Gore stated, "in my 10-year budget proposal, I have set aside more than twice as much for this purpose as Governor Bush has in his proposal." Bush had no response to this fact.
Gore's intelligence eventually elicited a strong response from Bush, who couldn't stick to the issues and so decided to go with his strength -- personal attack. Labeling Gore as someone lacking credibility and character, Bush proceeded to make his point that Gore has no credibility and has a flawed character. Gore simply responded that the candidates "ought to focus on the problems and not attack each other." Bush had trouble understanding this suggestion, what with big words like "problems" and "attack" and continued disparaging Gore's character.
Bush's greatest achievement other than his ability to communicate was the fact that he showed up at all. Bush, a Republican, felt it would be unfair to debate in a forum right next to a library named after a Democrat (in this case, President John F. Kennedy). This is a good point because well it's a point; maybe it's not a good one. Other problems, including his fear of Boston and all its crazy liberals, made for good excuses to avoid debating. But George W. valiantly challenged his own fear of being wiped out in debate, and actually put up a good fight by not being a total idiot. Gore on the other hand, spoke eloquently, presented his ideas clearly, and attacked his opponent's proposals rather than his character and integrity. Gore didn't win by nearly as much as he should have.
