Grading Gore

This time around, Gore gets an A for both effort and execution

by Robert David Sullivan

Bush's performance in these debates is pretty much irrelevant. He's got the votes of all the people who despise Bill Clinton and never accepted the results of the last two elections (he's got them in a "lockbox," Gore might say), and no debate is going to change that. The rest of the electorate is going to vote for or against the vice president, and Bush's grasp of the issues will not be a factor in their decision. Simply voting for the more intelligent candidate - as if it doesn't matter what he'll do with his intelligence - is an awfully dumb way to choose a president. Even so, in the first debate Gore seemed to think he could use his wits not only to embarrass Bush, but to shame Bush supporters into switching their votes. Gore's futile strategy in Boston made me understand, for the first time, that catchphrase from "Forrest Gump": "Stupid is as stupid does."

Gore was a lot smarter this time. He stayed calm, and he showed a lot of patience in sitting through Bush's evasive answers before respectfully voicing disagreement. One still has to wonder how well Gore would work with members of Congress (who are not, as a rule, any more cerebral than Bush), but this time he didn't seem quite as condescending as, say, Michael Dukakis.

Gore hit broader themes this time, particularly on global warming and the environment, which may resonate with voters flirting with Ralph Nader. But the long and dreary first half of the debate, focusing on foreign policy, worked to Bush's advantage - mostly because it might have caused millions to turn off their sets before Gore's best moments. Very few people base their votes on foreign policy, for at least two reasons: such issues don't directly affect many voters during peacetime, and the differences between the two major parties are much less clear than they are on economic issues. It seems odd that candidates who don't reach 15 percent in the polls are excluded from the debate, yet the first half of this debate was devoted to questions of interest to a much smaller percentage of the electorate.

Even with his decent performance, Gore's potential for winning votes through this debate was limited. At this point in the campaign, all he can do is get back some of the Clinton voters who should have been with him all along. At the next and final debate, it wouldn't hurt to remind people of some of the good things (strong economy, low crime) that have happened during the past eight years under Clinton. Gore has resisted this tack, wanting to seem like "his own man," but a vice president doesn't always have this luxury.