By: Mary Mostert, Analyst, Original Sources (www.originalsources.com)
October 4, 2000
The first Bush-Gore Debate last night began with a question from Jim Lehrer of PBS asking Al Gore what he meant by an attack on Governor Bush's qualification for the presidency:
LEHRER: vice President Gore, you have questioned whether Governor Bush has the experience to be president of the United States. What exactly do you mean?
Gore's response was to deny that he had actually questioned Governor Bush's Experience:
GORE: "I have actually not questioned Governor Bush's experience. I have questioned his proposals.
That answer, of course, led to an exchange of both men's proposals for the presumed surplus. Gore said:
"It's important to resist the temptation to squander our surplus."
Bush, on the other hand, characterized his plan with:
"I want everybody who pays taxes to have their tax rataes cut, and that stands in contrast to my worthy opponent's plan, which will increase the size of government dramatically. His plan is three times larger than President Clinton's proposed plan eight years ago. It's a plan that will have 200 new programs or expanded programs.
Bush took the debate on taxes and how to spend the surplus to point out the differences in principle between the two candidates:
"It's a difference of opinion; it's the difference between government making decisions for you, and you getting more of your money to make decisions for yourself.
Lehrer's second question, which was for Bush, was:
"You have questioned whether Vice President Gore has demonstrated the leadership qualities necessary to be president of the United States. What do you mean by that?
Bush responded:
"I've said that eight years ago, they campaigned on prescription drugs for seniors. And four years ago they campaigned on getting prescription drugs for seniors. And now they're campaigning on getting drus for seniors. It seems like they can't get it done."Now they may blame other folks, but, it's time to get somebody in Washington who is going to work with both Republicans and Democrats to get some positive things done when it comes to our seniors. And so what I've said is there's been some missed opportunities. They've had a chance. They've had a chance to form consensus.
Throughout the 90 minute debate, Bush returned often to those to the point that the Clinton-Gore administration had promised action on issues for eight years, and had not delivered on those promises. Contrary to some of the commentators after the election, Bush did not "start out" attacking Gore. He was able to quickly and firmly set the record straight when Al Gore made charges that were not based on facts.
One of the few laughs from the audience came when George W. Bush, after the third or fourth time Gore had used numbers to convince the audience that Bush's plan was only for the "wealthy", said:
This is a man whoh's got great numbers. He talks about numbers. I'm beginning to think not only did he invent the Internet but he invented the calculator!
The audience laughed. However, Gore apparently had organized much of his plan of attack around the woman from Des Moines, Iowa, Winnifred Skinner, who had told Gore that she had to spend several hours a day, seven days a week, scavenging for cans to sell in order to pay for the prescription drugs she needs. In fact, according to the Des Moines Register, Mrs. Skinner, who refuses to travel by air, was driven from Iowa to Massachusetts by the Gore Campaign, along with her poodle, in a Winnebago, so he could use her as a prop to make his point about prescription drugs. In his final 2 minutes, Gore said:
"She came all the way from Iowa in a Winnebago, with her poodle, in order to attend here tonight. I want to tell her I'm going to fight for a prescription drug benefit for all seniors and I'm going to fight for the people of this country, for a prosperity that benefits all."
In view of the fact that, by now, Gore and his campaign staff know full well that Mrs. Skinner is not in need, holding her up as an example of victimhood might backfire. In fact, the Des Moines Register, in an article published September 30th, reported that Mrs. Skinner was, in fact, far from a destitute old lady. Her son is a well-off heating contractor who lives on a ranch. The embarrassed son told the Register that he had a 900 square foot apartment at his ranch that his mother would be most welcome to occupy. However, she won't. According to the son Earl King:
"My mother won't accept money from me and my wife, and it's taken us some time to accept that."
Lehrer's next question was about preventing the kind of oil problem the nation is now experiencing. Gore, who will inherit hundreds of thousands of dollars in Occidental Petroleum stock given to his father by the oil company owner, responded with:
"Now in the short term, we have to free ourselves from the domination of the big oil companies that have the ability to manipulate the price, from OPEC, when they want to raise the price, and in the long term, we have to give new incentives for the development of domestic resources like deep gas in the Western Gulf, like stripper wells for oil, but also renewable sources of energy and domestic sources that are cleaner and better."
When it was his turn to respond, Bush said:
"Well, its an issue I know a lot about. I was a 'small' oil person for awhile in WestTexas. This s an administration that's ad no plan, and al of the sudden the results of having no plan have caught up with America."
Following the oil discussion, Lehrer asked Governor Bush:
"If elected president, would you try to overturn the FDA's approval last week of the abortion pill, RU-486?
Bush responded:
"I don't think a president can do that. I was disappointed in the ruling because I think abortions ought to be more rare in America. ...I think what the next president ought to do is to promote a culture of life in America ...as the life of the elderly and the life of those living all across the country, life of the unborn..."
Bush ended by hoping the FDA "took its time to make sure that American women will be safe" when they use the drug. Gore, on the other hand, quickly embraced the new abortion pill and took the opportunity to point out that the next president
"is going to appoint three, maybe even four justices of the Supreme Court. And Governor Bush has declared to the anti-choice groups that he wll appoint justices in the mold of Scalia and Clarence Thomas..."
Bush did not allow himself to be dragged into that debate, coming back to the point of whether RU-486 has been actually proved safe. The answer to that question depends a lot on what you mean by "safe." It has been used in China for some time, and doctors there don't think much of it:
An investigator for the National Research Institute for Family Planning in Beijing discussed China's experience with mifepristone in a recent issue of the Journal of the American Medical Women's Association: " The common complications ... are profuse bleeding and allergy ... Allergic reactions to mifepristone and misoprostol were not uncommon, manifesting in facial edema, skin rash and itching, numbness of feet and hands, and even a serious case of allergic shock," he wrote. "The potential for such reactions is one reason to keep clients for observation."He adds that mifepristone/misoprostol abortions are falling into disfavor among staff at larger hospitals in China: "The staffs were too busy to handle the procedure (more counseling, more visits and observation), and they also have to manage the referred cases with serious side effects and complications."
Other issues included education, the war in Yugoslavia, whether or not it is a good idea to intervene in Yugoslavia's internal affairs, and the wisdom of using the U.S. military to "nation-build" rather than as a tool to preserve the America's national security.
In some ways, the debate could have ended after the first question, when Bush answered by describing the differences between him and Gore by saying of Al Gore's plan that creates 200 new programs and 20,000 new bureaucrats:
"In other words, it empowers Washington, and tonight you're going to hear that my passion and my vision is to empower American to be able to make decisions for themselves in their own lives.."
That is about what I figured out that George W. Bush was proposing when I first heard him speak at the Provo, Utah airport last year. The difference between Gore and Bush is policy. Gore wants to expand socialism and Bush wants to expand freedom and personal responsibility.
To comment: mmostert@originalsources.com
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