BOSTON — With their attire as similar as many Americans suspect them to be, Texas Gov. George W. Bush and Vice President Al Gore went head-to-head in Boston last night, hammering out their opposing views on such issues as tax reform, prescription drug coverage under Medicare, abortion and foreign policy.
PBS' Jim Lehrer — the sole moderator of the 90-minute debate, held in the athletic center at the University of Massachusetts at Boston — fired questions at the candidates, who both went on the offensive during the course of the debate.
Gore, often caricatured as a "policy wonk," primarily attacked Bush on the policy front, while the governor referred repeatedly to what he called the vice president's "fuzzy numbers" and doublespeak.
Most political pundits agreed that the debate seemed to be a draw, with neither candidate put on the defensive much more than the other.
Bush seemed to hold up well under attacks by Gore, whom the governor's campaign communications director Karen Hughes called Monday "a world-class debater." Bush had been widely portrayed as the underdog in the debate, setting up low expectations that left him with less to lose than the vice president.
Bush, responding vigorously to Gore's initial claim that only one percent of the American population would benefit from Bush's plan to cut taxes, said he wanted to dedicate half of the nation's projected $25 trillion surplus to Social Security, one quarter to "important projects" and one quarter to "the people who pay the bills."
Gore questioned whether Bush's plan was "right for the country." He said Bush's budget would spend more on tax cuts than it would on "health care, prescription drugs and national defense all combined."
"I think those are the wrong priorities," Gore said.
Yesterday's debate was the first of three to be held between the presidential candidates this season, in addition to a vice presidential debate between Democratic Sen. Joe Lieberman and former Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney slated for tomorrow at Centre College in Danville, Ky.
Most of the campaign's key issues came up during the debate. The two presidential candidates have bickered during much of the summer over whose prescription drug plan would be better for America's seniors.
The argument came to a head today when Gore charged that "95 percent of seniors would get no help whatsoever" under Bush's plan for the first "four or five years."
"Now, one thing I don't understand," he said, "is why is it that the wealthy one percent get their tax cuts the first year, but 95 percent of seniors have to wait four to five years before they get a single penny."
Responding with a quick shake of the head, Bush repeated one of his mainstay claims, that the vice president is using scare tactics in the campaign.
"I guess my answer to that is the man is running on 'Medi-scare,' " he said. Bush said reform of Medicare was needed and that the Clinton administration has failed to adequately address the issue.
"You've had your chance, vice president, you've been there for eight years and nothing has been done," he said. "The idea of supporting a federally controlled 132,000-page government bureaucracy as being a compassionate way for seniors and the only source of care for seniors is not my vision," Bush said.
Though he kept pace with Gore for the most part, Bush did stumble slightly when Lehrer posed a question about the recent election in Yugoslavia and president Slobodan Milosevic's reluctance to admit defeat or step down.
Gore rambled off a list of specifics as to the direction United States policy should take, while Bush's initial response was "I'm pleased with the results of the election. It's time for the man to go."
He failed to offer firm policy initiatives other than suggesting that Russia "step into the Balkans and convince Mr. Milosevic that [stepping down is] in his best interest and in his country's best interest."
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