A war of words

The issues came pouring out Tuesday night at the University of Massachusetts in Boston as Republican presidential nominee George W. Bush and Democratic presidential nominee Al Gore traded blows in the first of three presidential debates.\nWhile the long range effects of the debate on this year's campaign are still unknown, the debate marked the first time Bush and Gore have gone head to head on election issues. From the beginning, both candidates vigorously attacked each others' plans for Medicare, Social Security, tax cuts, education reform, energy and foreign policy.\nLate Tuesday, a CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll reported 48 percent of people polled said Gore "did a better job" compared to 41 percent in Bush's favor. \nProfessor Emeritus Thomas Wolf, former IU-Southeast dean of political science and NBC News political analyst, said he doesn't think either candidate "won."\n"Bush probably did better than was expected," Wolf said. "And Gore probably did what his supporters were afraid he would do, and that is talk too much.\n"Gore tried to give too many details, and of course he repeated himself on several things. I will be very surprised if either one gets any benefits in the over-night tracking polls. If anyone does, it will be Bush. But my own analysis is that neither one will get much of an edge."\nPolitical science professor emeritus Leroy Rieselbach said "both candidates did reasonably well," but he differed with Wolf, saying Gore "was much more articulate and in command of his own proposals."\nTwo issues, which were quickly brought to the center stage of the debate, were health care and Social Security reform. Bush immediately said Gore and the Democrats use prescription drugs as an election issue every four years, saying, "It seems like they can't get it done" and offering "immediate help for seniors."\nGore quickly countered, saying "All seniors will get prescription drugs under Medicare" and saying that cited an example of an elderly couple which had to travel to Canada to buy prescription drugs.\nBush used the term "mediscare" to describe what he described as Gore trying to scare senior citizens to the polls by making false claims about Bush's proposed medical reforms.\nAs the issue of tax reform arose, Gore repeatedly said Bush would give money to "the wealthiest 1 percent" and he would spend five times as much of the budget surplus on tax breaks as on education spending. Bush countered Gore's number-based arguments throughout the night by accusing Gore of "fuzzy math."\n"Gore had better command," Rieselbach said. "Of the substance of his proposal and a critique of Bush's proposals. Bush managed to do what he wanted to do and say, 'Forget all that. Never mind the details. There is a basic philosophy that we bring to Washington and Gore is in favor of big government.'"\nAs the debates continued into issues of abortion, defense and foreign policy, Bush stayed on the offense, as Gore verbally dodged negative commentary but gave several puzzled looks to the camera as Bush spoke. Wolf said Bush's attacks were launched "with sort of kid gloves."\n"He did it in a way that I don't think many people would say is very bad," Wolf said. "Gore has laid himself open to this."\nBush did refrain from taking moral stabs at the Democratic administration until the end of the night, when he said, "The buck stops in the Lincoln bedroom." He also said Gore has no credibility on campaign finance reform issues. Gore countered by reiterating he is his own man, a point he made at the Democratic national convention.\nRieselbach said Bush's performance had two problems. One, that he was extremely weak with issues of foreign policy and two, the remark about the "Lincoln bedroom gave Gore the moral high ground"