gore came off as less obnoxious, but the contrast with his old self was so stark as to lack credibility.
Bush had some good shots. He emphasized he was for smaller government, and Gore conceded this as a virtue and then tried to lay claim to it. Not many will believe him in that. People are not really for smaller gov, but they think they are, which plays to Bush.
Bush came off as less interventionist, again good politics IMO.
Bush used his point about the purpurted unconditionality of his tax cuts, which is a fraud but which Gore was only half successful in rebutting.
When Gore talked about hate crimes and made the mistake of raising the Texas case, Bush said guess what, we're going to execute those guys. What more can you do to them?
Bush was clumsy on issues of gays, the environment, his tax cut, mostly because he was trying to evade the logic of his position.
Gore was positively misleading when his book was brought up: he denied favoring higher taxes on energy. Another fib, and even worse a big one that is easily rebuttable.
mbs
Max Sawicky wrote:
>Nobody's seems to have notice Gore's repeated
>promise "to make classrooms smaller," uttered
>again last night. Evidently a divider, not
>a uniter.
Not much talk about last night's "debate." I didn't watch - was it a snooze?
Doug