No Fireworks, No Flames

By R. Morris Barrett/AllPolitics

SAN DIEGO (Oct. 17) -- Many people watching the second and final presidential debate expected GOP challenger Bob Dole to maintain a sustained, specific attack on President Bill Clinton's ethics and character. Instead, they witnessed a serious-minded exchange on the issues, which probably did little to help or hurt either candidate.

This was the week that Dole let loose his harshest and most specific blast on the Clinton scandals, declaring Tuesday that the Democratic administration was guilty of "endless violations of public trust."

In that brief time, the horse race tightened into single digits -- Clinton at 48 percent to Dole's 39 percent -- in the latest CNN tracking poll. Many credited Dole's focus on the "character issue."

But, ultimately, Dole couldn't sustain his attack, and the candidates spent most of the evening covering familiar ground on nuts-and-bolts issues raised by people in the audience, which seemed uninterested in the character question.

Dole began the evening by stressing he understood the problems of Americans, from education to safe playgrounds to drug-free schools. But in the first question, about creating greater unity among diverse Americans, Dole launched into the FBI files controversy, in which some 900 background files, many on Republicans, were improperly collected by the Clinton White House.

Americans "see ethical problems in the White House today," Dole said. "They see 900 FBI files on private persons being gathered up by somebody in the White House." (228K WAV sound)

It was a sharp contrast to the first presidential debate 11 days ago in Hartford, Conn., where Dole passed up several opportunities to criticize the president on ethics.

Dole told tonight's town hall audience: "It's public ethics. I'm not talking about private, we're talking about public ethics. When you have 900 files gathered up by some guy who was a bouncer in a bar and hired as a security officer to collect files...In Watergate, I know a person who went to jail for looking at one file."

But Dole never seemed particularly comfortable with his attacks, which were difficult to deliver in the town hall setting. Moreover, he ignored other Clinton vulnerabilities. Besides a passing reference to the controversy over Clinton's political relationship with Indonesian business interests, Dole only mentioned the FBI files issues. No mention was made of Whitewater, or the controversy over the White House travel office firings.(256K WAV sound)

Clinton, perhaps expecting an onslaught of criticism from Dole, began tentatively. After Dole stayed positive in his opening statement, Clinton gravely intoned in his opening statement that "what really matters" was the country was better off than four years ago, while repeating his "bridge-to-the-21st-century" theme.

In fact, the president probably succeeded in defusing Dole's thrusts. "No attack ever created a job or educated a child or helped a family make ends meet," the president said. "No insult ever cleaned up a toxic waste dump or helped an elderly person." (288K WAV sound)

The 113 participants, for their part, didn't seem interested in Clinton scandals. Of the 20 questions posed by people in the audience, none dealt directly with the subject. Instead, questioners focused on policy topics from affirmative action to military pay to the solvency of Medicare.

Dole and Clinton mainly covered familiar ground. The president warned of Dole's tax "scheme" which he said would "blow a hole in the deficit." He repeated his mantra of targeted tax breaks, which he said "are all paid for." He warned GOP budget plans would imperil Medicare, Medicaid, the environment and education.

"There you go again," Dole scoffed, telling the president to stop "scaring" elderly voters. He brought up the Clinton Administration's failed universal health care strategy, calling it a "government takeover." He stressed that the economy needed rejuvenation through tax cuts.

As expected, Clinton proved the more agile policy wonk, effectively recalling statistics and relating issues to audience members lives.

Ultimately, it seemed unlikely tonight's debate would have a significant impact on the race. In the history of televised presidential debates, only after one final debate -- between Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan in 1980 -- did public opinion change dramatically. That year, Reagan's support jumped, and he went on to win the White House.

Sights & Sounds Gallery - The Final Debate

AllPolitics home page