Battle Royale

By Craig Staats/AllPolitics

HARTFORD, Conn. (AllPolitics, Oct. 6) -- In a free-wheeling but remarkably civil face-off, President Bill Clinton and challenger Bob Dole sparred over the economy, education, Medicare and tax cuts tonight in the first of two debates.

Dole, who has less than a month to overcome Clinton's clear advantage in the polls, skewered the president as a liberal who still wants to give government too much power over people's lives.

"I trust people," Dole said. "The president trusts the government...."

Clinton, however, said in his first term, the economy has improved, crime has fallen and unemployment is down.

"Four years ago, you took me on faith," Clinton said. "Now there's a record."

And he brushed aside Dole's L-word strategy. "And you know this liberal charge, that's what their party always drags out when they get in a tight race," Clinton said. "It's sort of their golden oldie, you know. It's a record they think they can play that everybody loves to hear." (320K WAV sound)

Dole painted a picture of a nation still beset with serious problems -- increased drug use among youth, poor schools and too-powerful teacher unions, stagnant wages, a million bankruptcies this year and anxious, over-taxed families working hard to put food on the table. (256K WAV sound)

Clinton described a brighter picture. "It is not midnight in America, senator," he said. "We are better off than we were four years ago."

In contrast to the harsh TV ads both campaigns are running, the 90-minute debate was mostly free from mean-spirited attacks, though both men accused one another of distorting each other's record. Both said they like each other personally, but simply see the world differently.

Moderator Jim Lehrer asked direct no-nonsense questions, and, for the most part, the candidates responded in kind.

"I want to begin by saying again how much I respect Senator Dole and his record of public service, and how hard I will try to make this campaign and this debate one of ideas, not insults," Clinton said.

Dole said he wanted to address voters' concerns "and not try to exploit them." (192K WAV sound)

Some of the potentially toughest issues for Clinton -- Whitewater, the FBI files fiasco and the travel office firings -- scarcely came up at all. At one point, Lehrer asked Dole if there were any personal differences between Clinton and himself that were relevant to the campaign.

Dole didn't jump on the question to attack Clinton's character, but returned to a key theme of the evening, his proposal for a $550-billion tax cut to spur the economy. (64K WAV sound)

When Lehrer asked him if he still thought a 15-percent across-the-board tax cut was a good idea, Dole quipped, "Oh yes, and you'll be eligible..."

"Me, too?" asked Clinton.

"So will the former president, yes," Dole said with a smile.

But Clinton dismissed Dole's proposal as a risky, ill-advised scheme that would blow a hole in the federal deficit, raise interest rates and force big cuts in Medicare, Medicaid, environmental protection and other government programs.

There were strong differences, too, on Medicare. Dole accused Clinton of using a fear campaign to try to discredit the Republicans and their attempt to control the health care program's spiraling growth. (160K WAV sound)

"Stop scaring the seniors, Mr. President," Dole said. "You've already spent $45 million scaring the seniors and tearing me apart. It think it's time to have a truce."

Clinton said a Republican plan to cut $270 billion from the plan was simply wrong, and he criticized Dole for voting against the creation of Medicare in the first place. "...We need someone who believes in it to reform it," Clinton said. "Senator Dole's plans are not good for the country."

Dole also criticized Clinton for operating "an ad hoc foreign policy."

"It's sort of, well, we get up in the morning and read the papers and what country is in trouble," Dole said. (192K WAV sound)

But Clinton said the world still looks to the U.S. for leadership and there has been progress in Bosnia, the Middle East, North Ireland and Haiti during his administration.

Dole tried to portray himself as a compassionate, caring conservative -- different than unpopular GOP lawmakers in Congress. He recalled his work on the food stamp program, in cooperating with lawmakers like George McGovern and Hubert Humphrey.

"I'm not some extremist out here," he said. "I care about people."

The candidates quarreled, too, over federal education policy, with Clinton saying he supports students having more choices, but not Dole's plan to take money away from the public schools. (416K WAV sound)

"Your choice is nothing," Dole told Clinton. "Let's give them a real choice, the kind of choice you have and the kind of choice a lot of people have in America." (192K WAV sound)

Although he didn't seem anxious to talk about Whitewater, Dole succeeded in laying one trap for the president over the question of pardons for ex-Clinton associates convicted in the scandal.

Dole said Clinton could "clarify" the question of pardons.

In response, Clinton said there "has been no consideration of it, no discussion of it. I'll tell you this: I will not give anyone special treatment and I will strictly adhere to the law, and that is what every president has done, as far as I know, in the past. But whatever other presidents have done, this is something I take seriously and that's my position."

Dole, though, said the president shouldn't have said anything on pardons at all, "particularly where it's someone where you've had business dealing with."

When it came time to respond again, Clinton paused and then said, "No comment," to laughter from the audience.

Dole called Clinton "the great exaggerator" in taking credit for so many positive developments and mocked Clinton's "bridge to the future" campaign rhetoric. "I also want a bridge to the truth," Dole said.

An instant CNN/USA Today/Gallup Poll, based on interviews with 615 likely voters immedidately afterward, found that 51 percent though Clinton did the better job, compared to 32 percent for Dole. Three-quarters said they thought Dole did better than they expected.

The candidates prepped hard and it showed. Neither man made any major gaffes, though sometimes they seemed to rush through memorized blocks of boilerplate stump speeches.

The next debate, set for Oct. 16 in San Diego, will feature a town hall format, with ordinary people asking the questions.

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