Mullings A Political Cyber Column By Rich Galen

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And, Down the Stretch They Come

Wednesday October 18, 2000

From Washington University
St. Louis, Missouri

Both Governor George W. Bush and Vice President Al Gore used their third debate to trot out the messages we will probably see for the last three weeks of the campaign.

Governor Bush trotted used the opening question on a Patient's Bill of Rights to say, "the difference is: I'm the guy who can get it done," beginning to focus in on the notion of having a President with a closely divided House and Senate and which man will be able to build the coalitions between Republicans and Democrats necessary to pass anything in the next two years.

Vice President Gore decided that the Laid-Back-Al we saw last week didn't work and came out after Bush right from the get-go. After spending a good deal of last week's debate agreeing with Bush, Gore kept pointing out there were "huge differences" between the two men on policy question after policy question.

Last question was "Will you keep your promises?" Al Gore said that "the promises I made eight years ago" had been kept. Gore, thereby took credit for the economy without mentioning the two most dreaded words in the Gore campaign: Bill Clinton.

The Fox News/SpeakOut.com internet dial poll had over 3,000 people participate at some point during the debate with over 1,700 simultaneous users to the end. To see the results of the poll (and the Mullings "Catchy Caption of the Day") go here.

In the post debate spin activity, RNC Co-Chair Pat Harrison said, "Tonight Vice President Gore officially opened his campaign � for Governor of Texas."

Senior staffers from both sides were walking around four hours in advance of the debate with those tight "we're-going-to-do-great" smiles that parents wear waiting for their kid to walk on stage to do his award-winning Aaron Burr role in the Haycock School fourth-grade production of "Young Tom Jefferson." Just to take a random example.

Almost all of the reporter-to-reporter chatter prior to the debate was about Gore: What does Gore have to do? What happens if Gore makes a mistake? Can Gore do well enough to get his campaign back on track? Is it over if Gore doesn't break through?

Rob Reiner came into the filing center prior to the debate. He is a very, very large man. In fact the Fire Marshall came in and hung up a sign which said, "Occupancy by more than one Reiner is unlawful and dangerous."

The Gallup organization was responsible for collecting the 130 uncommitted voters from whom the questioners were chosen. According to Gallup, the number of uncommitted ("not undecided," I was told) voters is about 20 percent of the total population, and some people couldn't take the day off, or just didn't want to do it, so they had to make upwards of 800 phone calls to get these folks.

They arrived here early this afternoon to stroll around the grounds until they felt at home; gave their questions to Jim Lehrer who will select among them; were fed, and then sequestered so neither campaign could promise a cushy federal job in return for a really bad question for the other guy.

A potential side-effect to the untimely death of Governor Mel Carnahan here is this: The Race for U.S. Senate between Democrat Carnahan and incumbent Republican Senator John Ashcroft was driving the ballot here, meaning it was the race which would bring people out to vote.

Under Missouri law, Gov. Carnahan cannot be replaced on the ballot so people can still vote for him, but it is not in the nature of American voters to turn out in large numbers to cast a vote for a deceased candidate.

If Democratic turnout is depressed then the 11 electoral votes from Missouri - which has been a tossup but with Gore slightly in the lead - will probably go to Bush.

A World Series between the Yankees and the Mets in New York (and you may know whether the Yankees are in by the time you read this on Wednesday Morning) WILL have an impact on the attention paid to this campaign in a way that a World Series between St. Louis and Seattle would not.

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