Lose the Bicycle Bell
Friday, December 3, 1999
- Yesterday was one of those days that makes being in politics really fun. Throughout the afternoon the number and intensity of phone calls increased leading up to The Debate. A senior national reporter told me, the afternoon before The Debate, that if George W didn't, in essence, fall off the stage, he would be declared the winner.
- Bush didn't fall off the stage. AP's senior political writer, Ron Fournier's lead read: "In his first debate, George W. Bush accomplished his No. 1 goal: He survived. No gaffes. No wounds. No doubt he's still the GOP presidential front-runner."
- It was one of the few times that the advance chatter and conventional wisdom matched, almost exactly, what actually happened.
- Reporters with whom I spoke, said Senator McCain needed to stay on Bush's shoulder. At a minimum, he did that. At a maximum McCain darted ahead. But, like the Tour de France, you don't have to win every stage to wear the yellow jersey.
- It was generally agreed that Steve Forbes needed to make something happen in the debate. He certainly came out and went right for Bush. It will take a day or so of recycling to see whether or not it has any effect on New Hampshire voters. Forbes may get his biggest boost from the official endorsement of the Manchester Union Leader, rather than from anything which happened - or didn't happen - in the debate.
- The body language between Bush and McCain at the end of the debate may have been the most telling moment of the night. McCain and Bush treated each other gently throughout The Debate. At one point, Bush said of McCain, "He's a good man - a good man."
- Alan Keyes is getting to be annoying in his lecturing. He is an intelligent, passionate man. But he is wearing me out with his wagging-a-finger-in-the-face-of-everyone-who-doesn't-agree-with-him manner. If we were voting for chairman of the Ethics and Theology Department at State U. he'd be my guy.
- On MSNBC before the debate John Gibson interviewed Pat Buchanan who was bonding with his labor union guys in Seattle. If I had bet, 30 years ago when he worked for Nixon, that these next four words would come out of Buchanan's mouth before the end of the century I would, tonight, own Microsoft. The four words? "My friend Ralph Nader."
- After the debate I was on Fox's Hannity & Colmes, with Peter Fenn and Dick Morris. Morris invented a theory on the debate: As the frontrunner George W needed to hit a home run and, inasmuch as no homer was hit, he was the big loser. Because Morris invented this theory, he fell in love with it. Because he was in love with it, he repeated it every four minutes.
- Finally, I called him on it and said his theory was simply incorrect. "I'm the only one of us who has run a Presidential campaign," he sniffed. I am trying to improve my "Plays Well With Others" grade, so I waited until we were in a commercial break before I said into my microphone, "That would also make you the only one of us who has ever gotten fired from one."
- As I said: A great day to be in politics.
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