[Mb-civic] NYTimes.com Article: Act 3, Wherein Bush Turns That Frown Upside Down

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Best of the early analyses of last night's third debate.
Peace,
Bill

swiggard at comcast.net


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Act 3, Wherein Bush Turns That Frown Upside Down

October 14, 2004
 By JAMES BENNET 



 

TEMPE, Ariz., Oct. 13 - For the third and final
presidential debate, President Bush had his game face on,
and his game face turned out to be a big smile. 

Having put a second term at risk by scowling and seeming
weary through the first debate; having reassured supporters
but done little to attract independent voters - and
particularly women - with a passionate, arm-waving
performance in the second, Mr. Bush chose Wednesday night
to put on a happy face. 

On style and substance - though not toward his opponent -
Mr. Bush was kinder. He was, indeed, gentler. He talked a
lot about education. When it came to answering questions on
potentially divisive subjects like homosexuality and
abortion, Mr. Bush skirted the rock-hard positions favored
by his base to plant his flag deep in the mushy middle
ground once held by President Bill Clinton. 

"Surely there are ways we can work together to reduce the
number of abortions," he said. He smiled. 

Yet even his smile was askew for about half the debate,
marred by a glistening light dot at the right corner of his
mouth. Viewers could be forgiven for losing track of his
answers and imagining Laura Bush in the front row in
frantic semaphore, wiping furiously at the corner of her
own mouth. 

Mr. Bush's face slipped into a frown late in the debate, as
he struggled with a question on why the nation was so
divided under his leadership. He began thumping one hand
flat onto his lectern, knitting his brows as he segued to a
defense of his management of the Iraq war. 

But, in answering the next question, he recovered his
balance as he described advice he received from his family,
advice that was clearly much on his mind: "To stand up
straight and not scowl." 

Senator John Kerry took a few new oratorical risks. He
compared the president to the television mob boss Tony
Soprano, and unlike Mr. Bush, he dragged Vice President
Dick Cheney's daughter, Mary, a lesbian, into his answer to
that question about homosexuality. He managed one real joke
at his own expense, drawing a big laugh by referring to his
marriage to a multimillionaire, Teresa Heinz Kerry, in
noting that some, more than others, had "married up." 

Mr. Kerry also went out of his way to talk about his
religious faith, something he has rarely done while
campaigning. He made a point of saying he respected and
shared Mr. Bush's faith, before suggesting that he could do
a better job of putting it into practice globally.
"Frankly, I think we have a lot more loving of our neighbor
to do in this country and on this planet," he said. 

But, such deviations notwithstanding, the surprise of this
debating season is that viewers now know what to expect
from Mr. Kerry, and they expect consistency. He stands
ramrod straight. He often presses one big hand to his chest
in a gesture of sincerity. He has command of lots of facts,
at least those that support his position. He says "with
respect to" with respect to just about everything, ladies
and gentlemen. 

Mr. Bush, who prides himself on saying what he thinks and
knowing who he is, has proved to be the unpredictable one. 

It was in speaking of the role of religion in his life
that Mr. Bush seemed at last to relax Wednesday and find
his center. "I received calmness in the storms of the
presidency," he said, speaking of prayer. 

In the end, Mr. Bush tried to leave viewers with images of
campaign comity and family warmth. He hung on to Mr. Kerry
after shaking his hand, then shook his hand again. 

These debates stripped all the varnish away: the focus
groups and commercials, the prepared texts and the cozy
cocoons of handpicked crowds. They revealed fundamental
differences between the candidates, and put the candidates
to a lonely test before the voters. In place of all the
posturing, they substituted one glaring political message
to pollsters, strategists and White House aides: It's the
candidate, stupid. 

If Mr. Bush loses the election, he will have to blame, at
least in part, his own debate performance. Wednesday
night's was his most appealing presentation so far, but it
was so at odds with his others that some voters might be
left puzzled by the inconsistency. Others may feel that
they at last recognize their candidate. 

The debate was supposed to be devoted to issues of domestic
policy, but the war and the larger struggle against
terrorism intruded from the first question until the
closing. 

It seemed right that for this debate on domestic affairs,
the two men met in an arena, the Grady Gammage Memorial
Auditorium at Arizona State University, that was itself
based on an unrealized vision for Iraq. Frank Lloyd Wright
based the hall on his design for an opera house in Baghdad
that was never built. 

Of course, for Arizonans as for other Americans, the war in
Iraq is very much a domestic issue. "Rural Arizona Gives Up
Another Son," read a front-page headline in The Arizona
Republic on Wednesday. It ran over an article about the
death by car bomb of Pvt. Carson J. Ramsey of the Army, who
came from copper country, near the mining towns of
Winkelman and Mammoth. 

Shortly before the debate, Brittany Clifford, 14, a ninth
grader from Scottsdale, spotted her home state senator,
John McCain, just outside the hall. Brittany was covering
the debate for Weekly Reader, a national publication for
children, and she seized her chance, if shyly, to ask Mr.
McCain what young people could get out of watching the
debate. 

Seeing Terry McAuliffe, the chairman of the Democratic
National Committee, Mr. McCain waved him over to help
answer the question. 

Speaking into Brittany's tape recorder, the senator said,
"You can really get an idea about the kind of leadership
you will have in a debate, which you don't get out of a
television commercial or at a staged event." 

He turned to Mr. McAuliffe, politely suggesting he might
have different thoughts. 

"I couldn't agree more," Mr. McAuliffe said.


http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/14/politics/campaign/14mood.html?ex=1098752866&ei=1&en=a9e1090301cd9810


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