Politics

Concrete And Jello

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

March 16, 2000 / 5:01 PM EST / CBS

George W. Bush has clearly staked out a few choice issues, and resists any suggestion that he modify them. That can be read as principled, but it can also be read as stubborn, and his attitude towards John McCain bears out the latter. On the reverse side of the coin is Al Gore, who has proved himself so adaptable and so broad based that he runs the risk of not standing for much of anything. Both candidates might want to head for the center - not politically, but tactically.

Bush is taking a page from the Ronald Reagan campaign book: pick a handful of issues, not too complicated, and pound away at them. Like a book report or resume, keep your issues to one page. Such a straightforward approach is appealing but limited.

"I don't think candidates get to pick two or three things and stick with those. The voters get to decide what the election's about," says Bob Shrum, a Democratic pollster working for Gore.

And what if one of your ideas hasn't got a lot of resonance with the voters? Polls show people aren't too excited about Bush's generous tax cut, perhaps fearing it smacks of all-play-and-no-work. Bush maintains that no one will complain about getting more money in his paycheck, but Social Security and paying down the debt still have a sober allure for many voters.

"Americans favor lower taxes," comments David Keene, a Republican consultant, "but they're not going to the barricades for them."

"I don't care what the polls say," Bush insists. "I'm doing what I think is right." Behind this statment of principle is an assertion that he will not be the plaything of the polls, twisting in their ever-changing winds. Standing on principle is fine, but being open to compromise is also useful, and intransigence on any topic could be a liability.

And intransigence often creeps into Bush's attitude. The latest example is his cool assessment of John McCain. Almost everyone thinks Bush needs to bow the knee, just a teeny bit, to a candidate who roused such passionate sentiment in the primary season. "Well, then, how come he didn't win?" Bush responded in a New York Times interview. Might makes right.

Bush isn't interested in embracing McCain's campaign finance reform plan. Instead, he's stressing what he and McCain have in common. Bush said at an Illinois campaign event Thursday, "Of course, he and I agree on a lot, and it starts with this: the best reform for America is to end the Clinton-Gore era." So McCain is good insofar as he agrees with Bush, and insofar as he supports Bush.

Gore presents the reverse problem. He's a policy polyglot who happily, though sometimes tediously, ranges over a vast array of topics. Look at his victory speech Tuesday night, when he clinched the Democratic nomination. Where Bush's speech was prepared in advance, tight and focused on education, Gore's was long and unevenly paced, alternating between passion and pedantry.

When Gore wraps up his speeches with that trademark "I want to fight for you" routine, it sounds like the end of a Tschaikovsky symphony - there are about six endings. He wants to fight (at full decibel level) for better health care, improved education, a cleaner environment, closing the digital gap, keeping the prosperity going, saving Social Security, paying down the debt, you name it. And he's got lots to say about all of these things. But which ones matter the most?

"If you talk about everything, it's the moral equivalent of talking about nothing," warns Keene.

Gore has shown he can respond to a crisis. When the doomsayers gathered outside his Washington headquarters last fall, he shook the sleep out of his eyes, packed up, moved to Nashville and ditched his dark suits for taupe sweaters. The change worked. But too much flexibility can start to look like opportunism.

He's gotten into scrapes already this year for saying what he thought various constituencies wanted to hear. Remember the "gays openly serving in the military" litmus test? And his born-again embrace of campaign finance reform is like a sword-point conversion to the faith. Gore is certainly willing to pay a bit of homage to McCain, even though you could count on the fingers of one hand the topics they agree on.

Hence Bush's charge that Gore will "say anything to get elected." That's harsh, but it's based on a widely shared perception that Gore, and President Clinton, have been willing to cut their conscience to fit this year's fashion, to paraphrase Lillian Hellman.