Pundits Feast On George W.
In this Reality Check, CBS News Correspondent Eric Engberg casts a critical eye on the pundit-friendly belief that George W. Bush is a wee bit slow on the uptake.
You could have predicted months ago what the pundits would spew in their post-mortems of George W. Bush's initial debate performances - easily. The bulk of the commentary would assess whether or not Bush countered the caricature that he is a lightweight, an empty suit. The pundits have not disappointed.
George Stephanopoulos, ex-Clinton spin-meister, declared after the second debate that Bush "still seemed scripted at some level." Like Claude Rains in Casablanca, I am shocked - shocked - to see scripting in American politics.
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Such analysis was inevitable. The cartoonists and late-show hosts have had their W. punch lines honed for months. Then there was the pop quiz: "World Leaders" for $100, George. Questioner Brit Hume continued the march in the first debate by almost snobbishly asking Bush what he had been reading lately. If that wasn't bad enough, Judy Woodruff quizzed him on his readings in the next debate. This time it's Truman Secretary of State Dean Acheson for $100, George.
So the analysts counted up the times he didn't quite answer the question, or appeared hesitant, and reverted to his stump speech. This is the sort of empirical evidence supposedly used to adjudicate whether "Bush upheld his front-runner status by countering the perception that he's a lightweight." At this early stage of the early campaign, of course, such judgments are merely gut feelings, matters of taste at most.
But the headlines do follow. "Jabs by Opponents of Bush Subtly Poke at His Intellect," runs a page one headline in The New York Times on Wednesday.
 Bush in action |
It is worth recalling that Bush has not had the experience of daily political jousting at the national level that the other Big Three candidates have. John McCain, Al Gore, and Bill Bradley have, after all, spent some time in the U.S. Senate. And from time to time they've had to match wits with the likes of Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Robert Byrd, or Bob Dole.
Yes, Bush did debate the feisty Ann Richards in 1994. And he faced off against his Democratic opponent, Garry Mauro last year. But there's a difference between a few debates and years of legislative karate with a bunch of black belts.
Governor Bush, of course, would say this is an advantage, and he may be right. No senator has been sent straight to the White House since John F. Kennedy. The usual diagnosis for why isn't that they've lost touch with "real people," but with the English language. They live in a world of "motions to recommit" and "underlying amendments" and "cloture."
But the day will most likely come when one of these Senate veterans truly does test Governor Bush's depth and intellect. That's when voters will really decide whether or not he's a lightweight.
In the meantime, he'd better bone up on the Berlin Airlift, the Truman Doctrine in Greece and Turkey, and the rest of Dean Acheson's career.
By Eric Engberg