Sparks Fly In St. Louis

With the vote just three weeks away and the race tightening, Al Gore and George W. Bush debated for the third and final time, clashing over health care, affirmative action and taxes in a "town hall" meeting in St. Louis.

Without using the words "Clinton" or "impeachment," Bush tried to convince the audience that he would usher in a new season of trustworthy leadership and no-nonsense bipartisanship.

"There's too much bitterness in Washington," Bush said. "There's too much wrangling. It's time to have a fresh start."

After a weirdly deferential, almost apologetic, performance in their second debate, Gore was back in fighting form. The vice president came armed with numbers and factoids, his briefing book committed to memory.

Bush, by contrast, didn't sweat the policy details, sticking to repeated denunciations of "Washington" during the 90-minute face-off. The Texas governor presented himself as an outsider, albeit an experienced one; a can-do pragmatist who believes in small government, as compared to Gore, the "big spender."

The different approaches were on display when the candidates locked horns over the first question, on health care.

Gore said, "Now look, if you want someone who will … end up supporting legislation that is supported by the big drug companies, this is your man."

Bush remarked that a "different kind of leadership style" is needed to make progress on health-care reform. "Particularly with health care, there's a lot of bickering in Washington, D.C. It's kind of like a political issue as opposed to a people issue."

A question to Bush from a black woman on diversity and affirmative action led to one of the evening's more heated exchanges.

"I want a diverse administration, I think it's important," Bush said. He then went on to criticize quotas and tout a Texas policy of automatically admitting the top ten percent of graduating high school seniors to state universities. "I support, I guess the way to put it," he concluded, "is affirmative access."

Gore seized on the failure of the plainspoken Bush to answer the woman's question plainly. I don't know what affirmative access means," said Gore. "I do know what affirmative action means. I know the governor's against it and I know that I'm for it."

The vice president lectured Bush on the definition of affirmative action, and moderator Jim Lehrer piled on with a follow-up question to clarify Bush's position. "If affirmative action means quotas, I'm against it," responded Bush. "If affirmative action means what I just described, what I'm for, then I'm for it. You heard what I was for."

Gore refused to let Bush off the hook: "Are you for it without quotas?" he asked. "Are you for what the Supreme Court says is a constitutional way of having affirmative action?" Alas, the rules of the debate denied Bush's analysis of Supreme Court case law.

Chat about the presidential debates.

While Gore said he favored "massive reform" of that tax, Bush favors eliminating it altogether. "I just don't think it's fair to tax people's assets twice, regardless of your status. It's a fairness issue," Bush said. It's an issue of principle, not politics."

Bush compared Gore's domestic spending program unfavorably to those proposed by liberal bogeymen (and losers) Walter Mondale and Michael Dukakis. He said Gore is "a big spender, he is. And he ought to be proud of it."

But Bush blew it when a woman asked, "How will your tax proposals affect me as a middle-class 34-year-old single person with no dependents?"

The question should have been a slam dunk for Bush, who often argues on the stump that Gore's tax program is too targeted to be useful to most voters.

He remembered to say, "Everybody who pays taxes is going to get tax relief" under his plan, but then trailed off, promising the questioner a "modern" Medicare system and a "peaceful world."

Gore, on the other hand, ticked off every possible scenario in which the woman might qualify for one of his tax credits: retirement savings, tuition, health insurance purchasing, long-term care for a sick or aged relative.

In answer to a college professor who related that many young people tell him they're disaffected from politics, Gore restated his support for the McCain-Feingold campaign finance bill that's languished in Congress for years. Bush opposes the bill.

Bush attributed young adults’ alienation to "cynicism in Washington" and said, "you need somebody in office that will tell the truth" to restore confidence in the political process.

The candidates sounded alike on guns and the death penalty. Both said they believe the death penalty is a deterrent.

But Gore won the body language contest.

During their sharp exchange over health care, Gore, the taller candidate, sprang from his stool and strolled into the frame, while a leery Bush gave him the fish eye.