Who's The Wonk Now
Let's face it, Al Gore is the real policy wonk in this campaign. So why has it been George W. Bush, week after week with his hand up in the air, yammering about education, the environment and health care? The only responses from the Gore campaign have been tart press releases or remarks from staffers while the vice president drops in on sixth-grade art classes.
It's occurred to Gore that a listening tour of America's classrooms isn't sufficient to get elected. So he's embarked on a series of speeches aimed at reminding everyone that he's got good ideas and Bush has bad ones. He started Tuesday with an almost school-marmish breakfast address to the Association for a Better New York.
If you've been playing along at home, you know that Gore was bound to take his first swing at Bush's "risky tax scheme," which he characterized as a $2.1 trillion whopper, "bigger than anything Newt Gingrich ever tried to get away with." Gore claims the Bush plan benefits the wealthy, neglects Social Security and Medicare, and does nothing about reducing the debt. "I believe George W. Bush's entire economic agenda is built on a foundation of irresponsibility and risk."
"After emerging from the Bush-Quayle deficits and recessions, should we really risk a George W. Bush deficit and a George W. Bush recession?" Gore wondered aloud.
It wasn't all Bush-bashing - Gore outlined his own plan to steer the economic ship of state. He promised to balance the budget and pay down the debt every year, wiping out the entire national debt by 2013. He talked about saving Social Security and Medicare, investing in education and offering tightly targeted tax cuts. He embraced free trade and vaguely promised to protect workers' rights and the environment at the same time. And he vowed to make government "cheaper, faster and better" - by, for example, putting more government functions online.
Some of this may read well, but it was delivered in the overly earnest, halting tones that can make Gore's speeches ponderous. Several times, Gore wandered off his prepared text, and incredibly, he got more boring when he did so, with meandering riffs on topics like the cost of processing information. Even Gore seemed dimly conscious of the dry dust settling over the room, for he practically galloped through the last pages of his prepared speech.
A few hours later, Bush fired back. He was campaigning in Dayton, Ohio, and had heard all about the vice president's remarks. "Gore, in his desperation to be president, is willing to exaggerate and stretch the truth," Bush scolded. "He's talking about my budget numbers, and it's just not accurate. But I am going to defend my record."
The Texas governor said the budget surplus would pay for everything he's proposing, adding that Gore's offered up $1.9 trillion in new spending. Bush's response was delivered, as usual, to the press, not the crowd gathered for his campaign event; fact he took pains to point out.
"Today, instead of tearing him down, I tried to lift people up. That's how I spent my morning." To be more precise, he spent it touting Individual Development Accounts. He first floated this idea two weeks ago, as part of a slew of plans geared towards helping low-income Americans. The IDAs are supposed to give tax credits to banks that help poorer people open savings accounts.
These incentive plans really stick in Gore's craw. He dismissed them as Bush's "post-primary search for rehabilitation." But Bush hauled a handful of Democratic state legislators from Texas up to Ohio, all of whom testified to Bush's record as a bipartisan sort of fellow who can get things done; not a policy wonk, but a team player.
Bush's capper was his thrilling announcement to the press corps that he'd chosen Dick Cheney to head up his running mate search team. Cheney, you'll recall, was Secretary of Defense for Bush's father, and the governor enthused, "I trust Dick Cheney's judgment ...he's a really good guy."
This news may not set your heart racing, but it's manna compared to the arid decalarations of Gore's speech on fiscal policy. After all, vice presidential rumors are much more fun than debt reduction.