A Debate of Ideas but Not Much Fire

The Atlanta Braves were not the only ones swinging for the bleachers Wednesday evening as Bob Dole and Bill Clinton were meeting in San Diego for their second and last debate of the presidential campaign. Despite a far more aggressive performance by Dole, who used humor dryly and skillfully, one member of the live Town Hall-style audience was caught yawning on national television. It could have just been weariness with a campaign that seems to have gone on too long.

In fairness, the audience-participants at the Shiley Theater at UC San Diego did a fine job of raising the common concerns of voters: how to bring Americans together, make health care affordable and of high quality, assure the future of Social Security and Medicare, and reform welfare. Notably, not one questioner asked about the Clinton campaign controversies that Dole has played up this week, and when Dole repeatedly raised embarrassing issues, like the FBI files the White House had on a large number of Republicans, no audience member followed up.

President Clinton, reminding the participants at one point that he is the commander in chief, sought to appear above the fray, ignoring some questions raised by Dole and playing instead to the audience. It was true, as Dole spokesman Nelson Warfield said before the debate, that Clinton “has a tremendous advantage in this kind of format. He’s the Oprah Winfrey of presidents.”

But that doesn’t mean Dole didn’t get in some good hits by constantly raising the issue of trust and keeping one’s word. He reminded voters of the middle-class tax cut that Clinton promised in 1992 that failed to materialize. He challenged Clinton to assure Americans that he would pardon no one convicted in the Whitewater scandal. Trouble with that one, of course, is Dole himself in the first debate gave Clinton an escape hatch by recommending that the president not comment on possible future pardons.

At a few points the debate got a little caustic, with Dole recounting the various ethics and conflict-of-interest controversies that have plagued several members of the administration. “Scandals almost on a daily basis,” he suggested. At another point he said “the president doesn’t have any ideas, so he is out trashing ours.”

In fact, this was a debate full of ideas, and that’s great. The problem is that with the exceptions of the economy (Dole thinks it’s weak, Clinton thinks it’s doing well) and how they answered questions on affirmative action and gay rights (Clinton for both, Dole for “equal opportunity” but not “special rights”), the two candidates simply do not differ deeply on most topics. That may be good for the country, but it doesn’t make for scintillating debates.