Bush, Gore Find Room to Agree in Second Debate

In a dignified exchange that resembled conversation more than combat, Al Gore and George W. Bush met here Wednesday night for their second debate, voicing agreement on many foreign policy issues but parting company on domestic affairs.

The first half of the debate--a 90-minute exchange at Wake Forest University here--sounded a lot like a gentlemanly graduate seminar on geopolitics. Unlike their scrappy meeting a week ago, the event rang with the sounds of “I agree with you” and “I haven’t heard a big difference.”

The vice president and the Texas governor largely agreed on Middle East policy, which has taken center stage in recent weeks, as rioting has engulfed much of Israel.

Asked what the United States should do right now in this political powder keg, Gore said that the priorities should be to ease tensions, to call on Syria to release three captured Israeli soldiers and to insist that Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat push to end acts of violence.

In a laudatory chorus heard through much of the early exchanges, Bush said: “I appreciate the way the administration has worked hard to calm the tensions. Like the vice president, I call on Chairman Arafat to have his people pull back to make the peace.”

Bush also handed the Clinton administration a bouquet for the way it handled the bailout of Mexico during its economic crisis in 1995. And he praised the administration’s positions on Yugoslavia, Colombia and Rwanda.

The two men were asked whether they would have deployed the military differently in eight instances over the last 20 years. And Bush was asked specifically if American troops should have intervened militarily in Rwanda, where 600,000 people died in ethnic violence and the United States sent soldiers on a humanitarian mission.

“We’re having a great love fest now,” Bush cracked, before turning serious, saying that the Clinton administration was correct to train Nigerian troops to deal with “situations just such as this in Rwanda. And so I thought they made the right decision not to send U.S. troops into Rwanda.”

Differences Emerge Toward Debate’s End

Maybe it was the chairs and the curved table--the same set used in the collegial vice presidential debate last Thursday. Maybe it was Gore’s realization that, while he won the first debate on content, his assertiveness, embellishments and impolite sighing cost him heavily in subsequent opinion polls.

But Wednesday night’s meeting was achingly polite, at least until the last half, when real differences on domestic policy began to poke through in exchanges on gay marriage, hate crime legislation, the environment and Bush’s record in Texas.

Even an exchange on Gore’s veracity, which easily could have turned slashingly negative, remained largely polite. Asked by moderator Jim Lehrer whether Gore’s many inaccurate or embellishing statements amounted to “a serious issue” that voters should consider, Bush opened with a quip.

“Well, we all make mistakes. I’ve been known to mangle a syllable or two myself,” he said, deliberately mispronouncing syllable.

In a more somber vein, Bush added: “I think credibility is important. It’s important for the president to be credible with the Congress. It’s important for the president to be credible with foreign nations.”

Bush then cited a series of Gore’s misstatements.

In response, the vice president apologized for his mistakes and vowed: “I’m going to try to do better.” Such errors, Gore acknowledged, have interfered with his message.

“I can’t promise that I will never get another detail wrong,” he added. “I can promise you that I will try not to. But I will promise you this, with all the confidence in my heart and in the world, that I will do my best if I’m elected president, I will work my heart out to get the big things right for the American people.”

Gore voiced enthusiastic support for a ban on racial profiling, saying that he would work to make such legislation “the first civil rights act of the 21st century.” Bush warned against any moves that might “federalize” local police forces, but he acknowledged under Lehrer’s questioning that he could support a federal law banning racial profiling.

The racial profiling discussion segued into a polite but probing exchange about hate crime legislation, in which Gore repeatedly queried Bush about what the Democrat described as the need for such laws in Texas.

Gore noted the murder of James Byrd Jr., 49, who was chained to a truck and dragged to his death on an East Texas road in 1998. The case led many Texans to call for tougher hate-crime legislation in the state.

Bush Misstates Fate of 1 Killer

In an effort to defend current Texas law, Bush wrongly stated that “the three men who murdered James Byrd . . . are going to be put to death.” Only two of the defendants convicted of Byrd’s murder were sentenced to death; the third was sentenced to life in prison.

A Texas law predating Bush that dealt with crimes motivated by hatred of a group has been criticized as weak. A strengthened 1999 bill supported by Byrd’s family died in the Texas Legislature.

Gore seemed to put Bush somewhat on the defensive by noting that Texas ranked near the bottom of all states on the rates of health insurance coverage for children, women and families.

Bridling, the governor did not directly refute Gore’s accusations but said: “If he’s trying to allege that I’m a hardhearted person and I don’t care about children, he’s absolutely wrong.”

But Gore pressed his point, insisting that the charges about Texas insurance deficiencies are “not a statement about his heart. I don’t claim to know his heart. I think--I think he’s a good person. I make no allegations about that. . . . But I think it’s about his priorities.”

Gore charged that Texas ranks 49th among the 50 states in insuring children and women and 50th in providing families with health care coverage. In such rankings, first is best and 50th is worst.

Bush said that Texas has made significant progress--faster than the federal government, he said--in signing up the uninsured.

“The facts are, we’re reducing the number of uninsured as a percentage of our population--and the percentage of the [uninsured] population is increasing nationally,” the Republican added.

On the environment, Gore said that ample evidence now exists on the causes of global warming and that strong government action is warranted to curb industrial emissions. But Bush disagreed, saying: “I don’t think we know the solutions yet to global warming.”

On guns, Gore reiterated his support for photo-licensing of all new handgun buyers, which Bush strongly opposes. Bush noted that existing gun laws should be enforced more strongly and said that the federal government should do a better job of “arresting people who illegally use guns.”

But Gore defended licensing, pointing out that the woman who bought guns for the two rampaging teenagers at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., said she would have been deterred if she had had to fill out forms.

Bush shot back that Columbine was about more than guns, it was about “a culture [in which] somewhere along the line, we’ve begun to disrespect life.”

Both Bush and Gore said they believe marriage is a bond between a man and a woman, although Gore added that he supports “civil unions” between same-sex couples.

In a minor flub during a debate in which both candidates picked their foreign policy words carefully, Gore talked about the new president of Serbia. He meant Yugoslavia.

For his part, Bush identified Haiti as one of the places in the world where he would withdraw U.S. troops. The Clinton administration, acting under pressure from Congress, brought nearly all U.S. troops home from Haiti earlier this year.

The candidates’ expectations and performances differed for the two debates. In the first exchange, Bush showed that he could engage Gore as an equal on the issues.

Gore, who needed to prove he was likable, sighed his way through the first event and has been chided since for embellishing anecdotes he used then. In the days between the two exchanges, Gore promised to get his details straight and emote more quietly.

The vice president tried several times to strike a light, even humorous tone. Whereas in the first debate he often interrupted Bush and tried to get in a last word, Gore rarely tried to do so Wednesday.

For instance, when Lehrer suggested at one point that the debaters move on to another issue, Gore quipped: “Far be it from me to suggest otherwise.”

Under terms negotiated by the Commission on Presidential Debates, Green Party candidate Ralph Nader and Reform Party candidate Pat Buchanan were excluded from the exchanges.

Today Gore heads to Wisconsin and Bush to Pennsylvania and Michigan for campaign events.

The final presidential debate--a town hall-type meeting with questions from the audience--will be Tuesday in St. Louis.

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Times staff writers Mark Z. Barabak and Massie Ritsch in Los Angeles, Megan Garvey in Chicago and Eric Bailey in Sacramento contributed to this story.