Word: partisans
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Dates: during 2000-2000
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Austin aides have their focus groups too, and they claim the Vice President's aggressiveness only rankles, reminding voters of the ugly noises of the past four or five years in Washington, the showdowns and shutdowns. The less partisan voters, says the campaign, like Bush's happy soundings of cooperation. "Among swing voters, they don't care about the party labels," says Bush's polling analyst Matthew Dowd. "They want things solved...
...there are political motivations too, argue Gore advisers. "Every time you mention the party, take credit or talk about the past, you lose swing voters," says a Gore partisan of how the Vice President's consultants answer his concerns. "They say that stuff only appeals to the base." Still, Gore could use a little help there. Bush has 88% support from Republicans, while Gore currently has only 83% of Democrats, according to a TIME/CNN poll...
...himself for a big hug. In Debate No. 3, Bush made the case that all we need is love. He wished for a law he could sign mandating it and a planet where we would all "love a neighbor like you would like to be loved yourself." Love, not partisan wrangling, will produce policies that will leave no child behind and extend the life of Social Security while permitting yuppies to day trade the trust fund...
What gives Bush's plea for less partisan bickering its appeal is that the bickering did become personal, thanks to impeachment, and does sound loud, thanks to television. The time when Tip O'Neill argued revenue sharing with Ronald Reagan during the day and drank whiskey with him at night has given way to the city as a sound stage. On cable, every night is fight night where, before you tell the other side your objections to a bill, you're telling Ollie and Geraldo. The camera not only makes it harder to work out the differences, it encourages them...
Bush didn't speak out on partisan bickering during the fiercest, most personal manifestation of it two years ago, but he wants to end it now, when partisan bickering could clarify the issues. In the last debate, Bush took credit for passing a bill allowing patients to sue HMOs, when he actually fought it. But when he's not falsely claiming credit, he is glossing over the details of what it would really take to deliver love--say, in the form of prescription drugs--to ordinary Americans. He seeks refuge in the mantra, "I trust the people, not the government...