THERE'S A NAME for a person who tailors his personality to what others expect - a tool. If we're looking for a tool for president, commander-in-chief, for the big Kahuna, the leader of the free world, look no more. Al Gore is a metatool.
Polling and focus groups are the wave of the political future. Going into last Wednesday's debate, the polls had Bush in the lead -- some polls reflecting a whopping 8 point advantage. The focus groups - most of which were farmers and their very extended families - seemed to indicate that Gore's interruptions and throat-clearing were so obnoxious that he would be an unqualified president. It's a fact that sighing and throat clearing render one incapable of thinking critically about legislation that must be signed. Farmer logic - I report it, I don't explain it. My theory is that most members of the focus group have trouble doing two tasks at once, such as sighing and thinking. By extension, their leaders must also have this problem.
Nevertheless, in Gore's second debate he rarely interrupted Texas Gov. George W. Bush even though what he had to say in the second debate would probably prove no less urgent than what he had to say in the first. In the second debate, Gore took notes, instead of clearing his throat. In the second debate, Gore was polite and let Bush finish his sentences. And Gore respected the mediator, Jim Lehrer, otherwise known from the first debate encounter as "big doormat." In short, and in the words of George Stephanopoulous, "Gore was defanged."
While we should commend Gore for his efforts to become sympathetic and to grow a congenial personality, this is not satisfactory. A president must be able to take tough stands, not convenient stands. In the first debate Gore was especially harsh and rude when it came to prescription drug benefits for seniors. His disrespectful air was then offset by his zeal on the issue. The second debate proves that Gore felt his zeal was misplaced, that it's more important for him to be able to kibbitz than to be right. This is not backbone. This is being focus group and poll putty.
Make no mistake, Bush also changed his demeanor a bit for the second debate. Specifically, he wore his thinking cap to it. For the second debate, Bush was able to respond to Gore's allegations that only the top one percent get tax breaks under his plans. He was able to respond to attacks on the Texas record of insurance coverage. He was able to talk about foreign policy without butchering syllables. And he was even lighthearted enough to make a joke about his tongue's twists.
This is good. There's nothing wrong with being more prepared. The polls have been indicating that Bush comes off as unprepared. This may have been a wake-up call to Bush, but he didn't take it as a call to reinvent his entire personality to score a few more electoral points.
In this way, Gore really is on a populist message, because he has thrown his campaigns to the farmers and other unimportant little people whose opinions are undecided and of course, superficial.
In Gore's and even Bush's attempts to appear natural, they've become ridiculous. The Washington Post editorialized that "Natural behavior has itself become a campaign contrivance; that's the place to which this contest and perhaps our politics generally have descended" ("Round Two," Oct. 12). Specifically, Gore lacks substance because he and his campaign are walking mutations. And in case you were wondering, Gore wasn't wearing all that heavy makeup because he thinks that if he looks more like a New York broad or the farmer's daughter, he will court those votes. He was trying to look like former President Ronald Reagan. Twisted? I'll say.
I thought I'd heard everything until Thursday morning on The Today Show, where a guest who called himself a "scientist" observed that in the last six elections the candidate who blinked the most during the debate lost the election. Before you dismiss this out of hand, there's a similar theory of financial markets that in booming times, women wear shorter miniskirts. No kidding. And the funny thing is that there's some validity to it. Nevertheless, it speaks very poorly of our society that we have a problem with heavy blinkers. At first it's easy to reject this theory, but Ralph Nader has a lazy eye and is doing very poorly in the polls presently. He really should get that thing fixed if he wants to run again in 2004.
The point is that although Gore is a poll monkey, the electorate is a bunch of poll junkies. Everyone, especially Gore, could benefit from putting less faith in the polls.
If this keeps up, Gore will appear at the third debate wearing overalls and big boots, with his big sister in tow, while smooching. Then he'll have clinched all of the focus groups.
(Jeffrey Eisenberg's column appears Mondays in The Cavalier Daily.)
Read More
SULLIVAN: Ramp up physical accessibility on Grounds
By Scarlett Sullivan | 22 hours agoThe University must take responsibility for the inaccessibility of Grounds and work to promote accessibility for all students despite misguided laws.
EDITORIAL: Scapegoating students will not stop hazing
By Editorial Board | 3 days agoInstead of retroactively responding to extreme hazing allegations, we, and especially the University, must begin asking more probing questions about the role of fraternal organizations on Grounds.
EDITORIAL: Celebrating and reflecting on The Cavalier Daily’s independence
By Editorial Board | April 18, 2024Our independence grants us the ability to ask the hard questions and to say what University representatives cannot.
