THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, October 18, 1996 TAG: 9610180709
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Opinion
SOURCE: GUY FRIDDELL
LENGTH: 53 lines
To deliver his two-minute opening in Wednesday night's debate, Bob Dole left the lectern and walked forward to look his inquisitors in the eye. Bill Clinton took to roaming, and, thereafter, the two candidates bounced around all over the place.
A TV viewer was apt to find it bewildering as to just where the two were. They nearly collided at one point in their peregrinations around the stage, a couple of tipsy citizens doing a Virginia reel.
It was the most kinetic of all TV debates since 1960.
Dole early raised the issue of a lack of ethics in the White House. He had been building up to it all week, debating openly with himself, a dark-browed Hamlet, whether he should toughen up.
It heightened suspense to the coming confrontation. The day before the debate, Dole made an all-out assault on the Clinton camp before an audience of businessmen.
He got the chance early in the debate when a teacher asked him about the apparent lack of morals in government compared to the times of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.
Many Americans have lost their faith in government, Dole said. ``They see scandals almost on a daily basis; they see ethical problems in the White House today.''
The Clinton administration, he said, had ``violated the public trust Americans have in the presidency.''
At other points Dole listed Clinton's ethical lapses, but the impact of Dole's charges was lessened when he didn't explain them.
To surmise the lengths to which Dole might have gone in excoriating Clinton, imagine, given the chance to debate Clinton, the wreckage that Pat Buchanan would have wrought.
Suspense also had attended to how Clinton would respond to Dole's frontal accusations. The president simply let them lie until near the end, when he essayed a sort of collective defense.
He didn't have time to answer the charges tit for tat, Clinton said. ``I get attacked so many times . . . I don't want to respond in kind to all these things. No attack ever created a job or educated a child or helped a family make ends meet . . . I prefer to emphasize direct answers to the future.''
Now and then, Clinton managed a quick riposte. When the issue of Dole's age arose, Clinton said, ``I don't think Sen. Dole is too old to be president. It's the age of his ideas that I question.''
To those who deem the campaign dull, consider the fascination of whether Clinton's double-digit lead in the polls can withstand increasing pressure by Dole and his surrogates.
Spurring Republicans is the notion that the larger the Clinton victory, the more likely he is to carry Democratic congressmen with him.
KEYWORDS: PRESIDENTIAL RACE 1996 DEBATES ANALYSIS by CNB