The sit-down debate at Wake Forest last night came after a lame round one in Boston and a wave of major news from abroad. So the definitions of victory were going to be different: the charming boy governor from Texas had to look smarter on foreign policy. And the ponderous, self-satisfied Vice President had to seem more the regular guy. George W. Bush not only went hot-spot to hot-spot without mangling the name of a capital, he presented a bumper-sticker world view of a humbler U.S., prepared for war but wary of “nation building” and idle moralizing.
Al Gore, with his eyebrows and his sighing under tight control, said the Marshall Plan in Europe was a heroic model of our nation building. But he took his best shots at the Bush record in Texas-50th among 50 states in health insurance for families: not because Bush has a bad heart, he said, because he’s got the wrong priorities.
(Hosted by Christopher Lydon)
Guests: