Accusations, ridicule fly in Presidential debate

Press, 27 September 1988, Page 8

Accusations, ridicule fly in Presidential debate

NZPA-Reuter Winston-Salem, North Carolina George Bush and Michael Dukakis took the gloves off yesterday, hitting out at each other with accusations, sarcasm and ridicule in a bruising first Presidential debate. Mr Dukakis decried the Iran-Contra scandal and Mr Bush portrayed his rival as a far-out liberal. A generally smooth and collected Mr Dukakis, the Democratic Governor of Massachusetts, zeroed in on Reagan Administration scandals in the first of two scheduled 90 minute campaign debates with the Republican VicePresident Bush, who looked a bit tense but also gave a good spirited account of himself. Neither broke any new policy ground nor made any major debating gaffe of the kind that might throw them seriously off-

stride in the campaign for the November 8 Election.

The nationally televised debate was held in the red-brick Baptist chapel of Wake Forest University, where the two men stood a few feet apart on a blood-red carpet behind lecterns that looked like pulpits. “The Vice-President has a long resume of public service, but that didn’t stop him from endorsing the sale of arms to the Ayatollah,” Mr Dukakis said in one typical slam. Mr Bush avoided debate on what became the Reagan Administration’s worst scandal, but he depicted Mr Dukakis scornfully as a big-taxing liberal, weak on national security issues, and thundered at one point. “He is out there, out of the mainstream. My argument with the Governor is, do we want this country to go that far left?”

Afterwards, both camps claimed victory. Although no official “winner” or “loser” is declared in any formal sense for these debates, an early first-impression poll of 500 viewers by ABC News broke 45 per cent — 36 per cent in favour of Mr Dukakis — a possible reflection of the Governor’s ability to stay on the offensive in a lowkey, gentlemanly manner. President Reagan quickly weighed in to do what he could to help his loyal lieutenant and would-be successor, telephoning Mr Bush to congratulate him right after the contest. “You did a great job,” the White House quoted Mr Reagan as saying. As expected, Dukakis’s supporters saw things quite the reverse — and they were saying so quickly to the television cameras. “It was a good victory

for Dukakis because it showed him to be knowledgeable,” said a spokesman, Mark Gearan. The candidates responded to questions posed by a panel of journalists, giving the affair more the character of a side-by-side news conference than a real debate. Mr Bush came into the showdown leading by a few percentage points in most national polls. The key point in most surveys, however, is that many voters are still undecided and are only unenthusiastically committed to one or the other candidate. This gave the debate great potential for swaying voters. Most analysts agreed the lesser-known Mr Dukakis, aged 54, had more to gain from a good showing. He clearly tried to seize the initiative by turning every possible response on any question to Reagan

Administration foreignpolicy embarrassment and the role of the Vice-Presi-dent in them, such as the secret sales of arms to Iran in 1985-86 and longtime United States dealings with Panama's military leader, Manuel Antonio Noriega. Mr Dukakis began this attack with his very first utterance. Mr Bush had responded to a question on how to deal with rampant drug abuse in American society by saying that basic moral values must be strengthened, and Mr Dukakis pounced by noting the years of United States Government links with the alleged drug-dealer, Noriega. “Values begin at the top, in the White House,” he said. “... Here we are with a Government that’s been dealing with a drug-run-ning Panamanian dictator.”