Debate Mind Games

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"It's not that he doesn't have an answer," a Gore adviser says. "It's that the answers are not good for him." Team Bush insists its man is just as eager to attack the Clinton-Gore record. He will push the argument that the Administration has presided over an "education recession," and he will try to pick apart the details of Gore's prescription-drug plan in an attempt to show it is as onerous as Hillary Clinton's failed health-care reform. The Bush people are also girding to defend their turf. "He will misrepresent the Governor's record in Texas and his proposals for the nation," says Bush spokeswoman Karen Hughes. "But we look forward to explaining the truth." By the time they are finished with three debates, the two candidates will probably have explored every major policy on the table. "But you've got to do it in a gentle way," cautions a Gore strategist. "Swing voters like a reasonable, fact-based argument."

Which may be why some in Gore's camp are posing like matadors, waving their red capes in hopes of provoking the other side to snort and charge. "If you are 5 points down with five weeks to go, you have to be aggressive," says one, sounding more hopeful than anxious. But Bush is more likely to try a balanced approach, playing the optimistic, sunny candidate who played to such raves on Regis and Oprah this week while also working hard to raise doubts about Gore's credibility. Last week, under the cover of a heralded shift to policy, Bush and his aides were trying to steal the sting from the Vice President's assaults by raising doubts about anything he said--hammering on Gore's trip to Hollywood to raise money from a culture he was simultaneously upbraiding, mocking a childhood memory he claimed (Gore later said jokingly) to have had of song lyrics written when he was actually 27, and questioning the accuracy of a story he told of his mother-in-law's prescription drugs' costing more than his dog's. Here's one sentiment that is likely to come up in some fashion next week: "The idea that he would make up facts about a family member confirms what I have said in the past," Bush told Reuters. "That he'll say anything to be the President."

As each side worked on its game plan, Gore dropped in last Friday at a Pittsburgh Steelers practice, where the team was preparing for its confrontation with the Tennessee Titans. Asked later whether he had seen any moves that might come in handy against Bush, the Vice President paused a minute and chose his words: "Maybe a down-and-out pattern." That's one play both sides had better expect.