Campaign 2000: The Heart Strategy

Running for the middle, Bush is doling out compassion and money to the poor. Will voters buy it?

George W. Bush is flying at 30,000 ft. and talking a mile a minute. Fresh from delivering a speech about health care for the uninsured, the Republican presidential candidate is moving briskly from topic to topic, from the wretchedness of entrenched poverty to the nation's lost faith in the individual to the '60s paternalism that he thinks caused it all--the attitude, he says, that "we can't trust poor parents to make a decision for their children." His hands reach out as he speaks. His eyes are animated, especially when the subject is education or the need to treat immigrants with respect....

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