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Send in the clowns | page 1, 2
For those just tuning in, the candidates see themselves in the following way: Bush a warm,
uniting leader of the second-largest state in the union; McCain a charming tough guy with
foreign-policy expertise; Hatch the quintessential senator who knows how to get things done;
Forbes an outsider businessman with bold plans; Bauer a pro-life conservative; Keyes a
brilliant, outraged, articulate exemplar of morality. Hume and Brown asked tough questions, but the candidates were more often than not able to
stick to the subjects they wanted to discuss. A few times, Hume and Brown followed up by
pointing out that a candidate hadn't really answered their question, after which the
candidate took his 40-second follow-up to dodge the tough part of the question once again.
Asked if he had sufficient "knowledgeability" of world events, Bush eased into a discussion of
his "leadership," which he said was confirmed by his overwhelming reelection victory last
year. He segued into his message about "reach(ing) across racial lines," repeating the
questionable figure that he garnered "50 percent of the Hispanic vote and a significant part
of the African-American vote," I'm-a-uniter- Media sharks hoping for Bush's blood to hit the water left disappointed. Though Forbes
continually labeled the tax plan Bush introduced earlier this week as "small and inadequate"
and more of the same "Washington-based, politics-based" business as usual, he laid off the
intimations he's been making in the last few weeks that the front-runner isn't intellectually
up to the task of being leader of the free world. Bush noted that while the Forbes camp sees his tax-cut plan as too timid, others see it as too big, "which leads me to believe that I must be doing something right." And though Bush took a moment to try to put to rest rumors that his surrogates have been
bad-mouthing McCain upon his orders, asserting that McCain is a "good man" and a "good
friend," Bush did -- for the first time -- go a teeny bit negative. In response to Forbes'
accusation that his willingness to discuss raising the Social Security retirement age from 67
was a betrayal, Bush trotted out a statement Forbes himself made along those lines, albeit back in
1977. In the comfort of the press room, Forbes rejoined that in the '70s he was "writing
magazine columns," as opposed to whatever the hell it was that
Bush was doing during that time. The only moment in the entire night that seemed unscripted came after Forbes asserted that he
would need to have a "heart-to-heart" with Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan to see if
he truly buys into "the bogus economic theory that prosperity causes inflation." Asked if he agreed with Forbes, McCain said that as president he would not only reappoint
the chairman but "if Mr. Greenspan would happen to die -- God forbid -- I would do like they
did in the movie 'Weekend at Bernie's': I'd prop him up and put a pair of dark glasses on him
and keep him as long as we could." It was that kind of night. A "Weekend at Bernie's" joke was the highlight. The Republican candidates will next square off in Arizona on Monday.
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