Issue 1 is the presidential race, including George W. Bush’s proposal for Social Security privatization and Al Gore’s attacks on Bush. Issue 2 is the state of Rudolph Giuliani’s marriage, prostate, and electoral hopes.
Pundits split over Bush’s proposal to let workers invest their Social Security taxes in a government-chosen stock-market portfolio rather than in government bonds and savings accounts. Many quote a remark by Sen. Bob Kerrey, D-Neb., last week that privatization is not necessarily inconsistent with Democratic values. (This point is stressed by Kerrey on ABC’s This Week and by Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, D-N.Y., on Fox News Sunday.) Mark Shields (CNN’s Capital Gang) argues that Bush’s plan would “privatize profit and socialize loss” by allowing rich workers to abandon poor ones. Kate O’Beirne (CG) counters that over the past 30 years stocks have had a 7 percent return while Social Security funds have yielded just 2 percent. George F. Will (TW) and Steve Roberts (CNN’s Late Edition) note that Gore’s attacks on Bush’s reform proposal follow a rich tradition of Democratic demagoguery on Social Security. (In 1996, Slate’s Michael Kinsley offered a “prejudiced primer” on Social Security privatization.)
Most pundits think that Bush has successfully morphed into an electable centrist. Cokie Roberts (TW) notes that his approval ratings have increased since the primaries ended, and David Broder (NBC’s Meet the Press) remarks that Bush’s temperament is better suited to conciliation than dogmatism. Will Gore’s ceaseless attacks on Bush work? Doris Kearns Goodwin (MTP) thinks that Gore is starting to sound like a “nagging Nellie.” O’Beirne argues that Gore’s portrayal of Bush as an extremist “contradicts the Bush brand name,” which signifies moderation. (To read Slate’s Ballot Box on Gore’s ruthlessness, click here.) George F. Will sees traces of Reagan rhetoric in Bush’s “there-you-go-again” response to Gore’s attacks. Mark Shields (CG) and Robert Novak (CG) note that unlike Gore, most politicians–including former President Bush–leave smear attacks to third parties. Sam Donaldson (TW) fears that this negative electoral dynamic will produce an apathetic public, but Broder foresees an election about substantive issues such as gun control, Social Security, and taxes.
Pundits feast on the melodrama of the New York Senate race. Rudolph Giuliani’s prostate-cancer diagnosis and his tacit admission to a close relationship with a woman other than his wife have left his Senate candidacy in flux. George Stephanopoulos (TW) says that Giuliani must decide this week whether to go forward with the campaign or he will miss key fund-raisers. Mara Liasson (FNS) thinks that Giuliani’s diagnosis and marital troubles have “humanized” his image, while Goodwin wonders if the trauma of cancer will lend the “no-tolerance” mayor some humility and sympathy, much as paralysis did for FDR. Analyzing Giuliani’s first TV ad, Liasson and Susan Page (LE) see an emerging theme: Giuliani will argue that, regardless of politics, he is a more “authentic” personality than Hillary Clinton.
The Myth of the Elusive McCain Endorsement
The commentariat continue to chew over whether John McCain will endorse Bush after their May 9 meeting. But wasn’t this question settled last week on CBS’s Face the Nation? To wit:
Bob Schieffer: You said that you don’t think there’s going to be an agreement on campaign-finance reform. Without that kind of an agreement, can you enthusiastically endorse George W. Bush for president?
McCain: Yes, because I think if I didn’t, I’d be litmus testing him, and I don’t think that’s appropriate for me to do. But I believe that he has begun to, and is continuing to, pursue a reform agenda…
Schieffer: Are you going to endorse him?
McCain: Sure.
Perhaps the mystery is not whether McCain will endorse Bush, but whether anyone watches FTN.
The Anti-Pundits
This [election] is not going to be decided in the next three months. This is going to be decided in the debates, in the three or four debates. And everything we do to handicap this now is just kidding around.–William Safire (MTP)I’ve just read the tabloid nonsense about [Giuliani and his woman friend]. … Considering what’s been written about me, I don’t believe 90 percent of what I read, so I don’t think I should comment.–Dr. Laura Schlessinger (FNS)
Last Words
It’s official: New York is France.–George Stephanopoulos, on New Yorkers’ indifference to Rudolph Giuliani’s extramarital “relationship” (TW)I’m not here to talk about politics; I’m talking about social policy.–Daniel Patrick Moynihan, deflecting a question about his endorsement of Bill Bradley before the primaries (FNS)
