ballot box: Politics and policy.

The Sununu MachineThe GOP's mechanical candidate.

By William Saletan
Posted Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2002, at 5:24 PM ET

Halfway through last night's debate between New Hampshire's U.S. Senate candidates, a woman in the audience stood up and asked whether, in light of the recent sniper attacks near Washington, D.C., the candidates would support legislation to make each bullet traceable to the gun from which it was fired.

The Democratic nominee, Gov. Jeanne Shaheen, paused. Her eyes searched the crowd for an answer. "It's very frightening to watch what's happened in Maryland," she said, shaking her head in disbelief. "My heart goes out to the families of the victims." She concluded with sadness, "All the laws in the country will not prevent a deranged individual from doing what this Maryland sniper has done."

The Republican nominee, Rep. John E. Sununu, pounced on the question. "This is a horrific criminal act," he declared in an expressionless voice. "I do think that from all of the reports that I've seen," he added, "the death penalty would be warranted. That's the kind of effective, swift justice that I think we need to make sure that we have an effective deterrence against anyone that would engage in a copycat crime … of this nature." As Sununu spoke, his hands flicked out from the podium in a vague shrug. His eyes blinked through his glasses at regular intervals, like wipers cleaning a windshield.

Sununu is the latest in a long line of stoic Yankees. His robotic style reflects a little of his father—former New Hampshire Gov. John Sununu—and a lot of other New England pols such as Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., Supreme Court Justice David Souter (a former attorney general of New Hampshire), and former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell, D-Maine.

In Sununu's primary campaign against Sen. Bob Smith, R-N.H., this was an advantage. Smith was the pouty, hotheaded, unreliable Republican who had ditched the party when it suited him. Smith said the rift was about issues; his critics said it was about slights. Either way, it was about losing his temper. Sununu made clear he would never do such a thing. He said so in words, but his body language and machine-gun speaking style drove home the point: Robots don't flake out.

Sununu polished off Smith on Sept. 10. Now he's up against Shaheen, and his mechanical manner isn't wearing so well. In last night's debate, Sununu showed off his grasp of policy detail by rattling off lists of legislation and parsing the fine points of the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. Shaheen offered ironic circumspection; Sununu offered wonkery. She smiled during their pointed exchanges; he didn't. He looked like the student council president. She looked like the teacher.

Sununu's answer to the sniper question epitomized his performance. It brought to mind another political son of New England: former Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis. Fourteen years ago, during a presidential campaign debate, Dukakis was asked whether he would seek the death penalty if a man were convicted of raping and killing Dukakis' wife. Dukakis replied, in the blandest possible tone of voice, that he wouldn't. Viewers were dismayed by the governor's coolness. He lost the race to George H.W. Bush, who appointed as his chief of staff New Hampshire Gov. John Sununu.

Now a new George Bush is wagering his hopes for a Republican Senate on a new John Sununu. Last night, Sununu got another loaded question about violent crime. His mouth gave a different answer from the one Dukakis gave. His body didn't.

DISCUSS

E-MAIL

William Saletan is Slate's national correspondent and author of Bearing Right: How Conservatives Won the Abortion War.

Join the Fray: our reader discussion forum

What did you think of this article?

POST A MESSAGE | READ MESSAGES

Remarks From The Fray:

Interestingly, the article doesn't point out that neither of the debaters answered the question that was put to them. Shaheen hinted indirectly at an answer but was obviously too chicken to just come out and say it while Sununu went ahead and answered a completely different question that hadn't been asked. Why did the moderator not address this? Why do we all just condone this sort of BS in our politicians? We've spent decades allowing them to simply not answer what we ask them during campaigns and then when we elect them, we're surprised that they represent us poorly.

I say start insisting that politicians either answer the questions that are put to them or simply admit that they either are unable to or dare not.

-- Otto

(To reply, click here.)

Saletan hit the nail right on the head; however, I don't think he has seen what nail he has hit. The fact that now body movement means more than what people say. Since Nixon/Kennedy the pubic has been obsessed with how our politicians look and body movement over what is the substance of what they say.

I guess Saletan chooses actor politicians over policy makers...and this is better for our government?

-- Jeff

(To reply, click here.)

I am learning a lot about Mr. Saletan by reading of his reactions to candidates during political debates he attends. This is his second column now in which he seems to form a visceral dislike of a candidate not so much based on his/her positions or reasoning but by their personality (or in Rep. Sununu's case, the lack thereof). The import he places on Sununu's and Gov. Shaheen's respective reactions to the gun fingerprinting question seems out of proportion to what each candidate actually said, which - in both cases - was a whole lot of evasive nothingness.

Neither candidate said they favored gun fingerprinting without actually saying they did not favor it. Sununu, echoing President Bush in the 2000 Presidential debates, suggested capital punishment was probably the most effective deterrent to criminal misuse of firearms. I suppose that is not very compassionate but compare it to Gov. Shaheen's response, which boiled down to "hey, whatcha gonna do?". Nonetheless, because she looked sad & thoughtful and expressed sympathy for the families of victims, Mr. Saletan writes off Rep. Sununu as a robot and endorses Shaheen's more humanist style as reflecting superior leadership abilities. As much as I do admire her empathy, we have had "I feel your pain" before and, while it is very nice, it is not worth much without "I can get the job done" to go along with it.

Does Rep. Sununu's cold, mechanical style, his grasp of detail, and wonk-like love of policy suggest that he might have the edge over Sheehan in this category? Maybe - I really do not know. I cannot imagine how anyone could know unless they have followed New Hampshire politics closely for the past year or so and/or know both candidates personally. I certainly cannot figure out how Mr. Saletan knows what he claims to discern from the attitude with which a candidate answers a question. The only thing that I learned from that particular exchange is that the ability to avoid answering a controversial question directly is still adroitly practiced by the candidates of both parties.

-- The Bell

(To reply, click here.)

(10/16)