Bush's Gaffes Are Back as
Debates Near
By Mike Allen
10/01/00
AUSTIN, Sept. 30 -- Texas Gov. George W. Bush declared this
week that Vice President Gore would create "over 200,000 new
or expanded federal programs."
He meant 200.
Bush said that with education funds, "the federal government
ought to have maximum flexibility."
He meant that the flexibility should
be with the states that receive the
money.
Bush said he has "ruled out no new
Social Security taxes."
Of course, he meant he has ruled out
new Social Security taxes.
In Beaverton, Ore., he said, "More
and more of our imports come from
overseas." In Redwood City, Calif.,
he promised "a foreign-handed
policy," when he meant "an
even-handed foreign policy."
Bush's just-plain-folks personality is
one of his key appeals, and linguistic
blind alleys have long been one of his
defining characteristics--to some, endearing; to others, the sign
of a lightweight.
But just over five weeks from Election Day, several political
scientists said Bush's botches could suggest to some voters that
he has a shaky grasp of issues.
"He is cramming for the presidency, and that leads to a lot of
mistakes," said Larry Sabato, a political scientist at the
University of Virginia. "When combined with grammatical
sloppiness, that produces statements that can be misleading
and inaccurate. And for a president, every word matters."
Several Bush-watchers said that in recent weeks he has served
up a surfeit of Bushisms after being virtually gaffe-free from April
to early August. The tangled talk had crested during the
primaries when Bush was in hand-to-hand combat with Sen. John
McCain (R-Ariz.). Its return coincides with a tightening in polls
and an increasingly rigorous schedule.
"He's feeling the stress, and this is the way it manifests itself,"
said Bruce Buchanan, a government professor at the University of
Texas.
Buchanan said that whether Bush's infelicity matters to the
race's outcome is likely to be determined by the three
presidential debates, which begin Tuesday. "The gravitas
question has been primarily an inside-the-Beltway issue," he
said. "If he shoots himself in the foot in some high-profile way in
those debates, it could become a major issue for voters."
Bush gave several big policy speeches this week, and many of
his misstatements came when he was using a TelePrompTer.
When he finished a speech on the economy in Green Bay, Wis.,
he blew the air out of his cheeks, as if relieved, then dived into
the question period, where he seems to thrive.
During a town meeting on education, he was reading the
audience perfectly when he interrupted himself to declare, "This
is a long answer. This is called filibustering."
Bush's staff clearly sees some of his asides as a strength. At the
top of his speech texts, his aides type, "Note: Governor
frequently deviates from text."
The Republican and his campaign contend that his disdain for
highfalutin talk will win over voters who are weary of parsing the
statements of their national leaders. Bush told a rally in
Spokane, Wash., that he is often reminded of that on rope lines.
"People walk up to me with a picture of their children and they
say, 'We're counting on you, governor. We don't want any more
of that saying one thing and meaning another,' " Bush said.
A Bush spokesman, Ari Fleischer, said when asked about
Bush's ad-libs, "The governor is a plain-spoken guy. He says
what he means and means what he says."
Indeed, Bush is the rare national nominee who is willing to chuck
his scripts and say what he thinks. This week, he said he would
never allow U.S. troops to come under United Nations command,
then added that he views the United Nations "as an opportunity
for people to vent."
"I say that not facetiously," Bush continued, responding to the
murmur and rustle of the crowd. "I mean, it's a chance for the
world to come together and discuss and to dialogue."
Bush's rambles provide a stark contrast with Gore, who sticks so
resolutely to prepared answers that he jokes about it. Several
times recently, Gore invited a reporter asking a follow-up question
to "rewind your tape to the previous answer."
Gore has his own vulnerability--his tendency to embroider stories,
especially concerning his past role in national affairs. Even if it
was unrelated, widespread coverage of Gore's assertion that he
had been part of the discussions on the Strategic Petroleum
Reserve "since the days when it was first established" (he came
to Congress two years later) gave commentators something to
point to when Gore's extended convention bounce came to an
abrupt halt last week.
James E. Campbell of the State University of New York at
Buffalo, who wrote "The American Campaign," about the effect of
campaigns on election results, said that while Bush may not be
"as sharp as he ought to be or may not be as prepared as he
ought to be," Gore's problem is at least as serious.
"I think we ought to lighten up on both of them," Campbell said.
"The key to this campaign for most voters is judging the
candidates on their philosophies and issue positions. Everything
else is a diversion."
Some of Bush's verbal lapses--"pacemakers" for "peacekeepers,"
or "Michael Jackson" for "Michael Jordan"--can be seen as
simple curiosities. They are reminiscent of his father, former
president George Bush, whose own private dialect did not seem
to hamper his ability to govern.
However, the younger Bush bolstered his critics by mixing up $1
billion and $1 trillion when explaining his tax cut.
Bush's serial syntactical aberrations have led the Web site of
ABC News to anthologize his gaffes under the rubric "The
English Patient." After one especially confusing digression in
Pennsylvania, the feature said that Bush "seemed to be speaking
in tongues."
The author Gail Sheehy contended in an article in the October
issue of Vanity Fair that Bush suffers from undiagnosed dyslexia.
Bush and his staff denied that. Unfortunately for Bush, he added,
"the woman who knew that I had dyslexia--I never interviewed
her."
In most cases, his meaning is obvious. But on Friday, feeling the
need to explain his statement during a speech on energy policy
that he intended to maintain dams in the Pacific Northwest, he
departed from his text and added, "I know the human being and
fish can coexist peacefully." He did not elaborate.
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