Bush, Gore Debate Shows Contrast in Policy, Image

The last debate between the two presidential candidates - Republican George W. Bush and Democrat Al Gore - took place Tuesday at the University of Washington in St. Louis.

Diana Carlin, University of Kansas communication studies professor, said both Bush and Gore engaged in a more heated debate.

"(It was an) aggressive debate by both of them," Carlin said.

David Birdsell, an expert on presidential debates and Baruch College professor of public affairs, said each candidate tried to highlight the differences between himself and his opponent in the St. Louis debate.

"(Gore) clearly wanted to create sharp contrasts," he said.

But Bush also tried to show voters the differences between himself and Gore.

"(Bush) clearly wanted to show Al Gore is not like you and me," Birdsell said.

Carlin said this debate was very different from the previous two since it allowed citizens in the audience to ask the candidates questions on issues important to them.

Audience members asked questions about education and capital punishment during the third debate.

In the first two debates, the questions were posed by PBS news anchor Jim Lehrer and focused largely on health care issues and foreign policy.

The last debate's town hall questioning format revealed more of what citizens wanted to know, Carlin said.

She said this last debate will not individually influence voters, but all three debates, when examined together, would have a slight effect on voters' opinions.

"(Bush and Gore) had obvious strategies and helped themselves," Carlin said.

She said Bush portrayed Gore as a big spender, while Gore focused on convincing voters he would be the one to preserve the economic success of the last eight years.

But Carlin said the debate was not all positive as the candidates tried to shoot down each other's ideas.

"They tried to taint what the other was proposing," she said.

UNC political science Professor George Rabinowitz also said the difference between Gore and Bush became clearer after the last debate.

He said that Bush was more focused on pushing conservative ideology and portraying himself as an easy-to-like person.

Rabinowitz added that Gore tried to steer the discussion toward policy issues.

Birdsell said the remainder of the campaign will become more focused on advertising and somewhat more negative because the candidates are not scheduled to meet face to face in a presidential debate again.

The State & National Editor can be reached at stntdesk@unc.edu.