10/04/00 1:00 a.m.
Advantage Gore
But not by much.

By Ramesh Ponnuru, NR senior editor

l Gore was at his obnoxious best in the first presidential debate. While George W. Bush spoke, Gore grimaced, sighed dramatically, chuckled mirthlessly. Gore interrupted and browbeat. He kept. . . ex-AG-ger-a-ting his. . . in-TO-nations in that weird way of his. And he won the debate.

He took command early, trampling all over Jim Lehrer and the debate format the campaigns had negotiated so carefully, and as a result had the last word on almost every subject. He got across all his points, put Bush on the spot, even got part of the audience at one point to laugh at him.

The debate did not, to be sure, begin well for Gore. Lehrer basically caught him lying: He denied that he had ever questioned whether Bush had the experience to be president, when he clearly had. Gore looked uncomfortable during this exchange. But he quickly recovered and began taking shots at Bush's tax-cut and prescription-drug plans — shots that he would take repeatedly during the debate without ever eliciting an effective rebuttal.

Bush did well only in comparison to the late-night show caricature of himself. He showed that he wasn't completely over his head. On a few issues — education, Social Security, Gore's profligacy — his answers were pretty impressive. (You could tell because they provoked Gore's deepest sighs.) But he was occasionally tart and probably appeared petulant to some viewers. His jokes fell flat. He fumbled the question about what he would do in a financial crisis.

On abortion, he made two mistakes. He let Gore get away with the disingenuous claim that he would ban partial-birth abortion as long as there were an exception for the health of the mother. His position on RU486 was confusing. As near as I can tell, Bush was disavowing any ability to get the FDA to reverse itself, but not committing himself one way or the other on a congressional attempt to ban the abortion pills. A lot of pro-lifers appear to have concluded that Bush came out against doing anything and are now disheartened. Bush's remarks on abortion were carefully prepped, yet they came across as though he hadn't given the matter much thought.

If Bush gave an impression of competence, Gore gave one of mastery. When Gore repeated himself, he seemed focused; when Bush did the same, he merely seemed scripted.

The silver lining for Republicans is that the debate probably won't matter much. Nobody doubted that Gore knew his stuff, and he didn't give undecided voters good reasons to vote for him. Bush avoided disaster; he can't have gained voters tonight, but he probably didn't lose many either. The first debate is generally the most important in a presidential race, but this year could be an exception.