eorge W. Bush was cruising till he started bombing Saddam Hussein. Till the last question he faced the Texas governor was in control, strumming his themes, keeping his cool.
Till that point, by merely staying on his feet, fencing adroitly, sound-biting neatly, he was protecting his lead - the narrow margin he seems to have in New Hampshire and the huge margins he enjoys virtually every place else. It was a gaffe-free evening for the rookie front-runner, till he was asked about Saddam's weapons stash.
''I'd take 'em out,'' he grinned cavalierly, ''take out the weapons of mass destruction'' if Saddam is still hiding those fiendish devices, as we suspect he is. The UN has long since been excluded from the desert sands of the Gulf War loser. ''I'm surprised he's still there,'' said Bush of the despot who remains in power after losing the Gulf War to Bush Jr.'s father.
It remains to be seen if that offhand declaration of war was just Texas talk, a sort of locker room braggadocio, or whether it was Bush's first big clinker.
Until that point I had Bush doing well in the 90-minute, six-way exchange. He launched smoothly, countering a Steve Forces assault on his Social Security stance by quoting an article Forbes penned two decades ago.
Bush's closest competitor, Senator John McCain, had a great night. ''I've had a lot of fun,'' grinned the former POW. The forceful maverick relished making his case for draining the corrupt Washington swamp.
The other four all did fine but to little avail. Alan Keyes proved that you can be articulate and intelligent without being relevant or meaningful. But Bush's last-minute willingness to shout bombs away in Iraq may kindle all kinds of fallout for the front-runner, despite his serviceable and effective close. Shooting from the lip may win votes in Texas, but it scares the hell out of folks up this-a-way.
David Nyhan is a Globe columnist.
