HE ROOKIE FINALLY ran out of gas. After holding his own in Debate One and going ahead a length or two in Debate Two, Texas Governor George W. Bush got lost in the ozone, as the Texas tune goes.
Weakened by Vice President Al Gore's relentless full-court press, Bush unreeled a goofy answer to a 34-year-old single woman asking what kind of tax break she could expect.
Bush's memory banks, apparently exhausted by the chore of keeping up with Gore's blitzkrieg, failed him; he mumbled about ''a clear-sighted foreign policy ... judicious use of the military ...'' and ended up with a conservative chestnut, ''the harder you work, the more you can keep.'' Whahhhhhh? Not even the clumsy timekeeping and flow interruptions of Jim Lehrer - Can we all agree that PBS's Mr. Sobersides has moderated his last presidential debate? - could stave off the Democrat's constant stalking.
With brio and passion heretofore lacking, Gore carried the attack as Bush stuck to his Al's-for-Big-Gummint game plan.
The format gave average folks better questions than Lehrer managed in his three hours of solo quizzing and gave Gore room to manuever. At times he was Accountant Al, and Bush had some good moments too, but he seemed more tentative and scripted than Gore, who tied up a lot of loose ends he'd left hanging last week. Bush was put on the defensive by pointed questions on why he seemed to enjoy bragging about more than 140 executions in Texas and why a National Rifle Association executive claimed that the gun lobby ''will operate right out of the White House'' if Bush wins.
Bush's narrow polling lead should take a hit after he got worked over by a stronger, more assured opponent. Bush worked the crowd with winks and grins and shrugs. But he looked pale and frail compared with Gore, less convincing in body language, frequently frowning. Bush's eye-blink count went off the charts at the close, and he looked whipped when it ended.
David Nyhan's e-mail address is nyhan@globe.com.
