Rating the debate

By Martin F. Nolan, 10/4/2000

t 9:12 p.m., Gore's aides, not Bush's, may have been quivering on smirk alert. The issue was old folks' medicine and the vice president, having endured his earth-toned phase of smiling scampiness, reverted to RoboWonk.

He shook his head, sighed several heavy-duty sighs, unloaded a mirthless grin, and looked upon the governor of Texas the way Dean Wormer glowered at a hapless frat boy in ''Animal House.'' Gore was clearly impatient with this errant undergrad who failed to grasp the fine-print subtleties in the latest edition of ''Modern Maturity.''

Gore may have been right in every detail of all his ''right and responsible choices.'' Bush won sympathy, if not votes, when he denounced ''Washington fuzzy math.'' The governor made no attempt to make mathematics his field of battle because of Gore's evident mastery of facts, statistics, programs, policies, and telling anecdotes to adorn them all.

Bush and many in the audience welcomed Jim Lehrer's utterance of ''New question.'' The Republican nominee did seize on one number, seven, as in: What have you guys been doing for seven years?

This variation of the seven-year itch sought to make his liability, inexperience, into an asset, saying, ''I fully recognize that I'm not of Washington. I'm from Texas.'' He added: ''They've had their chance.''

Voters may not be ready to take a chance on Bush just yet. The governor held his own. He explained his energy policies and Social Security plans well, but he could not resist rehashing Gore's fund-raising scandals. Dean Wormer might have flunked him on rhetoric. A more indulgent electorate will look for further improvement in the next debate.

Martin F. Nolan's column appears regularly in the Globe.