uesday was debate night and yesterday was National Depression Screening Day. I hope there is no connection.
The first presidential debate of the season was 90 minutes of hard road. A lot of sludge had to be shifted before we got to what few nuggets there were.
It reminded me of the baffling Olympic sport of Greco-Roman wrestling, wherein two guys grapple for a bit, then one guy lies down and the other guy tries to flip him over, and then they reverse positions, and if it's an even match, nothing much happens, till at the end, one guy's arm is raised as the victor.
The fellow who told me over coffee that ''I was expecting more from Gore and less from Bush'' got it about right for me. The quickie network polls gave Gore the nod by 14, 10, or 7 percent except for ABC, which had it even. Along about the 59th minute, I took a cue from George Bush the Elder and looked at my watch. I felt like I was in the dentist's chair, with another half-hour of drilling and filling before I could escape.
Count me among those who felt that moderator Jim Lehrer did not bring his A-game. The next format, with Lehrer talking to the two pols around a table in talk-show format, may better suit the moderator's questioning skills.
Both candidates were cautious Tuesday night. Gore, the more experienced debater by far, stuck relentlessly on message, as they say inside the Beltway. Apparently his game plan was to stroke the elderly voters in swing states (Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Missouri) by stressing his soundness on Social Security and Medicare.
Bush's target group was apparently younger voters, whom he envisions as thirsting for tax cuts and willing to hazard part of their Social Security taxes in privately managed accounts. Both men elected to solidify their bases. Gore poured more concrete on his underpinnings as a class warrior.
Bush locked on to his religious right crowd, refusing to budge from his strict antiabortion positions. When Lehrer handed him the only loaded question of the whole tedious 90 minutes, inviting him to assail Gore's integrity, Bush looked more nervous than the vice president.
Like an Army private handling his first live grenade after basic training, Bush ransacked his memory banks for the sound bite his handlers had inserted about ''the buck stops here'' sign hanging on the Lincoln Bedroom.
Gore's relentless mowing down of Bush's tax and Social Security and Medicare plans got monotonous after the fourth trip across the pasture. At times I wished for a 10-minute intermission so Gore could explain Bush's proposals to the governor. It's painful watching a guy who doesn't get it.
One of the protesters outside UMass carried a sign that said, ''This debate makes me want to Ralph.'' When Nader was turned away by security guards, it was a troubling reminder of the dilemma of third-party candidate inclusion.
Had Nader run in the Democratic primaries he'd have had plenty of debate face time. I'm still not convinced that Nader, Pat Buchanan, or the Flying Carpet party guy or any of the other splinter-party faction leaders belong in the three Gore-Bush debates, despite the fervent demands of their followers. None of these people is going to be president, and we're trying to sort out a president here.
Maybe the rest of the media will have to shame and ultimately bludgeon the TV networks into giving some prime-time time to people like Nader and Buchanan for their peek at mass audiences. I have to admit that Ralph and Pat might have roused Debate One from its terminal torpor.
Bush did show me more than I thought he had, though I thought his energy flagged after an hour, though he did deliver a better closing statement than Gore, who seemed to be on cruise control after the battering he gave Bush's fiscal schemes. Bush's airy dismissal of ''fuzzy math'' did not seem to me as convincing as Gore's assault, which reminded me of my accountant exploding my numbers at tax time. Bush could use a focus group lesson on how to focus. Gore still needs to loosen up. For two guys who claim to be so strong for testing teachers and pupils, they can use more testing themselves.
David Nyhan's e-mail address is nyhan@globe.com.
