He showed the sense of humor that his aides have advised against as a weapon apt to go off in the wrong direction. But getting the laugh lines isn't the same thing as defining yourself. For much of the 90 minutes that he and Bill Clinton debated on Sunday night, the two agreed as much as they disagreed. Drugs are bad. Medicare is good.
Guns are bad.
Education is good. Politics are bad and should be banished from the consideration of nearly every American problem. Bipartisan commissions are good and, if the debaters have their way, we will soon have them at work on every kind of problem, including Medicare, campaign-finance reform and gun control. Dole talked a lot about rising drug use but failed to link it to presidential leadership. He did succeed in making subtle allusions to areas where Americans are uneasy about the President.