Every time the campaign gets interesting, Gore's elevator goes up a couple of floors, and Bush's goes down a couple of floors. This, for a Bush strategist, cannot be welcome news. Nor, needless to say, is it welcome news for other Republicans, who were more or less counting on Bush to pull them through. In my House district, on the California central coast, the Republican challenger to Lois Capps has been hugging Bush tighter than Al hugged Tipper. This of course was not at all the original Bush game plan.
Issues are boring and wonkish.
Campaigning on issues implies reading 500-page briefing books, something Bush is on record as finding disagreeable. Worse, the issues all happen to favor Democrats, an awkward circumstance for a Republican nominee. No surprise, then, that Bush is now campaigning on issues without going out of his way to specify which ones. Not a winner, when the GOP ticket has two oilmen on it. Thanks but no thanks.