There are now about two weeks until the first presidential debate. This means that the Bush campaign has just a short time to redefine the nature of the race. For if George W. Bush enters the debates and final frenzied month with the campaign still being fought on Democratic turf, it will be very difficult to regain the advantage. Since the Democratic convention, the election campaign has sunk into a bidding war more worthy of a campaign for city council. But as the budget fights of the last few years amply demonstrate, Republicans are always on the defensive when the debate is about which set of politicians can deliver the most goodies to voters.
Republican campaigns do better when they elevate the terms of debate to higher ground.
It is, after all, a contest for the most powerful office on earth, not for some mayoral slot. In a broad and serious way, the Bush campaign is going to have to remind voters what George W. Bush's America would look like, and why it would be a finer country to pass down to our children than Al Gore's America. Begin with the rule of law. The Bush campaign hasn't been sure how or whether to raise the issue of the Clinton-Gore scandals. The low point so far was the sarcastic Bush commercial about whether Al Gore had invented the Internet.