Copyright 2000 The Washington Post
The Washington
Post
January 28, 2000, Friday, Final Edition
SECTION: EDITORIAL; Pg. A24
LENGTH: 487 words
HEADLINE:
Campaign Lies
BODY:
"MY QUESTION to you,"
said Bill Bradley in his debate with Al Gore on Wednesday, "is why should we
believe that you will tell the truth as president if you don't tell the truth as
a candidate?" Sadly, something like this question could be directed at most of
the presidential aspirants in both parties, including Mr. Bradley himself. The
campaign usefully airs issues of policy and character, but it has a way of
demeaning contestants.
Mr. Bradley's assault was prompted by his
opponent's numerous attacks on him, which collectively do amount to dishonesty.
Mr. Gore has decried the Bradley campaign's proposed extension of
health coverage to uninsured Americans as
overly ambitious, a charge that is at least plausible. But he also has attacked
Mr. Bradley from the opposite direction, accusing him of indifference to the
health care of precisely the lower-income families the Bradley
program seeks to help, as well as minorities. While slurring Mr. Bradley's ideas
and motives, Mr. Gore preaches that he has never attacked his opponent
personally. Then, when Mr. Bradley hits back at him, Mr. Gore scolds his
opponent for going negative. Nor is Mr. Bradley above criticism. He began his
campaign promising a different kind of politics, free of pandering and attacks.
Yet now he is in attack mode; and in the run-up to the Iowa caucuses, he
pandered hard to the farm vote. In an earlier debate, Mr. Gore attacked him for
not voting for an especially generous flood-relief amendment. That was an
opportunity for Mr. Bradley to celebrate principled resistance to special
interests. But Mr. Bradley mumbled a disclaimer rather than summoning the
courage to defend his own record.
The Republican contest has been less
obviously demeaning, partly because of the larger cast of candidates. But the
same tendency toward dishonesty is evident. Out on the stump, George Bush throws
out numbers suggesting, preposterously, that his tax cut would consume only a
quarter of the projected surplus. The truth is that it would consume upward of $
1 trillion over 10 years, more than the entire non-Social Security surplus if
you assume that spending will keep pace with inflation. John McCain, generally a
truth-teller, has fudged his views on the Confederate flag in order to appease
South Carolina primary voters. Steve Forbes, once a moderate on abortion, has
opportunistically changed into an opponent of abortion rights.
Up to a
point, the candidates' dissembling may be dismissed as the product of election
pressures, with honesty reasserting itself after the campaign. Orrin Hatch
seemed instantly more attractive when he withdrew from the Republican primaries
on Wednesday; he suddenly gave up boasting, and instead told self-deprecating
jokes. Yet the worry is that the candidates' response to election pressures may
heighten voter alienation and inflict damage that outlasts the campaign itself.
LOAD-DATE: January 28, 2000
