Flag Football
A few observations about tonight's debate in Columbia, S.C., as viewed on
television from New York City:
Nobody laid a glove on George W., who is increasingly comfortable at these
events, and seemed in complete control of his opponents throughout the evening.
But Bush acquitted himself poorly nonetheless, by once again shirking an
opportunity to stand up to ugliness in his own party.
Bush first gave a pass to conservative bigotry several months ago when he
was unwilling to say that Pat Buchanan didn't belong in the GOP. He did it more
recently when he declined to meet with the an organization of gay Republicans
because he didn't want to be a "divider." And he was at it once again tonight,
when in response to repeated questions from Brian Williams of NBC, he refused
to criticize the flying of the Confederate flag over the state capitol in
Columbia, S.C. In response to Williams' request for his personal opinion about
the flag, Bush just kept reiterating that he thought it was up to "the people
of South Carolina" to decide.
This was a craven, spineless response. If Bush had any guts, he would say
what I'd bet he really believes, which is that while it may be up to the people
of South Carolina to decide the issue, he is personally offended when he sees a
symbol of segregation flying over a public building. If he wanted to be politic
about it, Bush could have said that while he doesn't believe that the flag is
intended as a racist symbol, it is hurtful and divisive to many Americans and
should be hauled down for that reason.
In the short run, criticizing the flag might have led to Bush getting conked
on the head with one of the Bud Light cans visible on the tables where a large
and rowdy audience sat, baying for red meat on guns, gays, and gambling. But
ultimately, I think that finding some way to indicate disagreement with this
unattractive mob would have been both the honorable and the politically shrewd
thing for Bush to do. Bush will almost certainly win the GOP nomination. That
means he should be thinking beyond the nomination. If he wins it with his
tolerant principles held high, he will be in a far stronger position in
relation to the eventual Democratic nominee. Much hinges on Bush's attempt to
cleanse his party of bigotry and reposition it closer to the center. It ought
to be obvious to him that pandering to the revanchist sentiments of a roomful
of boisterous white Southerners--on national television--undermines that
effort.
It was almost funny that just after Bush's pathetic answer, Steve Forbes
put a question to Gary Bauer that accused Al Gore's black campaign manager,
Donna Brazile, of being a racist for criticizing Colin Powell and J.C. Watts in
the course of suggesting that the Republican Party doesn't really care about
blacks. Bauer responded that he shared Forbes' outrage at the way the Democrats
have long "tried to smear our party with accusations of racism." The complaint
about Brazile might have carried more credence at an event where the entire
Republican primary field wasn't so actively sucking up to conventional,
white-on-black racist sentiment.
John McCain turned in what I thought was his worst debate performance to
date. In place of the good nature and quick wit he has shown in all the past,
he was anxious, defensive, and far from lucid. Of course, it probably didn't
help that the first question Williams put to him was about another letter he
sent to the FCC on behalf of a big campaign contributor. McCain tried to change
the subject back to the faults in Bush's tax plan. "George, the America people
are tired of people who make promises about tax cuts they can't keep," he said.
But the fact that McCain's integrity has been called into question made his
aspersions against Bush's honesty look churlish.
McCain's nadir came when Bush cleverly asked Orrin Hatch to explain why
Republicans oppose McCain's campaign-finance-reform plan. Hatch zinged McCain
by saying his Arizona colleague was "starting to sound like an accordion player
who only knows one tune--'Lady of Spain.' " Apparently unsettled by this
effective one-two punch, McCain responded with a rambling compendium of his
most familiar lines on the subject of campaign finance reform culminating in
his repetition of his not very funny joke from last night about how Bush should
get a better picture of McCain for the attack ads running in New Hampshire
(which aren't in fact connected to the Bush campaign).
With his strongest ally, the press, suddenly turned hostile, McCain is
clearly struggling. Luckily, there's an easy way for him to win back the
affection of the news media. All he has to do is call a press conference before
he leaves South Carolina and in no uncertain terms denounce the Confederate
flag.
