Election 2000: Tamela Edwards of 'Time' Magazine, Rich Lowry of 'National Review' Discuss Political Terrain Heading Into Debates
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: All right, Daryn, back in this country presidential politics now on the home front. Joining us from New York, time to talk about it with "Time" magazine's Tamela Edwards and Rich Lowry, editor of the "National Review". Good morning to both of you guys.</s>TAMELA EDWARDS, "TIME" MAGAZINE: Good morning.</s>HEMMER: Good to have you back. I'm going to get to the e-mails in a second here. Tamela, quick take on the elections right now, though. Any observations that you're seeing right now, either in general or on the Bush side or Gore side?</s>EDWARDS: Well, I mean, I think we've really seen the terrain defined in terms of swing voters, in terms of middle-class families. And what's more, I think in the next few weeks we're about to have a lot of fun. Of all presidential races in recent memory, I think this one is so neck-and-and-neck, so close, every day is going to be like a roller coaster. I'm really excited and I think the voters are going to find that both campaigns are really working hard for their attention and their votes.</s>HEMMER: Yes, I like your observation. I agree with it in large measure. Rich, what's your thought right now?</s>RICH LOWRY, "NATIONAL REVIEW": Well, Bill, I think the big news is the way the Bush campaign has now fundamentally shifted its message. And over the last year or so, we've had the extraordinary spectacle of a major presidential candidate running for president without really an economic pitch to middle-class Americans. And that has been an extraordinary deficit of the Bush campaign. Now they're playing a little catch-up. Now, over the next few weeks, you'll see Bush trying to explain to middle-class voters why he will be better for their pocketbook than the Gore campaign.</s>HEMMER: And the big push out of Austin is to make sure the issues are lined up and compared as well. I want to get to our e-mails quickly now. Dr. B.J. Harman sends us our first e-mail of today. We'll go ahead and take it right off the screen here, writing: "Why is it that Republicans keep on taking credit for balancing the budget and reducing the deficit while conveniently forgetting that it was 12 years of Presidents Reagan and Bush that took the deficit from less than a trillion to around $4 trillion?" Dr. B.J. Harman with that. Certainly Republicans may have a different take on this e-mail. Rich, jump in. Your answer?</s>LOWRY: Well, sure, I mean, this is one of the main bragging points of Clinton and Gore is how they balanced the budget. But the fact is, they wouldn't have done that without the pressure of Newt Gingrich and the Republican Congress. Republicans paid a tremendous political price in forcing Clinton and Gore to agree to a balanced budget in '95 and '96.</s>HEMMER: All right, another e-mail here, quickly. Back to it now: Quote: "Instead of trotting out the families he's chosen when he talks about his tax cut plan, I wish Mr. Bush would just point to his running mate Mr. Cheney and tell us how much he'd get back under that plan." That's Anne in Oklahoma. Tamela, jump in.</s>EDWARDS: Ouch! I mean, absolutely. I think the governor is now trying to pivot, as Rich pointed out, and find middle-class families who he can say would do better under his plan. It certainly doesn't help him that, you know, the Democrats can turn around and point to Dick Cheney and how much he made in selling those stock options. But that's minor. More important for Bush if he can start moving onto this terrain and saying, these are the families that will do better under my plan, really look at me as a leader not just of the wealthy, and try to undercut Gore's, you know, I'm for the people, he's for the powerful. That's more important than making fun of Dick Cheney.</s>HEMMER: All right, let's get back right at it here. Now, next e-mail comes to us from Jo in Naples, Florida: "If the school voucher system goes forward, where are we going to get the extra teachers and improved infrastructure to accommodate the predictable onslaught?" Again, Jo in Naples, Florida. Rich.</s>LOWRY: Well, the argument for vouchers is based on the premise that the public schools are failing and just spending more money on them isn't going to help. So what you want to do is -- this is primarily a problem in inner-city, urban schools. What you want to do is take the kids that are most in need, minority poor kids, and give them a chance to go to a school that will actually work. And the schools that are working right now in urban areas are not the public schools, they're Catholic and other private schools.</s>HEMMER: Another e-mail now. This one comes to us from Ron Lay. Quoting now off the screen: "Didn't we learn our lesson? Character does count. You would think Al Gore's list of investigations would be enough for us to elect Gov. Bush. Gore is more like Bill Clinton than he lets on. He will do anything to get elected. Tamela, continue this issue for the vice president.</s>EDWARDS: Well, you know, it's interesting, that "didn't we learn our lesson," because, in '96, Bob Dole tried to use that against Bill Clinton. And, unfortunately, I think character for the Republicans is not enough of an issue. I think if you're riding high in other ways, you can sort of use that as an underpinning of a campaign. But as a prime issue, at the end of the day, I think voters want to know who's better for their kids in schools, who's better in terms of their parents and prescription drugs, who's better for a lot of different issues. And just going to character, you get into that dangerous territory of seeming too negative or seeming as if you have no other arrows in your quiver. So I think the governor's been smart to not only try to raise issues of character, but try to move to this middle-class issue terrain.</s>HEMMER: Got one more e-mail got to get to about the debates. But first, Rich, I don't know if you saw the "New York Times" this morning or not, but it appears some of these key battleground states are leaning now toward Al Gore based on local polling, but Ohio seems to hold firm for Gov. Bush.</s>LOWRY: Thank goodness for Ohio, Bill. What would we do without Ohio?</s>HEMMER: I guess the question is I'm wondering what the difference is between these different states because they seem to go really in lockstep with each other on a lot of different fronts.</s>LOWRY: Most of them. You know, this is why I think it's a mistake for the campaigns to try too much to narrowcast their messages to the voters in these states. I mean, these states respond to the national environment. And what's happened over the last three weeks is Gore fundamentally changed that environment. And what Bush has to do over the next two weeks before the first debate is to try to change that environment again. He has his work cut out for him, obviously, because he'll have a lot of static with the Olympic coverage.</s>HEMMER: And just to quote you again, you said "thank goodness for Ohio," right?</s>LOWRY: Exactly.</s>HEMMER: Back to the e-mail again one more time, Brandan Gott out of the University of Toledo, a student now from the Buckeye State, says: "How does anyone expect any third-party views to reach the American public without media coverage. Debates are the best time for the public. They get a sense of differing views, and limiting those views ultimately hurts the Democratic process. What can Americans do to get more people into the debates?" An ongoing issue, Tamela. And when you consider Ralph Nader, Pat Buchanan nowhere near 15 percent right now, they're not going to make the commission debates in October for certain, at least at this point, anyway.</s>EDWARDS: Right. Well, I mean, I think this comes down to the candidates of those other parties themselves. I mean, the Reform Party has doubled this year as a moving circus with the party sort of turning in on itself, and everybody, I would think, would feel a little queasy about any candidate from that party showing up in the debate. And Nader just has not gotten over the bar in terms of the amount of the electorate he's pulling, again, to the debates. I think it will take someone of the stature of a John McCain or otherwise who goes for a third-party bid -- maybe a Jesse Ventura -- and pulls enough of the public attention to match up to what Ross Perot did a few years ago where this person has to be let into the debates. Rich, final comment. Five seconds.</s>LOWRY: Well, I think the 15 percent barrier is a little too high. I would like to see at least one debate that just includes all these guys because Buchanan and Nader hit issues that the other two parties just don't, and I think they're worth hearing from.</s>HEMMER: We're out of time, but thanks. Rich Lowry, Tamela Edward, come on back, all right?</s>EDWARDS: Thanks.</s>LOWRY: Thanks for having us.</s>HEMMER: Good deal. Bye-bye.</s>DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Out of time but we got Ohio in there.</s>HEMMER: How about that?</s>KAGAN: Got to do that.</s>HEMMER: What have I been telling you for three years now?</s>KAGAN: All roads lead to Ohio.</s>HEMMER: All roads come back to Ohio.</s>KAGAN: Especially Cincinnati.</s>HEMMER: You got it.