The bore and the dutiful

So it is between Vice President Al Gore and Governor George W.Bush of Texas. A loser throughout, former Senator Bill Bradley is officially...

So it is between Vice President Al Gore and Governor George W.Bush of Texas. A loser throughout, former Senator Bill Bradley is officiallyout of the nomination race. Senator John McCain of Arizona has suspended hiscampaign after last week8217;s super Tuesday debacle. But the truth is there inthe primary colours: the good ones have lost, and the just competent and themediocre have prevailed. A Vietnam prisoner, a war-scarred veteran, aWashington insider who could package himself as an outsider who wanted toend the triangular tyranny of lobbyists, legislatures and money, McCain wasthe straightalking reformer. His stand on all-American themes like abortionand gun control and his audacity to take on the religious right were sweetnews to even Republican moderates. But he outplayed himself out. Unlike BillBradley, who underplayed himself out. Too authentic to be a campaigner, heon the stump looked like a man from the textbook. The primaries are such atest that the should-have-been candidates invariably fail it. Hence noMcCain, no Bradley, but the untested, and the visibly vacuous, Bush and theexperienced, and the plainly familiar, Gore.

Bush junior is truly his father8217;s son as far as his political IQ goes. Inthe beginning he was that likeable Republican of compassionateconservatism8217;. In the face of the McCain mauling, he has lost thecompassion. A hardened Bush sought to enlarge his conservatism not bycourting new ideas or slogans but by fleeing from the centre and thus endingup in the far right, most notably symbolised by his appearance at Bob JonesUniversity, a fundamentalist Christian centre. He is ambiguous on guncontrol or abortion, his idea of tax-cut is so pro-rich, and nobody knowswhat his foreign policy is, most probably he himself doesn8217;t know. Bush is avapid testament to the Republican stagnation. No more grand ideas for thepost-Reagan GOP Newt Gingrich was only an ephemeral interlude. And thereis not much to read from Bush junior8217;s lips too. Of his Democraticchallenger, it will be too uncharitable to say that Gore8217;s entire politicalexperience is limited to lip-reading his boss. The repackaged Gore has amind of his own, and certainly his experience as one of the best veeps inrecent presidential history makes him more presidential than hisopponent.

On themes like America abroad, information, environment, abortion and guncontrol, he is honestly liberal. Now both Bush and Gore are struggling forthe political centre.

The centre is occupied by the third, and the most defining, candidate, who,for constitutional reasons, won8217;t be president ever again. Yes, Bill Clintonis that candidate, and his legacy is what concentrates the campaign mind ofboth Bush and Gore. Bush wants to bring the exiled dignity back to the OvalOffice. Gore wants to carry forward the Clinton agenda without theClintonian characteristics. But Clinton, the president of post-ideology, isthe New Democrat made newer by taking the best from the Republican book. Heis the conqueror of the centrist position, and his social security plank ishard to reject for any Republican who wants to be president. In the absenceof a Republican with a competent brain, Al Gore the Democrat seems to bemore qualified to occupy the Oval Office. He has the dignity, if not thegrit.