Essay-Debate
The presidential debates between democratic President William Clinton and Republican
Senator Robert Dole proved to be a game of "dodge-ball". Bob Dole fired criticism and
attacks while Clinton tried to "dodge" them. Dole attacked him on most of his ideas, and
his tendency to exaggerate. Clinton avoided the lies he made since the 1992 presidential
campaign (brought up by Dole, of course) by revealing all that he accomplished for the
good of the people. Clinton focused on politics at a federal level at home, and tried to
avoid foreign affairs. Dole based his debate on a state or local level. They both had
separate ideas on different topics such as education, taxes, etc. They used these
opposite ideas to attack each other.
The debates went smoothly through the first minutes without a lot of conflict but
shortly into the debate Clinton makes his claim that "The United States is better off now
than it was four years ago". Dole attacks by saying "He's (Clinton) better off than he
was four years ago". Although it cracked a few laughs, it showed how little respect he
has for Clinton and how desperate he is getting to resort to such cheesy remarks. The
first several minutes of the debate had Clinton summarizing all that he has done in the
past four years such as 10.5 million more jobs, the Brady Bill, and Family, Medical, and
educational bills. In turn Dole complains that the United States has stagnant wages, and
that 40% of wages are spent on taxes. On the topic of drug use in the United States
Clinton claimed that cocaine use decreased 30% and crime decreased as well. Dole soon
reacted by saying, rather sarcastically that drug abuse has doubled and for so much money
that has been spent on crime little has changed. Throughout the debates Clinton claims
he has done so much good for the country such as cutting the size of government, and
stimulating economic growth. In return Dole would blame him for exaggerating and
stealing credit for other's work such as governors, senators, etc. Clinton did little
direct attacking but at one point, for example, he criticized Dole's 550 billion dollar
"scheme" to cut Medicare and Social Security.
Clinton and Dole showed very different views on education. Clinton observed education
as dependent on the federal government program for funding. Bob Dole believes that
education should be brought more local, and on a state level. Dole wants to cut all
federal programs and move programs such as Health Care, Medicare, etc., to more of a
state level.
Bill Clinton likes to keep his ideas as well as debates on not only a federal level but
within United States boundaries as well. He tries to avoid foreign affairs as that is an
area of weakness. Bob Dole knows this and he attacks Clinton's policies. He claims that
Clinton handled the situations incorrectly in places such as Haiti, Bosnia, Northern
Ireland, North Korea, and Cuba. He says it has cost the United States billions of
dollars to attempt to keep peace in the world. Clinton had no real answer to the remarks
accept to give little positive outcomes of United States actions in these countries. He
attacked Clinton's defense cuts as well. The President had claimed he would cut 60
billion dollars in defense spending, when in fact he cut 112 million dollars, according
to Dole, but then again who knows.
Clinton and Dole possess very different outlines. Clinton believes in Federal power as
Dole believes in state and local power. Clinton wants to decrease fire arms, reduce
defense, and increase Welfare and Medicare. He plans to further stimulate education and
his health plan. Dole on the other hand wants to increase defense spending, cut taxes on
individuals but increase taxes on a national level, and take power from federal programs
and pump it into state and local power. These are very different ideas which led to a
lot of bickering and attacking of the issues (typical of any presidential debate). They
both show completely different attitudes. To summarize the debate, it can be simply said
that Dole attacked and avoided questions, while Clinton defended himself and directly
addressed the people. For these reasons, Clinton clearly won this debate. Although he
was not great he clearly won more respect from myself and many others.
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