The George and Gerry Show

IF WALTER MONDALE surmounts the odds and upsets President Reagan on November 6, the first Presidential debate will linger in historical memory as a turning point, one of those trail markers that describe the swerving course of any campaign. But history--and probably the average voter--are almost certain to forget last Thursday's dainty joust between Rep. Geraldine A. Ferraro (D-Queens) and Vice-President George Bush.

Both candidates made convincing cases, but they've been doing that on the campaign trail for months now. There was none of the lively interplay that made the Reagan-Mondale meeting so illuminating. Neither side seemed to gain any ground; according to the polls, verdicts on who won the debate split along partisan lines.

Much of the blame for the uninformative debate must lie with the media's influence on modern politics. Bush himself noted that the event was little more than a photo opportunity with a sound track: "We're not talking about a real debate. We're talking about a kind of glorified Sunday new show...the strategy is just to be yourself."

And the most important exchange of the debate, if importance is measured by network news air time, came when Ferraro scolded Bush for his "patronizing" attitude, not when both candidates, in their closing statements, eloquently outlined their visions of the future. The Vice-President had arrogantly told the Queens Democrat he would "help" her with the "difference" between Iran and Lebanon, after she had fumbled the distinction in policy approaches. Perhaps, since this was the first nationally televised encounter featuring a woman office-seeker, the exchange actually was as telling as the networks would have us believe. But we suspect that in England, for instance, where upheavals such as the Watergate crisis are viewed as periodic outbreaks of overblown national hysteria, viewers were shaking their heads and asking: Will Americans ever grow up?

The lack of incisive exchange between the opponents reminded us that the debates are not actually debates, but serial press conferences. A real debate is judged by the campaigns to be too dangerous--there's no telling what outrageous clip the networks might run. That prompted us to think back to the 1858 Lincoln-Douglas debates, when the two U.S. Senate candidates squared off in seven three-hour debates before Illinois crowds as large as 15,000, using no amplification. It's impossible to imagine candidates trained to think in 15-second sound bites in the setting of a real debate.

THERE WERE, HOWEVER, a few things to be learned Thursday night. Ferraro did seem to warm up in her moving closing statement. She echoed Mondale's excellent performance of a week ago, making an attempt to win back some of the God and Country territory annexed by the Republicans over the past three years, and reminding the country that patriotism should have a heart. But, in what may be a bad omen for Mondale, she had difficulty cornering Bush on foreign policy, presenting an unclear synopsis of her view of covert actions, and slipping and sliding over Lebanon, Reagan's biggest liability among foreign issues.

Bush, for his part, defied frightened aides who doubted his debating ability. Although his boast later that he "tried to kick a little ass" was off the mark, the Vice-President's nevertheless aggressive performance probably did more to steady his unsure future than any single political act of his life. But he also showed that Reagan Administration opportunism and deceit aren't confined to the oval office. Claiming that the Administration had expanded the safety net, Bush said that spending on welfare has increased since 1981. "...I am not going be found wrong on that. I am sure of my facts," he said. Ferraro didn't catch him, but The New York Times did, later quoting the Administration's own Office of Management and Budget figures showing that welfare has been cut by $2 billion, food stamps by more than $1.5 billion. It was another example of the Administration's shameless figure-twisting. It was also the sort of figure-twisting that would be more difficult to pull in a real debate.

We're deeply skeptical when George Bush pounds his first on the podium and says the Administration won't stop until the recovery reaches every single American. In his passionate defense of the Reagan record, Bush rang out on Thursday night, but he rang hollow.