For a mystique of leadership

THE POLITICAL MANAGEMENT of the present phenomenal macro-level economic prosperity in the United States is being projected by the Democratic presidential nominee - the Vice-President, Mr. Al Gore - as the real issue in the ongoing race for the White House. By appearing to let this impression gain currency during the first televised debate of the campaign process, the Republican Party's candidate, Mr. George Bush, has also allowed the current contest to be viewed as the quest for some form of a mystique of presidential leadership that could sustain and enhance the overall American economic boom. Despite his suspected unfamiliarity with foreign affairs, Mr. Bush is generally reckoned to have fared reasonably well in the second debate on October 11 by sparring with Mr. Gore on how the U.S. must exercise power on the world stage. Overall, therefore, the competition has now acquired a sharp edge in a reversal of a lacklustre phase in the electoral season. Mr. Bush, as the Grand Old Party's mantle-bearer of ``compassionate conservatism'', erased some of the criticism about his alleged penchant for malapropism by a confident showing during the latest televised interrogation. Mr. Bush had indeed caught up with the Vice- President by the time of the first face-to-face electronic encounter with him after having of course lost an early and persistent lead over Mr. Gore. However, the score-card from now on until the day of judgment by the American voters will bear little reference to the earlier conclusions by the pollsters.

Predictably, the ebb and flow of the overall campaign trends pertain to the intimate issues of present-day concern to the U.S. citizens - competitive tax cuts in an era of general prosperity, health care as a generic proposition, the cost of prescription drugs, the well-being of the elderly, the future lifestyles of the one-time baby-boom generations and so on. Not surprisingly, Mr. Bush may have had little choice but to let Mr. Gore take the first lead in setting the paradigm parameters of this poll, namely the issue of supervising the economic surpluses from the Federal Government's vantage position in a huge and diverse society that will continue to be driven by the motive force of private enterprise. It is in the definitive political space available to a future President in this sphere that Mr. Bush is now seeking to draw out Mr. Gore for an old-style battle of wits over state-interventionism and big government in regard to the lives of the citizens. It is a bait that the Vice-President has largely brushed aside, despite being categorical about his preference for a ``social security plus'' regime on a welfare issue with a specific meaning and about the continuing relevance of activist governance in the emerging post-modern era.

Although Mr. Bush and Mr. Gore have been quizzed on domestic and foreign policy issues, the spotlight still lingers on the more basic attributes of their political styles. Mr. Gore had suffered in the beginning on account of some popular perceptions or innuendoes that the best he could offer was only as an appendage to Mr. Bill Clinton as the President. If Mr. Gore successfully rode out that phase, thanks in part to his own message to the Democratic nominating convention, Mr. Bush thereafter regained some lost ground as the Vice-President came in for criticism for seemingly embellishing the appealing aspects of his trumpeted empathy for the ordinary Americans. Mr. Gore's alleged association with some murky campaign finance deals of the past has also forced him on the defensive to the point of insisting that the present contest is about policies and not political attacks on the personalities. Yet, a poser for the Republicans despite Mr. Bush's latest appeals to the `discerning Democrats' is whether Mr. Gore can win what may in reality be a statute- barred third successive term for a Clinton presidency.

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