On October 11, 2000, in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Vice President Al Gore and Governor George W. Bush, Jr., participated in the second presidential debate for Decision 2000. These two men went head to head on public issues. The candidates answered questions for the sole purpose of showing the people of the United States who was the stronger leader. After reviewing the debates one can easily state Mr. Gore won by strongly and directly answering questions posed, of an avoidance of red herrings and a firm, correct use of facts.Mr. Gore used a direct and strong approach when answering questions asked of him, while at times Mr. Bush failed to directly answer the questions. For example when Mr. Gore was asked to respond to the subject of young Americans without health insurance, he answered very clearly by saying he would like to see an expansion of the CHIPs program through out the country. Mr. Bush was asked to respond to figures set forth by Mr. Gore regarding Texass failure to enroll children in the CHIP program. Instead of answering this question directly, he responded by stating Mr. Gore was for a government run health care system. Mr. Bush went on to give numbers reflecting what Texas had spent on heath care, but he still failed to answer whether or not Texas was ranked 49th in child health care. Mr. Lehrer asked the two candidates to express their differences concerning environmental concerns Mr. Gore answered by telling the people what his objectives were. Once again, Mr. Bush falls short of a direct answer by saying he is for local control and not big government. He failed to state his stance on environmental concerns. In both of these answers, Mr. Gore was able to answer in a sharp and frank manner, while Mr. Bush was unable to get the questions answered. While Mr. Gore stuck to the topics, Mr. Bush used red herrings instead of addressing the issues. The candidates were asked to respond to civil right problems ...
