woman, and she was applauded. Bush kept staring straight ahead into space, and the
hostility of the crowd was focussing more and more on him.
Reagan started to speak, motivating why the debate should be opened up. Editor Breen, a
rubbery-looking hack with a bald pate and glasses, piped up: "Turn Mr. Reagn's
microphone off." There was pandemonium. "You Hitler!" screamed a man in the front
row right at Breen.
Reagan replied: "I'm paying for this microphone, Mr. Green." The crowd broke out in
wild cheers. Bush still stared straight ahead in his temper tantrum. Reagan spoke on to
ask that the others be included, saying that exclusion was unfair. But he was unsure of
himself, looking to Nancy Reagan for a sign as to what he should do. At the end Reagan
said he would prefer an open debate, but that he would accept the bilateral format if that
were the only way.
With that the other candidates left the podium in a towering rage. "There'll be another
day, George," growled Bob Dole.
Reagan and Bush then debated, and those who were still paying attention agreed that
Bush was the loser. A staff member later told Bush, "The good news is that nobody paid
any attention to the debate. The bad news is you lost that, too."
But most people's attention, and the camera teams, had shifted to a music room where the
ejected hopefuls were uniformly slamming Bush. Anderson asserted that "Clearly the
responsibility for this whole travesty rests with Mr. Bush." "He refused to even come
back here and talk." Howard Baker called Bush's behavior "the most flagrant attempt to
return to the closed door I've ever seen." Baker was beside himself: "The punkest
political device I ever saw!" "He wants to be king, " raged Bob Dole. "I have never been
treated this way in my life. Where do we live? Is this America? So far as George Bush is
concerned he'd better find another Republican Party if he can't talk to those of us who
come up here." "He didn't want us to debate. He can't provide leadership for the
Republican Party with that attitude," Dole kept repeating.
Film footage of Reagan grabbing the microphone while Bush stewed in his temper
tantrum was all over local and network television for the next 48 hours. It was the
epiphany of a scoundrel.
Now the Bush damage control apparatus went into that mode it finds so congenial: lying.
A radio commercial was prepared under orders from James Baker for New Hampshire
stations: here an announcer, not Bush, intoned that "at no time did George Bush object to
a full candidate forum. This accusation by the other candidates is without foundation
whatsoever."
Walter Cronkite heard a whining voice from Houston Texas as he interviewed Bush on
his new program: "I wanted to do what I agreed to do," said the whine. "I wanted to
debate with Ronald Reagan."