Debate Provides Little Insight

EASTON, Mass.--In last night's episode of the "Blue Blood Battles," Massachusetts' unprecedented series of eight Senatorial debates, Gov. William F. Weld '66 and Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) did little to move their campaigns out of a dead heat.

Although the candidates, searching for a new look, shed their ties and substituted a group of Bay State voters for the usual panel of journalists, they did little more in the hour-long debate than reiterate their well-known differences.

The issues are clear, and the candidates are holding back no secrets, observers from both sides said.

"The voters understand the differences," said John Martilda, an adviser to the Kerry Campaign, after the debate.

Catherine D. Rucker '99, a Harvard-Radcliffe Republican Alliance member who led a group of Harvard students to last night's debate, agreed.

"There's no real confusion over what they believe," Rucker said.

Each candidate has scored at least one victory in the five previous debates, but pundits said the candidates now know each other too well to deliver any knockout punches.

"If Ali and Frazier fought six times, they too would have known each other well," George F. Will, a national political columnist, said after last night's debate.

While questions from the seven-member panel of voters ran the gamut from crime and drugs to social security and term limits, both candidates focused on discussing tax policy.

A popular Republican in a notoriously liberal state, Weld has based his economic agenda on tax cuts.

Asked by a voter from Beverly how he, a millionaire, could understand the concerns of the "shrinking middle class," the former Adams House resident responded, "Well, I've cut your taxes 15 times."

Weld continued to use his record in the Bay State to deflect criticism of Republican presidential candidate Robert J. Dole's $550 billion tax cut.

And true to form, Kerry charged that Weld's tax cuts were unfair.

"His tax cuts won't go to you," Kerry said. "Mine will."

Except for the candidates' necks, little new could be found in last night's debate.