Hard to Swallow
Al Gore's campaign headquarters is swamped in suggestions about how he should behave in the first, crucial debate Tuesday in Boston.</br></br>By fax, tape and letter, advice is pouring in. The gist of it: "Be nice--don't try to make Bush look stupid."</br></br>George W. Bush's unsolicited kibitzers are telling him to search for a crushingly simple one-liner like the immortal "There you go again" that Ronald Reagan used against Jimmy Carter in '80. There is a push on the agenda, too. Hundreds of citizens are pelting moderator Jim Lehrer of PBS with ideas.</br></br>One issue needs no champions. It has elbowed its way to the top. You have only to hear Republican candidates voicing their support for a Democratic prescription drug bill that they once voted against to realize what a headache seniors' pills are giving the GOP this fall. Says House Democratic leader Dick Gephardt, "At every stop, it comes up--not just from seniors, but from boomers who take care of their parents."</br></br>Erik Smith, communications director of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, says that in "the two dozen hottest races, prescription drugs is at or near the top."