Congratulations to George W. Bush

"That is also a role the press has assumed [to "smell" fear in a candidate]. And as character analysis has gained currency in campaign reporting, the relationship between journalists and candidates has taken on more and more significance. To reporters, the way politicians behave toward us has become its own key character test. How comfortable are they with the media? How genuine? How nimble? How scripted?"

Craig Gilbert, from the American Journalism Review, March 2000

"Journalists created John McCain (one of his top campaign aides candidly called the media McCain's 'base') in their own self-image-almost supernaturally honest and virtuous and witty and irreverent-and they worshiped their creation. So it was perhaps to be expected that the McCain episode, being largely an artifact of the media, would wind up absurdly overanalyzed and preposterously overinvested with epochal significance."

George Will, Washington Post, March 9

Having been hammered in primaries from New York to Ohio to California, Sen. John McCain, the self-described Luke Skywalker of Campaign 2000, grudgingly conceded that his warp drive was out of commission and that all that remained to power the "Straight Talk Express" were impulse engines. Officially, the day after "Super Tuesday," he "suspended" his campaign. For a cool dude like McCain, his vow that the-crusade-goes-on is much edgier than something as simple as throwing his support behind GOP presidential nominee pro-life Texas Gov. George W. Bush in what will no doubt be a titanic struggle against pro-abortion Vice President Al Gore.

A few diehards, we're told, continue to counsel McCain to ponder other self-destructive options. Much of that ill-advised advice no doubt comes from his remaining consiglieris in the press. That McCain is reportedly a bitter man, convinced that somehow the prize was unfairly snatched from his all-too-deserving hands, illustrates the mammoth self-delusion that made it inevitable that his GOP presidential campaign would flame out.

How the media covered Gov. Bush's near-sweep on "Super Tuesday" [all but four New England states] is a very useful reminder that pro-lifers had better be prepared to roll up their sleeves and work harder than ever. For the most part, the media's story line is that as we now move into the general election phase (a) Bush is "weaker" than Gore - - a function of his having tacked "right" the last month - - and, therefore, (b) Bush will now quickly race "toward the middle" - - which likely will prove difficult to pull off having "pandered" to the "fundamentalists" and the "anti-abortionists," and other assorted riff-raff. And it'll get worse.

What to say, what to do? Couple of things.

First, the above conventional wisdom was completely off the mark but understandable: how else to vent their spleen at the loss of their favorite candidate? Yet one aspect of most press accounts the morning after Super Tuesday was absolutely on target. Mr. Bush will be a better candidate.

No, not because he will be a far sharper debater, although he obviously benefited from the spirited exchanges with his Republican rivals. And no, not because he learned that falling from the top can be a useful experience provided you learn the right lessons, although clearly Mr. Bush showed far more agility than most people had given him credit for.

No, far from being "weaker," George W. Bush will be a far more formidable candidate this fall because he survived an attack that would have unsaddled a less determined, less self-confident candidacy. Be assured, jousting with McCain was good practice for hand-to-hand combat with Al Gore. Why?

Simply because Gore holds a richly deserved black belt in demagoguery. Watching him systematically dismantle a hapless Bill Bradley, you couldn't help but feel sorry for a man who never saw the blows coming until it was far too late.

Truth is, had he studied for even half a nanosecond the slash-and-burn thuggery that is Gore's modus operandi, Bradley would have anticipated that Gore's verbal karate chops would be aimed straight at the throat, his kicks never higher than just below the belt.

McCain's self-pitying diatribes grew more numerous as his prospects plunged. George Will hit the nail on the head when he wrote, "By Monday, the last day of John McCain's plausibility as a presidential candidate, his campaign had become a protracted snarl. Time and television had done their work, and the nation had seen him steadily and seen him whole, and had seen an angry man."

But the silver lining for Gov. Bush is that McCain's increasingly vituperative jabs, his bouts of vindictive rhetoric and "poor-me" appeals to victim-status represented a kind of junior varsity version of what Mr. Bush will be up against when he faces the A team in the months to come. Like McCain, Gore loves to attack and then feign indignation when his victim dares to respond. Like McCain, when/if things go bad, the assaults will get more and more personal, more and more intemperate.

Through all the ups and downs of the next eight months, never forget that Al Gore will say or do anything to be our next President.

Second, most reporters require a template - - a grid, model, formula, paradigm, call it what you will - - to organize their coverage. In many ways, that is perfectly acceptable. The trouble comes when they begin to believe their own creations.

Bush never "tacked right" beginning in South Carolina. That media blather originated in the fertile mind of John McCain, a charge which was eagerly picked up by most of the press as a multi-purpose tool to build up McCain and to tear down Bush.

Likewise, McCain's disgraceful tactic of trying to pit Catholics against Evangelicals (again joyfully amplified by his buddies in the press) worked briefly in Michigan. But labeling Gov. Bush as obliquely anti-Catholic was bound to fall of its own weight. Why? Because the slander hadn't an ounce of truth to it. Ask his brother Jeb, who is Catholic, or a host of prominent Catholics around the country who defended George W. Bush against these baseless charges.

But the attacks served to remind Republicans in general and Gov. Bush in particular that Catholics are a pivotal voting bloc. If the Al Gores of this world are allowed to get away with slandering the George W. Bushes of this world, it would be curtains next November. But the good news is that, judging by the exit polls from New York, Ohio, California, and elsewhere, Catholics appreciate the truth about Gov. Bush.

One big challenge down, another far more difficult one to come.

I have total confidence that both Gov. Bush and pro-lifers will be up to the challenge.

Be sure to come to "Today's News & Views" for continuing updates at www.nrlc.org. And, whatever else you do, please give gift subscriptions to National Right to Life News, the "pro-life newspaper of record."

dave andrusko (dha1245@juno.com)