The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Good evening, I'm Elizabeth Farnsworth. Jim Lehrer is on vacation. On the "NewsHour" tonight: As kids return to class across the country, we look at school safety at Columbine High and elsewhere; plus, a Margaret Warner follow- up on the Iowa straw poll, and a David Gergen dialogue about the natural talents of women. It all follows our summary of the news this Monday.

NEWS SUMMARY

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Lamar Alexander pulled out of the 2000 Republican presidential campaign today. The former Tennessee governor said he based his decision on his poor showing in this weekend's Iowa Republican straw poll. He finished sixth out of nine candidates. The non-binding poll was viewed by many as the first electoral test of the presidential campaign. Alexander spoke at a news conference in Nashville.

LAMAR ALEXANDER: What makes it hard for me to continue is waking up every day to report that George W. Bush is already elected and that Lamar Alexander has no chance to win. Maybe that's true. But after it's been repeated every day for a few months, it's more likely to be true. And it makes it virtually impossible to raise money, and when that happens, you can't continue. So I'm not a big conspiracy person, I have no excuses, I take responsibility for the campaign. I'm here to look ahead, not to look back and to compliment those who are still in. I'm just trying to face facts and I think I faced them honestly today.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: We'll have more on the straw poll later in the program. Columbine High School reopened for a new term today. It was the first day of classes at the Denver-area school since a shooting and bombing rampage there last April. Two thousand students held a take-back- the-school rally before classes and then entered the building to the cheers and applause of parents and friends. Twelve students, a teacher, and two teenaged gunmen died in the massacre. We'll have more on the return to Columbine right after the News Summary. In Los Angeles today, the North Valley Jewish Community Center reopened. It had been closed since a gunman shot five people ere, including three small children, last week. President Clinton urged military veterans today to actively support his diplomatic agenda. He asked them to pressure Congress to pass his foreign affairs operations budget and restore $2 billion in cuts the House made. The legislation funds programs to control nuclear proliferation and implement peace in the Middle East, among other things. He spoke at the 100th Anniversary Convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars in Kansas City.

PRESIDENT CLINTON: Under funding our arsenal of peace is as risky as under funding our arsenal for war, for if we continue to under fund diplomacy, we will end up overusing our military. Problems we might have been able to resolve peacefully will turn into crises we can only resolve at a cost of life and treasure. If this trend continues, there will be real consequences for important American interests.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Overseas, Russia's Lower House of Parliament, the Duma, confirmed President Yeltsin's choice of Vladimir Putin as prime minister today. The former KGB agent became the country's fifth prime minister in 17 months. The Duma also adopted a resolution calling for prompt and severe measures to quash an uprising in the southern region of Dagestan. Russian troops have clashed there with Islamic militants for ten days. Jets and helicopters have attacked villages believed to be rebel strongholds. In Africa, the formerly allied forces of Rwanda and Uganda battled each other today with heavy weapons and mortars in the Eastern Congolese City of Kisangani. The countries are backing rival rebel factions seeking to overthrow President Laurent Kabila in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The rebels have been in a year-long fight to oust Kabila. In the business news today, Alcoa, the world's largest aluminum maker, took its offer to buy Reynolds Metals directly to the company's shareholders. The hostile takeover bid came after Reynolds' board of directors rejected Alcoa's $5.6 billion offer yesterday. Also, the television ratings firm, Nielsen Media Research, said it was being purchased by Dutch publisher VNU for $2.7 billion. And that's it for the News Summary tonight. Now, it's on to Columbine and school safety, after the Iowa straw poll, and a Gergen dialogue.

FOCUS - RETURN TO COLUMBINE

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: A two-part look at school safety. Tom Bearden begins with the reopening of Columbine High School near Littleton, Colorado.

SPOKESMAN: (yelling) Good morning, Columbine!

TOM BEARDEN: Columbine High's first day of the new school year began with a rally.

MIKE SHEEHAN, Student Body President, Columbine High School: Although we were surrounded by terror and destruction, we still stood strong. We have prevailed. We have overcome. Each of us is the spirit of Columbine. Welcome home, rebels!

TOM BEARDEN: The theme was "Take Back the School."

FRANK DeANGELIS, Principal, Columbine High School: I challenge you to make new friends. I would encourage you to eat lunch with someone you do not know. You go up, you talk to someone you've never met. I think that it is so important that everyone feels a part of the Columbine family. At this time let's cut the ribbon and raise the flag; it's time to begin classes. We are back! (cheers and applause)

TOM BEARDEN: But the memories of the hail of gunfire that came from Eric Harris and Dillon

Kliebold are still fresh -- and some students -- like Elizabeth and Rebecca Lee -- anticipated an anxious first day.

TOM BEARDEN: What kind of thoughts will go through your mind when you walk through those doors?

ELIZABETH LEE: I don't know.

REBECCA LEE: I'll probably be like watching everybody else's reaction to see what they'll do. I think most people will be uptight about it all, going back to school, and then after a couple of weeks they'll stop and they'll just get on with their life. That's what I think most people will do.

ELIZABETH LEE: I'll be nervous because on that day it was all normal, no one expected anything, and you're not going to expect anything at school, but now you do. And so you're going to definitely be nervous about what's going to happen.

TOM BEARDEN: Columbine will be a different place from this day forward. There are 16 additional surveillance cameras. Five armed security guards will patrol the grounds 24 hours a day for at least a month after school begins; access to the school will be limited to just five doors; there will be a new keyless entry system for after-hours access; and students and staff will be required to wear I.D. badges at all times. The Salerno family, whose daughter Laurel and her friend Matt Houck will be sophomores, think school officials are on the right track.

DIANE SALERNO: It is really hard to send your kid off to school after something like this has happened. And just knowing there is more of an adult presence in the school, that there are more people there that might be able to help them and protect them makes me feel better.

CHARLES SALERNO: And there is certainly going to be more adults within the school, teachers, personnel, and the security forces, themselves. They are going to have a more judicious eye on what is going on and a more proactive, preventative role than before. There is a realization that this is not the end all answer.

TOM BEARDEN: Laurel thinks her classmates will be more comfortable knowing the measures are in place.

LAUREL SALERNO: I think that the security precautions are adequate, I think they are pretty good. The security cameras that have been added, I think that will help a little bit. I think that will help the student body to feel safer.

TOM BEARDEN: But not everyone agrees. Elizabeth and Rebecca Lee's mother thinks security can be taken too far.

RACHEL LEE: I've heard kids say that they're afraid that schools are going to be like a jail, like a prison. I think if you tell a child, you have to wear something on you that shows you who you are, I think it does a lot to create

that prison-like atmosphere. And I don't know that it would have been a deterrent in the shooting, even if we

had them last year. I don't know that a lot of the things that they're going to do are going to be a deterrent.

TOM BEARDEN: Jefferson County School Superintendent Jane Hammond says she doesn't want the school to become a prison either.

JANE HAMMOND, Jefferson County School Superintendent: We will have additional supervision and supports for the students, but we're not interested in making it a prison or a fortress. We want our kids to feel like it's a safe environment and to make it as safe as we can. But even in a prison, bad things can happen.

TOM BEARDEN: Last week, a special task force told the school board that some of Columbine's new security measures ought be considered for all of the districts high schools and middle schools. But some board members have doubts.

DAVE DiGIOCOMO, Jefferson County School Board Member: Is this a knee-jerk reaction where we say that we have to do something because we're in trauma over this -- we have to do something because we have a public clamoring for it? Or are we really doing this because it is reasonable or necessary for the protection of young people in our schools?

SERGIO GONZALEZ, Columbine Student: We don't know if all of these things would have stopped Eric and Dylan from doing what they had done. But, that doesn't stop us from trying to make decisions that can change our schools because we're living in a new era and a new time and students, especially myself, we know that now.

TOM BEARDEN: The school board will decide on Thursday whether to increase security at other schools. Superintendent Hammond hopes the board can strike a balance between security and learning.

JANE HAMMOND: We must have schools feel safe to the kids and to the community. But we also have to focus on learning. And we don't want to have just safe schools, but we want to have safe schools where students can learn. And so it's a balance how much time, resource, and energy goes to safety, how much goes to increasing student learning.

TOM BEARDEN: Elizabeth and Rebecca's father, State Representative Don Lee, thinks too much focus on security is shortsighted. He started his own community task force after the shooting. The group of more than 50 parents and students are calling for what they term cultural changes in the district. Rep. Lee says a new moral code, one that might include posting the Ten Commandments in classrooms, is part of the answer.

DON LEE: We feel that there has to be a, a real change of the community, not just buy some things and walk away. We feel that the change has to be a cultural one, both in the community environment and the school environment.

TOM BEARDEN: His group has proposed a stricter dress code, and wants to pass legislation that will give parents access to a list of books their kids check out of the school library -- access they don't have now. The school system has pursued other measures in response to the murders. Last April some students said athletes had harassed outcast students like Harris and Kliebold. In response, the school administration has required coaches to attend seminars

like this one, which are supposed to teach them how to identify and deal with bullying by their athletes.

BILL KOWALSKI, Lawyer, Jefferson County: That is the perception being created when the friends of the shooters report that they hated the jocks. They were looking to shoot the jocks. Why? Because they were the ones who picked on us. That is why it is so important for the coaches to hear this message. You have got to encourage your athletes to talk to you about these issues. You have got to be prepared to listen to them. You have got to assure the athletes and the students in your schools that if they engage in these discussions with you, if they tell us what's going on, we will do something about it.

TOM BEARDEN: Some coaches felt that athletes were being unfairly blamed for the actions of others.

JIM SMITH, Head Football Coach, Jefferson High School: There is a perception out there of what goes on in High School Athletics and I think it is a lot different that what really goes on.

JIM BRATTON, Football Coach, Standley Lake High School: The term "jock" in school vernacular anymore is not just kids that play sports. Jock is anybody that is mainstream; anybody that's part of the system, that doesn't fight the system is a jock. Anybody who does not fight the system is a jock. Anybody that dresses in a normal accepted way by adults is a jock. You are not a jock if you buck the system, if you fight the system. So the term "jock" has taken on a much broader meaning than it did for you and I.

REPORTER: Is it an easy scapegoat? I mean, is it an easy way to -

JIM BRATTON: Oh, yes. I was the dean of students for two and a half years at another school. And they would say, well, this Jock is picking on me. I'd talk to the kid and he was drama kid or he was band kid. So it had nothing to do with athletics. So I think the term "jock" and athletics has become synonymous -- but in our students' mind they are not; they're different.

TOM BEARDEN: Meanwhile, other public and private agencies are trying to help students cope with the tragedy.

They've opened a support facility called the Columbine Connection, where students and parents can talk to a

counselor. They also operate a teen recreation center three days a week. Local churches got involved, too. The West Bowles Community Church has a 180-member youth group, which includes 45 Columbine students.

PASTOR DAVE McPHERSON, West Bowles Community Church: Make sure that every time they throw something a little goofy, you guys let out a big roar.

TOM BEARDEN: Youth Pastor Dave McPherson says they've staged camping trips and other outings to keep kids busy.

PASTOR DAVE McPHERSON: I've had a few kids say that they don't want to go back and I've heard that home school enrollment has gone up and things like that. I don't think that is really true with Columbine kids. I think they do want to go back. That's their school and they don't want to give up. I mean they see this as something that they really do want to fight for. That's their school. They don't want to go to Chatville or Bear Creek or these other schools.

TOM BEARDEN: Last night, McPherson and the group discussed how to cope with issues raised by the tragedy.

PASTOR DAVE McPHERSON: Are we trying to say that these two guys were absolutely hopeless? Of course not. There are Erics and Dylans in here; they could have easily gone the same path. But we believe that maybe we have found something. Talk about that. How are you going to reach out to an Eric and a Dylan in your school?

YOUNG GIRL: Become more personable with them, befriend them on a more personable level and make sure they know that someone cares about them.

ANOTHER YOUNG GIRL: You totally have to want to talk to them. You never go up to someone and be like, I feel sorry for you that is why I am talking to you.

TOM BEARDEN: Laurel Salerno and her friend Matt Houck are convinced they can take back their school, and even think it'll be a better place in the future.

LAUREL SALERNO: I think the students at Columbine are more like a family now. And I think we are going to be a lot more careful about what we say to each other. And we are just going to watch what people say. You know, if there's something that's eerie, I think kids will, you know, call a hotline. And so I think measures are going to be taken more seriously, yet we are all going to be more like a family.

MATT HOUCK: I think we will have a lot more respect for each other and just be a lot nicer to each other. I mean we are still going to have our own little cliques because nothing is going to stop that - because that is just how we feel. But I think if there is different cliques that we will still be nice and we won't just blow them off in the halls. We will be able to say hi and just be courteous to them and just have a lot more respect for each other.

TOM BEARDEN: Do you think there will be fewer outcasts?

MATT HOUCK: I think so, yes. And I don't want to make it sound like now we will be nice to them because we are afraid of them or something. It is not like that.

TOM BEARDEN: And so some two thousand Colorado High school kids return to a freshly repaired building and try to move on after the worst incident of school violence in American history -- even as the national debate continues over how to keep it from happening again somewhere else.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: The Columbine shootings came on the heels of school killings last year in Springfield, Oregon, and Jonesboro, Arkansas, among others. In Springfield, a 15-year-old killed two students and wounded 19; and in Jonesboro, a 13- and an 11-year-old shot four classmates and a teacher. Now, we take a wider look at school safety around the country. Joining us are four public school superintendents from across the country: David Hornbeck from Philadelphia, Rod Paige from Houston, Kate Stetzner from Butte, Montana, and Daniel Domenech from Fairfax County, in Northern Virginia, outside of Washington, DC.

Rod Paige, what are you doing in Houston to improve school safety?

ROD PAIGE: First of all, we adopt an attitude that safety is important; a core value of an independent school district court is safety above all else. It didn't just begin the last couple of months, or last couple of years. It might be an attitude that goes throughout the entire structure of the organization. These add-on programs with increased security and things like that now are important, but there must be some structural part of the system that speaks to safety.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: What kind of add-on programs have you done, though, in the past year or so?

ROD PAIGE: Well, we obviously have done some of that. We've increased the number of police officers, we've increased their routine, we've added some metal detectors and those types of things. But they will only be effective if they are a part of an overall program that involves in instructional program and other aspects of the district operations.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Kate Stetzner, what changes have you made in Butte?

KATE STETZNER: What we've done since we've experienced a school shooting ourselves in 1994 with a ten-year-old bringing a gun to school as we have a district-wide plan and a district-wide plan makes it mandatory every school have school safety at the top of their goals for the year. We have SRO officers, and this year for the first time every classroom teacher will have a packet in the classroom that is designed for every kind of crisis situation that could possibly happen and what they need to do a how they need to proceed. We also are very much into mentorship programs and community SRO officers.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: What are SRO officers?

KATE STETZNER: School resource officers, police officers on duties, not just at the high school or middle school level, but at all schools.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Go ahead.

KATE STETZNER: And finally, we're looking at mentorship programs. We truly know that kids do well if they can trust a caring adult. And so we' looking at connecting many of our people into our community of schools in all of our schools throughout our district.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: David Hornbeck, what changes have you made in Philadelphia?

DAVID HORNBECK: Three different kinds. One are the short-term measures, the walk-through metal detectors, the increase in school police, places that we can send kids that have been disruptive, both on a short-term basis, long term; a whole host of things like that, and they've actually resulted in 51 percent decrease in robberies and a 36 percent decrease in firearms violations over the last three years. But the issue of culture is an important one, too. And so we've divided our 259 schools into schools within schools, small learning communities, two to four hundred kids in each one so that parents and kids and teachers can really come to know each other and in important new ways. We created lots more after-school activities. But the third thing that I would say is that if we improve the academic success of kids, who have not known success, I think that's going to make a huge impact on the kind of disruptive behavior, the responses in terms of violence and hurting other kids. We have very little problem with youngsters in the Philadelphia School District who are enjoying success in reading and math and science and are being promoted and graduating on time. So it's short term, it's long term, and it's changing that place where adults and kids relate, trying to reduce the anonymity, eliminate the isolation kids feel, listen to them; hear their own grief, hear their own loss that they find in routine ways.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Daniel Domenech, what about in Fairfax County, Virginia?

DANIEL DOMENECH: We're trying to learn from Columbine and some of these other incidents and focus on children that tend to fall through the cracks, children that tend to become isolated. And here is where mentor programs we think are very critical. And this coming September we have program called Mentor Works, whose target is to me sure that all 150,000 children in the Fairfax school system have a responsible adult that's watching and caring for them. And we think that that is very important. Beyond that, we have a comprehensive array of preventive measures. We also have school resource officers in all of our high schools and middle schools. We have a manual that all our staff will see this September where they come in with a step-by-step procedure as to what to do whatever the incident happens to be. So, in general, summarizing what we have heard already, we tend to have all of those programs. But what we're trying to do, as we heard the superintendent at Columbine say before, is to maintain an atmosphere in our schools that is conducive to learning where the kids feel safe and secure, the parents and staff.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Your schools are probably not unlike the Columbine School, right?

DANIEL DOMENECH: Very similar, correct.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: But you have not put in new metal detectors, you haven't closed doors, you are not using see-through backpacks, which some schools I know are using. You are not doing any of that. Why?

DANIEL DOMENECH: We are not doing any of that. We have not put any cameras, metal detectors, anything. We're focusing at this point in the preventive measures.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Why? Why didn't you do any of that?

DANIEL DOMENECH: Because unlike Columbine, which has to react in terms of making sure that everybody feels safe, we haven't had that type of an incident here, and we're doing everything we can to make sure that it doesn't happen. But, as long as it doesn't, we want to maintain that freedom that I think is important for the children and the parents to feel.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Rod Paige, what about that in Houston? How do you decide how much security is just too much, that you're going to really clamp down too much on an open educational atmosphere that you want, too?

ROD PAIGE: Well, it's a difficult decision to make. But we can take the attitude that it can happen here. So we've got to make sure we're on guard every minute. The key thing, we think, is having a system that pays attention to children. The students feel that people care about them and pay attention to them and all of these other things that we can add around the periphery will be good. But structurally the program and system must be operating in such a way that students feel that there's a quality adult relationship in their lives.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Have you had to do some of these more extreme measures, like use clear backpacks, demand that people use clear backpacks? And do you have quite a lot of metal detectors in your schools?

ROD PAIGE: Absolutely. We have some of that. And it's a school-by -school decision. We have a lot of site-based decision-making here in Houston. And some schools choose to do that, and others choose not to do that. But we have some fundamental parts that every school must take part in. We have a very highly effective police operation. It is an operation of qualified Texas peace officers. That's an HISD police force. So we do some of all of it. One of the things too we think is more effective than anything else is we are very aggressive about moving disruptive students into a environment that can help them better.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Kate Stetzner, how would you answer the question that the school board member posed in the piece before this discussion? He said are these new security measure a knee-jerk reaction because the public's clamoring for it, or are we really doing this because it's reasonable or necessary for the protection of young people in the schools?

KATE STETZNER: Well, I'd answer by telling you that we have 16,000 school districts in this country, and they are very, very safe. We have less than 1 percent of homicide episodes taking place today. I would answer by pleading with the media to help us and to become part of this whole orchestration of looking at trusting feelings for one another. I would say that what we need to do is say please bear with us and don't show all of the fear factors that would be there for children to look at frightening things that could happen in schools, but go towards what we can do to make sure that we have caring and trusting and responsible adults that work with children, and that we look at red flags and early warning signs that would help children as opposed to putting devices in school systems. So we make sure that we have a values system that's clear with how adults value children.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: So just briefly, Ms. Stetzner, would you say given the fact schools are mostly pretty safe, there could be a big overreaction happening here?

KATE STETZNER: Well, I don't think it's an overreaction. Anytime something has happened in the magnitude that happened there, we never can overreact. But what we need to do is be very gentle with the way that we deal with what's happening and make sure that we don't turn our schools into prisons and make sure we ask all of these services that work with children, from law enforcement to mental health services to medical professions, to come in and join us and invite them into our schools to work with us, to help resolve the problems together as opposed to leaving us out there as an island.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Mr. Domenech, what kind of resources are you putting in to teaching kids or helping kids treat each other better, the whole question of the jock culture what was discussed in the piece?

DANIEL DOMENECH: We have a very successful peer mediation program, as well as a number of violence courses in our schools, and some of our schools have been recognized as models -- Annandale High School, for example, right here has been visited by the President several times in terms of their diversity in mediation programs. And that, we feel, is critical and important, because we're also talking about changing the behavior of our students in terms of the kinds of activities that they resort to.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: But have you put more resources into that?

DANIEL DOMENECH: Yes, we have. One of the things that made our guidance counselors very happy is that in this year's budget we put additional monies in there to free up the guidance counselors from their clerical duties, so that they have more time to spend with the students in terms of guidance and counseling activities.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Rod Paige, what about in Houston, have you also put more resources into programs that would help kids get along better?

ROD PAIGE: Absolutely. We have a highly effective character education program. We have peer mediation programs and our counselors are trained in this aspect of schooling. It's a comprehensive program.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: And David Hornbeck, in Philadelphia?

DAVID HORNBECK: Peer mediation, conflict resolution, and one of the things that we've begun to put a lot of effort into that I think will pay off in this way is a lot of emphasis on student service learning, community service, 15,000 kids in it this year, next year it becomes a promotion and graduation requirement in elementary school, in middle school, and in high school. And we think that's going to help change the relationship between kids and kids, and frankly, between kids and community as well, because people out in the community will begin to see the youngsters differently and I think create a different atmosphere for them to live in.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Well, thank you all four very much.

FOCUS - AFTER IOWA

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Still to come on the NewsHour tonight, after the Iowa straw poll and a Gergen dialogue.

Margaret Warner was in Iowa over the weekend.

MARGARET WARNER: They came by the busload to Ames on Saturday -- 25,000 Iowans, mostly Republicans -- drawn by the beautiful weather and, perhaps, the chance to help shape the 2000 presidential race. Inside huge hospitality tents provided by the candidates, they found barbeque to suit everyone's taste -- and plenty of down-home entertainment. As expected, Texas Gov. George Bush and millionaire publisher Steve Forbes -- who had spent the most on the campaign -- offered the most lavish extras. The prize for most extravagant went to Forbes, who provided his guests with an air-conditioned tent -- and a plastic playland for their kids.

BAUER WORKER: Here's your tickets to vote.

MARGARET WARNER: But the campaigns also took care of the serious business at hand. New arrivals were registered, tagged, given $25 voting tickets, and instructions.

.

WORKER: You can vote anytime from now until 8:15 over in the open coliseum.

PATRICK BUCHANAN: That's what we're going to tell them in that hall, so come on in.

MARGARET WARNER: And the candidates led on-stage pep rallies to remind their supporters why they were there.

GOV. GEORGE W. BUSH: We're getting ready for music time (cheers) but I want to remind you it's

voting time as well.

MARGARET WARNER: The voting process wasn't easy, thanks to special security measures adopted to prevent cheating. Voters had to show their Iowa driver's licenses, get stamped with indelible ink, mark their ballots, and feed them into automatic scanners. The process wasn't quick either. The waiting time to vote was more an hour at some stations -- 90 minutes at others. And organizers had to control the flow into the coliseum.

WORKER: The building will open again once there's some room on the concourse. The concourse is too

crowded right now.

MARGARET WARNER: Then came the moment the media and at least some in the crowd had been

waiting for -- the first chance to see 9 of the 10 Republican hopefuls sharing the same stage. Their 10-minute speeches had one thing in common -- harsh criticism of President Clinton.

PATRICK BUCHANAN: When I raise my hand to take the oath of office, I'm the chief law enforcement

officer of the United States, aren't I? If I'm the chief law enforcement officer of the United States, I guess the first thing I'd have to do is turn to Bill Clinton and say, "Sir, you have a right to remain silent." (big cheer)

GOV. GEORGE W. BUSH: And when I put my hand on the Bible, I will swear to not only uphold the laws of the land, I will swear to uphold the dignity and honor of the office to which I have been elected, so help me God. (cheers)

MARGARET WARNER: But there were also plenty of potshots at Bush for being anointed as front-runner by pollsters, pundits and fundraisers.

DAN QUAYLE: The Washington establishment, they want to control this election. They want to tell you

who to vote for. They say that money will determine who our nominee is going to be. I say let's send them a message.

LAMAR ALEXANDER: We need a contest because this is not a horse race; it's not a football game. This is the biggest job in the world. And we don't dare send an untested person into a debate with Albert Gore. (applause/cheers)

MARGARET WARNER: Bush gave a brief, indirect response.

GOV. GEORGE W. BUSH: I'm under no illusions. I know it is a huge step, going from governor of Texas to President of the United States. But I've had some pretty good training. If Texas were a nation, it would be the 11th largest economy in the world.

MARGARET WARNER: The crowds had long since dispersed when the results came in -- announced like beauty contest winners, in reverse order. The top three finishers were: Bush, with 31percent; followed by Forbes and Elizabeth Dole. Next came Gary Bauer, Pat Buchanan, and Lamar Alexander, who had invested the most time in Iowa. And in the bottom tier: Alan Keyes; Dan Quayle; and Orrin Hatch. Outside, in his tent, Bush thanked his supporters.

GOV. GEORGE W. BUSH: I know this is just the beginning. I've got a lot of work to do. (cheers) But the victory today in Iowa put me on the road to earning the nomination of the Republican Party. (cheers)

MARGARET WARNER: Back in the coliseum, other candidates who were pleased with the results, showed up to talk to reporters. Forbes declared himself "the" alternative to Bush.

STEVE FORBES: Two thirds of the voters did not vote for him. They thought they were going to do better. The establishment vote has now been split. I think the choice is very clear right now.

MARGARET WARNER: Bauer said his fourth place showing made him "the" candidate of religious conservatives.

GARY BAUER: I certainly think that the social conservative vote is coalescing around me. And I think it inevitably means that some other conservative candidates are going to drop out of the race.

MARGARET WARNER: Appearing on NBC's "Meet the Press" the next morning, Dole was upbeat.

ELIZABETH DOLE: Well, it was a wonderful victory for me, no question, Tim, because, you know, when you end up in the top three in a strong, solid position such as that, when others outspent you by millions of dollars, I think that's a real good showing.

MARGARET WARNER: Two other candidates, who didn't do as well, said they too would press on.

PATRICK BUCHANAN: We survived and came out fine, Tim. We came in fifth place. I wish we'd been

one or two places higher, but we're going forward.

INTERVIEWER: Do you still believe that you did well enough to be a part of it, and that there's no consideration, in your mind, to dropping out?

DAN QUAYLE: Oh, absolutely not. I am the only one that can put together the Reagan coalition and be able to win in November 2000.

MARGARET WARNER: But Alexander reached a different conclusion for reasons he explained this afternoon.

LAMAR ALEXANDER: As much as my heart tells me I'd like to go on, I realistically can't do it. And the primary reason is, is money, not to be invited to appear on major television shows, to constantly be - to be pictured as not capable of winning long before there's a chance to prevent your views, that makes it more difficult. And it makes it impossible to raise money.

MARGARET WARNER: Joining me to explore the impact of the straw poll are two Washington Post reporters who were also in Iowa for much of the past week: Dan Balz and Kevin Merida. Their appearance here tonight kicks off a special association between the NewsHour and the Washington Post for the 2000 presidential campaign. Members of the Post political team will be joining us periodically to report on campaign developments.

Dan, we heard Lamar Alexander say he had to get out because he just couldn't raise any money. Was it really that hopeless for him?

DAN BALZ: I think that it probably was. He had spent, as the piece said, more time and energy trying to organize Iowa than any candidate has done, and he's run for six solid years. I think he came up against the straw poll, saw the result, and realized there was no point in going on. I think it's a demonstration first that this contest is much more accelerated than any we've seen in the past. Usually people don't leave the race until the Iowa Caucuses. They're now leaving after the Iowa straw poll. He's the third candidate already to drop out of the race. I think it was an acknowledgement of Gov. Bush's great strength at this point as a candidate, that he is a dominant front-runner. But I also think it may signal, as one his advisers told me today, the end of what we've seen as a 20-year model of running for President, that you could go to Iowa and invest time and do campaigning face to face and emerge, if you were a dark horse, as a national candidate. I think we now have a much more national race, and that old model doesn't work as well.

MARGARET WARNER: Even from the outset. Kevin, Dan Quayle, who did worse than Lamar Alexander, says he's come, though, to a different conclusion. What are he and his people banking on? Why do they think they can continue?

KEVIN MERIDA: Well, they are trying to present themselves as the mainstream conservative, the one conservative that can unite the Reagan coalition, and essentially what they're doing is looking for, as they say, a moment of vulnerability. They think that Bush will slip somewhere, somehow, and that they have the record to step into that. They say that Steve Forbes, you know, that the last time the party nominated an untested fellow he happened to win a war, you know, and that was General Eisenhower, and they're not going to nominate a guy who has never served office anywhere. And so they're holding on to that thin shred of hope. It looks pretty bleak for them right now, because you see that Dan Quayle gets 916 votes in the straw poll, not even, you know, 400 more than Orrin Hatch, who just got in the race and is essentially making a similar claim, that he's a distinguished Senator with a long track record of experience, and he just got in and he gets, you know, almost what Dan Quayle gets. So it's very difficult for them to make the case. One other point I'd make, Margaret, about Quayle is that a former Quayle staffer was saying to us last night, it's the one thing that's hard to overcome in American life, and that is ridicule. I mean, you can - you can come back from anything - you know, robbing banks - you can come back and make a case for yourself, but ridicule is a very difficult thing to overcome, and you see that constantly with Dan Quayle, him fighting that and people say, yes, we like his message, he's a nice guy, he's not the dunce, the bumbler that the media, you guys, portray him as, but they say, we don't think he can quite make it, and they don't want to risk a vote for him.

MARGARET WARNER: All right. Dan, George W. Bush, now, of course, he won, but as all the other candidates pointed out - seven out of ten people there - said they wanted someone else. What's the thinking inside the Bush campaign now? I mean, what do they think the message of Ames was for them?

DAN BALZ: I think the message for them or their sense at this point is that they got out of this and did pretty well but they're very glad it's over. They debated long and hard whether to get into this because Gov. Bush arrived at this campaign on the trail late, even though he had a lot of advantages. Iowa is a state that demands organization, and they had, as they say, 63 days to do it. I think they're happy with the result. It was a good victory, but, as you say, it was not an overwhelming victory. It did not measure up to the dominance he has either in the polls or in his campaign war chest.

MARGARET WARNER: Are they troubled by the rise in criticism - and we heard it again from Lamar Alexander today - that he is untested; that he tends to be vague or superficial in his answers. It takes different forms, but, I mean, are they troubled by that? Do they think they have to address it?

DAN BALZ: I think they know they have to address it. I think what they hope to do is address it on their own time, rather than the other candidates' time or on the media's time. They've said repeatedly, and Gov. Engler of Michigan, who is one of Bush's leading supporters, told reporters yesterday in Iowa that they would begin to lay out more specifics about his positions on things but not necessarily on the timetable that the media wanted.

MARGARET WARNER: All right. Kevin, let's turn to Steve Forbes. Now, as we pointed out, he's spent more than anyone else. Did he get what he paid for?

KEVIN MERIDA: Well, he's certainly spent a lot. He had some great stilt walkers and mountains - inflatable mountains - and quite a festival. I think they feel that they got what they wanted, and they're going to continue to present themselves as "the" conservative alternative, and they like the fact that Liddy Dole, at least for now, finished third, that Bauer wasn't close, because they can - it buys them some time they think, to present the case that it's a two-man race, that they have the money, that they have the message. But the thing about Forbes that's interesting is that he still was not comfortable in the political arena. I mean, you saw that with the balloon drop scenario where balloons were flying down into the Hilton coliseum and people are popping them. I think Al Frank had said something like it sounded like he was in a microwave oven. I mean, and popcorn's popping everywhere - and -

MARGARET WARNER: We should point out, Kevin, that this was while Forbes was trying to give a speech; you couldn't hear a word.

KEVIN MERIDA: Exactly. You couldn't hear a word. But the thing about it - a more skilled politician, perhaps, would have turned to self-deprecating humor, would have deflected it and made it an asset and Forbes just kind of kept talking along and people kept laughing. And so he's a lot better than he was in '95 when he first started his race, but he's not quite as gifted a politician and you wonder if that's going to - if he's going to be able to do better as we go along.

MARGARET WARNER: And Dan, didn't the Forbes people think that they might even come closer to Bush than they did?

DAN BALZ: I think they did. Early in the week you got the sense that - inside the Forbes campaign - that they thought they were going to be very close to Bush and if not spring an upset come close enough that it would look like you had a genuine two-person race, that you had Bush and Forbes very close and the rest of the pack well behind. The reality is he finished closer to Elizabeth Dole in third than he did Governor Bush in first, and I think that probably was a disappointment to them.

MARGARET WARNER: All right. Now, Elizabeth Dole, how does her campaign expect to capitalize on everyone, suddenly saying, wow, she -

DAN BALZ: I think they were probably the happiest campaign coming out of Ames because a lot of people had said she started with great promise and had not seemed to be able to capitalize on it. So what they are hoping is that the third place finish revives her candidacy and more important brings in fund-raising help that they've been unable to get. Their real problem at this point in their own mind is money, and they need more of it fast.

MARGARET WARNER: Kevin, let's turn to the special conservatives - and I don't know if you could hear my piece - Gary Bauer saying I think some of the other conservative candidates should get out. There had been talk that the social conservatives should start to coalesce behind someone. I know you spent a lot of time out there. Do you see any move in that direction, the social or Christian conservatives moving behind one candidate?

KEVIN MERIDA: No, I don't see that yet. I think Gary Bauer is making that hold for me. Steve Forbes hopes to make that claim. The fact is, is that between - among Buchanan, Bauer, and Keyes, they basically matched Forbes' vote. That's 5,000 votes right there, and I think those votes are still up for grabs, and actually Gary Bauer - the early word was that he was going to do much better than he did, and I think that a lot of people were surprised that he didn't do - he just barely finished above Pat Buchanan, which allowed him to say we survived. And so I think that vote is very much up for grabs.

MARGARET WARNER: And speaking of Pat Buchanan, Dan, did he later rest or did he clarify at all what he's going to do, all the speculation that he might leave the party, that he might run on the Reform Party ticket?

DAN BALZ: Quite the opposite. I think he's continuing to feed the speculation that he could well abandon the Republican Party at some point next year. I talked to him yesterday. He was disappointed in his finish in Iowa, but he thinks there may be ways that he can improve on it. He's going to go down that road for a while, but he's made very clear in a way he didn't four years ago that he may be looking at the chance to run for the Reform Party nomination.

MARGARET WARNER: Kevin, finally, the guy who stayed out of this, of course, was John McCain. What are his people thinking now?

KEVIN MERIDA: Well, they're thinking that they're glad they didn't spend dollars trying to compete in that show. He's still going to have to make the case that he's the alternative, and in many ways he and Liddy Dole are going to be competing for the same votes. If they weren't in the race, their votes would go to George Bush probably, and so he's banking that somehow he can get traction elsewhere outside of the early primary states and be there to take advantage of that window if it opens.

MARGARET WARNER: So you would you agree, Dan, that the field of sort of mainstream alternatives to Bush remains very crowded even with Lamar Alexander out?

DAN BALZ: I think you have what Tom Wrath, who was an adviser to Alexander, said today, and that is that you have two races at this point: You have a race to become the alternative to George Bush. Now there are people in the establishment wing of the party vying to be that person, and there are people in the social religious conservative wing vying to be that person, but Tom Wrath said in addition to that you have a second race, and that is for that alternative to persuade people that he or she is able to defeat Bush. So you've got a tough fight ahead for all of the people chasing George W. Bush. He came out of this not necessarily strengthened but still a strong front-runner. He has things to prove, but they do too.

MARGARET WARNER: Thanks very much, Dan and Kevin. We'll see you again.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: And for more on the Iowa straw poll you can turn to the Washington Post and the NewsHour web sites.

DIALOGUE

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Finally tonight, a Gergen dialogue. David Gergen engages Helen Fisher, Professor of Anthropology at Rutgers University and author of "The First Sex: The Natural Talents of Women and How They are Changing the World."

DAVID GERGEN: Among young adults in America today, ages 25 to 35, women are better educated than men-- first time in our history.

HELEN FISHER: Right.

DAVID GERGEN: Is this something fundamentally new, as we think, or is history, ancient history, repeating itself?

HELEN FISHER: Ancient history is repeating itself. Actually, for millions of years we lived in these egalitarian hunting and gathering societies. Women commuted to work. They came home from work with much of the evening meal. The double-income family was the rule, and women were probably just as well-educated as men. But certainly, the fact that women are now becoming better educated than men, not only in America, but in parts of Western Europe, too -- and we're going to see it around the world. The United Nations has looked in 130 societies, and, indeed, women are gaining an education in every single one of those cultures.

DAVID GERGEN: And they have come into the job market at a time when jobs are changing - the nature of jobs are changing to fit their natural talents.

HELEN FISHER: That is the most important thing that I discovered. You know, when I started this book, I had no agenda. I knew women were piling into the job market and I knew they came with some natural talents. So I started out really wondering, "well, what impact will they have on medicine, on law, on communications industries, on business?" But I ended up finding, I read about all of these parts of the economy, that much of the economy is changing in ways that actually need the female mind.

DAVID GERGEN: In what way?

HELEN FISHER: Well, for example, I mean, the communications industry is just booming. I mean, we're about to have 500 channels on television. Now, who's going to do all that talking? I mean -- (Laughs) --

I mean, women are really good with words - basic articulation -- which is finding the right word rapidly, goes up in the middle of the menstrual cycle, when estrogen levels peak, so this -- basic language skills are associated with the female hormone, estrogen, and even with menopause, women are better at many language skills. So it's not only in all of the communications industry, but we're in the information age. People have to go to school. They've got to learn to read and write. They need to read the newspapers, and all kinds of -- acquire information. And women have a way with words, and that's power.

DAVID GERGEN: But it's also -- you made the point that organizations have changed. They're no longer are as hierarchical - they're flatter -- and there are more web relationships, and women are particularly good at web relationships. They see in context.

HELEN FISHER: Women are - you know, the first chapter of the book is called "Web Thinking, Women's Contextual View," and indeed, as I was reading along, I didn't really know this. I didn't know any of this material before I started the book. But, as it turns out, women take a more holistic, more contextual view of any subject at hand. They'd to think in webs of factors, not straight lines. So I called this web thinking. This is web thinking. This is why women are so good at multi tasking, doing several things at the same time, but -- and men are more linear thinkers. They tend to -- what I call step thinking. They compartmentalize. They get rid of extraneous data, and then they move in a step-by- step fashion towards a conclusion. And, indeed, in business today, the buzzwords in business are now "systems thinking," "breath of vision," "depth of vision." And, indeed, women bring that to the business community.

DAVID GERGEN: The decline of males -- you mentioned. Lionel Tiger, your colleague at Rutgers, wrote a book by that title, of course, and he was just here on this show - arguing, yes, women are coming out, but that there is a serious problem here, and that is that men feel more and more alienated from the family. They feel detached. They don't feel like they have a place there. And therefore, there is something to worry about in this - these changes you're discussing.

HELEN FISHER: Yes. Well, for every trend, there's a counter-trend. I mean, we're - as Francis Bacon said, "the world is a winding stair. One doesn't go straight to the top, either men or women." And there's all kinds of things to worry about. So as a matter of fact, I think there's things to worry about with women in the future of the family, too. I mean -- however, we always hear about the bad parts. Let me just tell you a couple of the good parts. One of them is that we're moving towards these peer marriages, what they call symmetrical marriages or companionate marriages. And these are marriages between equals. I mean, for so much of our history, it was men's responsibility, entire responsibility for the financial health of the family and women were entirely responsible for the home. Now we finally have time in which men and women can put their heads together, work as a team, work the way they did, actually, for millions of years on the grasslands of Africa.

DAVID GERGEN: There's so much here I'd like to discuss. You mentioned estrogen and testosterone.

HELEN FISHER: Right.

DAVID GERGEN: These different hormones-one's female, the other male, in orientation-- do they really drive the differences that do exist between men and women?

HELEN FISHER: Well, first of all, we're all a vast mix of male and female, all of us. But, on average, men have a great deal more testosterone and women have a great deal more estrogen. And there are just hundreds of studies now that show that these have an impact. Now, culture has an impact, also. Bu in fact, if you inject a fish or a lizard or a monkey with testosterone, it begins to fight for rank. Men are much more interested in rank than women are. Women are more interested in balancing work and family, and that seems to be estrogen-related. So men's spatial skills are directly related to testosterone. And, indeed, some 90 percent of architects are men, some 80 percent of engineers and mathematicians are men. I'm not surprised. But what's interesting is we're finally in a time in human evolution where those women who want to go into math or engineering or architecture can do it.

DAVID GERGEN: But I want to ask you, to what extent even as they do it, biology becomes destiny?

HELEN FISHER: Yes.

DAVID GERGEN: To what extent, in this drive toward parity, are we going to fall short simply because of our biology?

HELEN FISHER: They're not going to have parity in certain parts of the workplace. And in the fields of education , I think men are going to not only reach parity, but probably be the first sex. In communications they're going to take over middle management. They already write most of the books. 54 percent of books are now written by women. Over 50 percent of journalists and editors are now women. 50 percent of law students and medical students are now women. So certain parts of the job market, women are going to shine. In other parts of the job market, I think men will maintain their edge. In traditional corporations, 95 percent of CEO's are still men. And I think that's largely because men are more willing, because of levels of testosterone, to jeopardize their health, their safety, their leisure time, to get ahead. So we're going to see some parts of the work force where there's real general equality. Other parts where women are going to probably dominate, and some parts where men are going to dominate.

DAVID GERGEN: In the home place, will there come a time when men actually pull as much weight as women? Will they ever be as nurturing as women are with children and be as good as raising children?

HELEN FISHER: It's so interesting that you say "pull their own weight." I honestly think that a lot of men do pull their own weight. They pull it differently. In every culture in the world where anthropologists have looked, in 168 societies, even where women are exceedingly economically powerful, women do the vast majority of the raising of the very small children. Women are interested in babies. They bear the babies. They've got the high levels of estrogen associated with the nurturing of the very young. Men are natural protectors, natural providers, and they play simply -- they simply play a different role -- no, the answer is, women will continue to be the nurturers of the very young.

DAVID GERGEN: You and Lionel Tiger looked at the same data, the same anthropological data, the same evolutionary trends. He was a little pessimistic about it. You seem very optimistic.

HELEN FISHER: Yes. You know, I am an optimist. I don't quite know why, except for the fact that we are - if there ever was a time in evolution to be a woman, that time is now. I mean, women are better educated, they've got more business opportunities, they make more interesting companions; they're expressing their sexuality. We're able to choose partners for ourselves. I mean, if there ever was a time in human evolution when both men and women have the opportunity to express their real selves, that time is now. Now, I know that there are problems in the world. I mean, all we have to do is pick up any newspaper to discover that. But if you go back 100 years in America and see what men and women were doing, their opportunities were nowhere near what they are today.

DAVID GERGEN: Dr. Helen Fisher, thank you.

HELEN FISHER: Thank you.

RECAP

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Again, the major stories of this Monday: Lamar Alexander pulled out of the 2000 Republican Presidential campaign after a sixth place showing in the Iowa straw poll; Columbine High School in Colorado reopened for a new term - the first day of classes since 15 people died in a massacre last April; and Russia's Lower House of Parliament confirmed President Yeltsin's choice of Vladimir Putin as prime minister. We'll be with you on-line and again here tomorrow evening. I'm Elizabeth Farnsworth. Thank you. Good night.