Cheney, Lieberman Campaign in Fla.
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2000 1:16:00 PM EST
ORLANDO, Fla., Oct 17, 2000 (AP Online via COMTEX) -- Call it the
running mates' second debate. Though they didn't share a stage, Joseph
Lieberman and Dick Cheney campaigned a few miles apart in this crucial
election state Tuesday, each contending his party's ticket was best for Florida
and the country.
Former Defense Secretary Cheney maintained that he and Texas Gov. George
W. Bush would do more to strengthen the military. Lieberman argued that he
and Vice President Al Gore would be the best stewards of the economy.
"In America, when economic growth occurs, it occurs in the private sector.
Government doesn't create jobs. Government, at its best, can create the
environment in which growth will occur," Lieberman, the Democrat, told more
than 5,000 information technology professionals at a convention here.
Lieberman, a senator from Connecticut, said that government's role is to
maintain a balanced budget, demonstrate fiscal restraint, promote free trade
and invest in research and education.
He picked up the endorsement of some 440 technology and Internet business
leaders, who credited Gore and him with fostering growth of high-tech
industries. The endorsement came from executives of Netscape, Xerox,
Qualcomm, Apple and Novel, among others.
"We understand that the boom we're enjoying in America didn't happen by
accident," said John Doerr, a partner with the venture capital firm of Kleiner,
Perkins, Caufield and Byers. "While it was driven by smart, risk-taking
entrepreneurs all over the country, the current administration and Senator
Lieberman played an integral part in allowing this to happen."
At a rally in nearby Kissimmee, Cheney focused on strengthening U.S. defense
- his signature theme - saying the GOP ticket would repair a military
weakened by years of neglect under the administration of Gore and President
Clinton.
"Bottom line is, the U.S. military is not in as good a shape as it was eight years
ago," Cheney said. "It might still be the best in the world, I don't deny that, but
the trends are in the wrong direction."
Cheney's campaign once again drew on memories of terrorist attacks on
Americans to call attention to the GOP ticket's assertion that the military has
become weaker during the Clinton-Gore era.
He was introduced by Mary Higgins, a Florida state veterans' affairs official
who recalled that Cheney spoke at a ceremony when the body of her
husband, Col. William Higgins, a Marine captured and killed by terrorists in
Lebanon in 1989, was returned to the United States in 1991.
"His words at the honors ceremony ... would be the very same today as we
sadly greet our sailors home from the USS Cole," said Higgins, referring to
those killed in last week's terrorist bombing of a Navy ship in Yemen.
Cheney "is a friend to all men and women in uniform," she said.
Cheney invoked memories of the 1980 American hostage crisis in Iran during
a campaign speech Monday and has pointed to the ship bombing as a
reminder that the U.S. military faces threats. The Gore campaign has accused
Bush and Cheney of trying to use the attack for political advantage.
Gore and Lieberman believe "we shouldn't talk about the state of the U.S.
military during the course of the presidential campaign. But I can't think of a
better time to talk about it," Cheney said Tuesday.
Polls here have Gore and Bush running neck-and-neck for Florida's 25
electoral votes.
Analysts have called the state a must-win for Bush because, besides Texas,
most of the states in his column carry relatively few electoral votes. Gore,
meanwhile, could move a long way toward election with a win in Florida
because two other vote-rich states, New York and California, appear to be
solidly behind him.
Cheney was watching Tuesday night's presidential debate with his boss'
brother, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, in Tallahassee. Lieberman was tuning in from
Wausau, Wis.
Lieberman said he was shocked to awaken Tuesday to the news that Missouri
Gov. Mel Carnahan had died in a plane crash on the eve of the debate in St.
Louis. He said, "It puts everything that goes on in a political campaign into
perspective."
By BRIGITTE GREENBERG Associated Press Writer
Copyright 2000 Associated Press, All rights reserved
APO Priority=r APO Category=1131 KEYWORD: ORLANDO, Fla.
SUBJECT CODE: 1131 |
