Gore promises to foster 'New
Economy;' Bush espouses leadership
in Kalamazoo
October 27, 2000
Web posted at: 6:07 p.m. EDT (2207 GMT)
MUNHALL, Pennsylvania (CNN) -- Democratic
presidential nominee Al Gore touted his plans for the
high-tech economy on Friday as Republican
contender George W. Bush ramped up his attacks on
the vice president's character.
As the candidates took the stage in West Virginia,
Pennsylvania and Michigan, their staffs and allies
readied a new wave of television ads aimed at
undercutting their rivals' support.
Campaigning
in Munhall,
Pennsylvania,
on Friday,
Gore touted
plans to
expand tax
credits for
research
and
development
and
promised to
keep government interference in the high-tech
economy to a minimum. He promised "a new age of
innovation and investment in America" if elected
president.
"The Internet economy is like the goose that's laying
silicon eggs," Gore said. "Let's make sure it's healthy
and well-fed with a steady diet of new discoveries
and new ideas."
Speaking in a library built by steel magnate Andrew
Carnegie in 1898 -- a building that overlooks
Carnegie's massive Homestead Steelworks -- Gore
estimated his plan would create 10 million high-tech
jobs. And he touted the endorsement of a group of
business leaders, including Apple Computer chief
Steve Jobs.
"As you will see, some great legends of American
business are among the 2,750 leaders who have me
endorsed today, and I'm very grateful to the group,"
he said.
Gore drew on comedian Bill Cosby's aid at rallies in
Munhall and in Charleston, West Virginia. Cosby
urged Gore supporters to get out to the polls on
November 7, using humorous anecdotes about his
parents to convey his point.
"It is important for you to listen to a 63-year-old tell
you about his parents in the 40s, an African-American
family with a right to vote," Cosby said in an address
in Charleston, West Virginia. As Gore took to the
microphone, removed his jacket and rolled up his shirt
sleeves, he quipped, "All I ask is that you do for me
what you did for Jell-O."
Gore told supporters in Charleston that "West Virginia
is positioned to make the critical difference in this
race." He reminded Democrats that the 1960 election
between John Kennedy and Richard Nixon that was
determined by an average of one vote per precinct
across the country.
"I'd like one more
vote per precinct," he
asked voters before
launching into a
speech on his
economic plan, the
centerpiece of which
is, he said, to balance
the budget and pay
off the debt each
year. And he again
criticized Bush, the
GOP presidential
nominee, for
proposing a tax cut
that overwhelmingly
benefits the wealthy.
"Under Governor Bush's plan, almost half of all the
tax cut benefits would go to the wealthiest 1 percent.
His own figures show that," Gore said. "He would
spend more on a tax cut than he would spend on
education and health care and national defense put
together. His own numbers show that."
The vice president dismissed the Republican's plans
as a rehash of plans that weren't working during the
last Bush administration: "Been there. Done that. Still
paying the bills."
Bush presses character, leadership
critique
Bush, meanwhile, was on the stump in Michigan and
Indiana, stressing character issue for the second
consecutive day: He pledged that if he wins the
election, Washington will no longer be "a place of
bitterness and name calling and failed leadership."
Bush unsheathed
that line of attack
Thursday in a
stinging critique
of Gore's
credibility and
character during a
speech in
Pittsburgh. Gore
aides called Bush's
speech an effort
to disguise his
lack of judgment
and experience
while Gore
discusses the
issues.
But the Texas
governor pressed
the attack again in Kalamazoo and Benton Harbor,
Michigan, with jabs at Gore's credibility and the
battles of the Clinton administration. Bush said he
often meets parents who hold up pictures of their
children and say they never want another president
who lets them down.
"A responsible leader is someone who says clearly,
here are my principles, here is what I stand on,
principles that will not change no matter what
happens in the course of a political career," Bush said.
"A leader is someone who is willing to take on the
tough issues from others who have shirked their
responsibilities," he added. Bush accused Gore and
"his friend the president" of breaking a campaign
promise to reform Medicare and provide a
prescription drug benefit for the elderly, not once but
twice.
"One thing they can't run and hide from is this fact.
They campaigned on it in 1992, they campaigned on it
in 1996 and they're campaigning on it again," Bush
said.
Bush said he would "set a clear agenda" that would
remain "steady and clear" throughout his
administration, including shoring up Medicare and
Social Security for future generations.
Surplus budget money would be returned to the
people, parents and teachers would make their own
decisions at local schools, and certain taxes like the
estate tax and "marriage penalty" would be removed
altogether, he said.
The return of the 'Daisy Ad'
But while Bush touted his leadership and
consensus-building abilities, his campaign sought to
disavow an independent group's television commercial
accusing the Clinton administration of giving away
nuclear technology to China "in exchange for
campaign contributions."
The commercial,
featuring a girl
picking daisies, is
a conservative
remake of an
infamous 1964
Democratic
campaign
commercial
suggesting that
GOP nominee
Barry Goldwater
would have
provoked a
nuclear war if
elected.
"If Clinton-Gore
are capable of
selling our
children's security," the ad asks, "what else are they
capable of?" It ends, like its predecessor, with the
countdown preceding a nuclear blast.
Bush campaign spokeswoman Karen Hughes said the
governor condemned the ad and has asked that it be
withdrawn.
"Our campaign has called this morning. Our campaign
political strategist Karl Rove has called the individual
who was quoted in the newspaper about that ad and
urged that group, whoever they are, to pull down that
ad," Hughes said.
Carey Cramer, a spokesman for a McAllen, Texas,
group called Aretino Industries, said it produced the
commercial and spent $60,000 to air it -- a small sum
compared to most campaign advertising buys. Cramer
said his group hoped to spend another $500,000 to air
the commercial in selected markets in the
battleground states of Michigan, Florida, Missouri and
Pennsylvania.
Gore aides called the commercial a "desperate tactic"
by conservatives supporting Bush.
"This is the hidden hand of the right wing swooping
in to help Texas Governor George Bush," Gore
spokesman Chris Lehane said.
Meanwhile, Bush aides fumed over a series of taped
phone calls the Democratic Party is making across
Michigan. The calls feature a Texas woman whose
husband died in a nursing home in 1996, accusing
Bush of breaking a promise to improve nursing homes
and signing a state bill that weakened nursing home
care.
The Gore campaign said the ads were fair and
accurate, but Hughes accused Democrats of
exploiting an elderly woman's tragedy.
"This is an officially sanctioned ad that proves that
Vice President Gore's campaign will sink to the
absolute depths to do anything and say anything to
win this election," she said.
At the same time, a Bush ally, the Republican
Leadership Council, tried to exploit division among
liberals over consumer advocate Ralph Nader's bid for
president as the Green Party nominee. Nader is
drawing a single-digit share of the popular vote, but
many Democrats fear that could result in a Gore loss
in several key states.
The group launched commercials that feature Nader
delivering a sharp critique of Gore's record on
environmental issues -- but Nader's aides say the ads
cut even harsher criticism of Bush.
Gore on Friday morning brushed aside any threat
from the left by Green Party candidate Ralph Nader,
predicting on that on Election Day, Nader supporter
will be tempted to cast their vote for a major party
candidate.
"I don't like the
argument that a
vote for Nader is
a vote for Bush,"
Gore said on
CBS's "The Early
Show."
Nader, appearing
on ABC's "Good
Morning
America," again
dismissed the
notion that he
should drop out of
the race, saying it
was "cowardly"
for Gore
supporters to even
hint that the Green
Party candidate will ultimately hurt the Democrats.
Lehane said the GOP-sponsored Nader ads were a
sign that Bush has been unable to sell the American
people on his agenda. Gore's campaign, meanwhile,
readied ads featuring former Social Security
Commissioner Robert Ball asserting that Bush's plans
to allow younger workers invest a portion of their
Social Security payroll taxes wouldn't allow the
retirement insurance program to meet its needs.
And President Clinton, who Gore has kept at arms'
length in his presidential bid, weighed in by mocking
Republican complaints about the harsh tenor of
Washington. Speaking at a news conference where he
threatened to veto two tax and spending bills that
remain before Congress nearly a month after the start
of the fiscal year, Clinton said, "I don't think that
party should seek to benefit from their failure at
bipartisanship."
"We have a bipartisan majority in both houses of
Congress for hate crimes, for a good school
construction bill, for a minimum wage increase; for a
patients' bill of rights, for campaign finance reform,"
Clinton said. "It's not bipartisanship that is keeping
those bills from passing, it is the leadership of the
other party in Congress blocking a bipartisan majority
"I fail to see how you could argue that the voters
ought to reward people for creating the problem that
they are complaining about," he said. "I think that's a
pretty hard sell." |
