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Change Your Life! |
Gore summons Americans on a 'journey to the best America' |
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August 19, 2000
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Al Gore hurled himself into the finals of the campaign for the White House, summoning the Democratic National Convention and the United States to join him "on a new journey to the best America." As president, he vowed, "I will never let you down." Members of the Democratic Party who nominated him for president Thursday night cheered and chanted his name, never louder than when the vice president declared: "I stand here tonight as my own man." The roar overrode the rest of the line, as he went on, "and I want you to know me for who I truly am." In a 51-minute address aimed beyond the convention hall at the national television audience, Gore blended personal history and his campaign issues agenda. He offered a quick bow to President Bill Clinton for the thriving economy and his other achievements, but said he is not asking for votes "on the basis of past performance. ... "For all of our good times, I am not satisfied," he said, promising a better, fairer, more prosperous nation in a new Democratic administration. Before all the balloons had popped, with the confetti and streamers hardly settled, Gore was racing eastward with Sen. Joseph Lieberman, his vice presidential running mate, to hunt votes on a riverboat campaign voyage down the Mississippi River, from Wisconsin to Missouri. His political ports of call there and in Illinois and Iowa were in territory crucial to his bid to beat his Republican Party opponent, Texas Gov. George W. Bush, in an election 81 days away. In his convention address, Gore called Republican Party proposals "old guard" and beholden to the powerful and the wealthy, but he never spoke Bush's name. Even so, Bush's spokesman had an instant response. Ari Fleischer called Gore's address "more of the same old language of class warfare, partisanship and division." Gore was almost conversational at times, not the shouting orator of other campaign days. "If you entrust me with the presidency, I know I won't always be the most exciting politician," he said. "But I pledge to you tonight: I will work for you every day and I will never let you down." Gore broke no policy ground, repeating the agenda he has been shaping during a campaign that began not long after the 1998 elections. The man who heard so many jokes about how boring he was that he started joking about it himself tried to turn that into an asset: "I know my own imperfections. For example, I know that sometimes people say I'm too serious, that I talk too much substance and policy. Maybe I've done that tonight. "But the presidency is more than a popularity contest. It's a day to day fight for the people." Gore said "we've got to win this election, because every hardworking American family deserves to open the door to their dreams." Showered by red, white and blue balloons, and by glittering confetti, he and Lieberman embraced, and strolled the stage with thumbs-up waves. Their wives, then their children, then an array of Democratic leaders, joined the unity show. Before flying east on an Air Force Two flight to LaCrosse, Wisconsin, Gore and Lieberman made one last Los Angeles stop at a party fund-raising gala headlined by singer Barbra Streisand. "This is for real and our future really is on the line," Gore told the crowd. "It's going to take every one of you." Their first campaign day as the Democratic nominees was to span 20 hours of travel and vote-hunting before they called it a night in Dubuque, Iowa. Friday morning they were boarding the riverboat Mark Twain for four days on and off the Mississippi, with rallies afloat and ashore on the way downstream to Hannibal Bush, meanwhile, was resuming his campaign Friday after a break at his ranch near Waco, Texas, during the Democratic convention - his first stop a rally in Bartlett, Tennessee, Gore's home state. Republican vice presidential nominee Dick Cheney was campaigning with Bush in the Memphis suburb. For all the celebrations and victory vows of Los Angeles, there were upstream political currents facing Gore, in the public opinion polls that rate Bush the leader, 48 percent to 37 percent in a Voter.com-Battleground survey released Thursday. And there was an extra burden with the disclosure in Washington that Kenneth Starr's successor as independent counsel had summoned a new grand jury to hear evidence against Clinton in connection with the sex scandal over the president's relationship with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. Robert Ray had said he would consider bringing charges against the president, impeached and acquitted while Starr was on his case, after Clinton leaves office on Jan. 20. The new grand jury was impaneled July 11; word of it came to The Associated Press from legal sources Thursday, hours before Gore's acceptance speech. "The timing of this leak reeks to high heaven," White House spokesman Jake Siewert said. Even the Bush campaign criticized it, saying the timing was wrong and inappropriate. "It seems clearly calculated to have a political impact," Gore spokesman Doug Hattaway said. Convention delegates and party leaders chorused praise of Gore's address, but some of them earlier had voiced their worries about his prospects. About 2,500 demonstrators showed up for the last day of the convention, chanting about assorted causes. They were generally peaceful, and their protest marches didn't affect the convention proceedings. |
