Copyright 2000 St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Inc.
St.
Louis Post-Dispatch
August 18, 2000, Friday, FIVE STAR LIFT
EDITION
SECTION: NEWS, Pg. A1
LENGTH: 1506 words
HEADLINE:
GORE SEEKS "BETTER, FAIRER" AMERICA;
HE SAYS PRESIDENCY IS MORE THAN A
"POPULARITY CONTEST";
DELEGATES LAUD NOMINATION SPEECH
BYLINE: Jon Sawyer; Post-Dispatch Washington Bureau
Chief
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES
BODY:
Vice President Al Gore claimed the
Democratic nomination for president Thursday night, declaring that after seven
years in the shadow of Bill Clinton, "I stand here tonight as my own man."
Gore directly addressed the question at the core of his campaign, as he
struggles to compete with the star quality Clinton brought to the presidency
over the past eight years and the personable approach of his Republican rival,
Texas Gov. George W. Bush.
"I know of my own imperfections," Gore said.
"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," he said. "It's a day-by-day fight for
people. If you entrust me with the presidency, I know I won't always be the most
exciting politician. But I pledge to you tonight: I will work for you every day
and I will never let you down."
Gore defiantly devoted most of his
51-minute address to a long list of policy proposals. He talked about the
economic successes under the Clinton presidency but he focused more on
what he hopes to achieve in the years ahead.
"This election is not an
award for past performance," Gore said. "I'm not asking you to vote for me on
the basis of the economy we have. Tonight, I ask for your support on the basis
of the better, fairer, more prosperous America we can build together."
Gore's speech closed out a Democratic convention that began with a
fulsome address by Clinton and an entire night devoted to celebrating the
old-line party liberals whose agenda shows up in only muted form in Gore's
platform. There were persistent complaints from minority delegates, particularly
over past positions by Gore's running mate, Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., and
rumblings of concern over whether Gore can carry the party to victory over
Republican nominee George W. Bush.
Senior Democratic officials did not
even try to conceal their concerns about the mixed message from this week's
convention. House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt, D-Mo., said he comes away
from Los Angeles more convinced than ever that future conventions should be cut
in half.
"The truth is that only two things happen that are really
important," he said, referring to the acceptance speeches of Gore and Lieberman.
"The rest of it may be interesting but it doesn't send much of a useful
message."
To illustrate his proposals, Gore related the stories of
several citizens whom he had invited to the convention. Among them was
Jacqueline Steele Johnson, 72, of Brentwood, who spends more than half her
Social Security benefits on prescription drugs and subsists largely on macaroni
and cheese.
"Mrs. Johnson, I promise you once again: I will fight for a
prescription drug benefit for all seniors under Medicare," he said. Gore first
cited Johnson on a trip to St. Louis last month to promote his prescription-drug
proposal.
Delegates from Missouri and Illinois said Gore had done what
he had to do.
Rep. Jerry Costello, of Belleville: "I think he hit a
grand slam. He did everything he needed to do -- that's the Al Gore that I know
and respect. He was himself, he was relaxed."
Sen. Ken Jacob of
Columbia: "He spoke out on everything that's important to people in this
country. I'm all charged up and everybody here is, too."
Shelley
McThomas Bryant of Kansas City: "I think he hit a home run. It was a good, solid
speech and he was true to himself." Bryant said it was good that Gore had
addressed the criticism that he was too serious.
"It doesn't matter if
he's a nerd or isn't a fiery speaker. It's about what he can do for the
country," she said.
Rep. Bobby Rush of Chicago called the speech
"magnificent." Rush, who had been critical of Gore earlier this week, said,
"He's shown the kind of compassion and empathy he needed to. This was a
stem-winding speech. He's scored a home run."
Gore ticked off the
specific programs he plans to enact, implicitly cr iticizing Bush for the
gauzier, more general tone of the Republican convention in Philadelphia that
focused mostly on "changing the tone" in Washington and was relatively short on
policy detail.
Gore said campaign finance reform would be the first bill
he submits to Congress. He promised to move toward health insurance for all
children by 2004, to enact "the single greatest commitment to education since
the G.I. Bill," and to assure pre-school education for every American child
within a decade.
Gore restated his commitment to targeted tax cuts,
including reductions in the estate tax and repeal of the
so-called marriage tax penalty for married couples. But he said he would fight
Bush's call for tax cuts that he said were skewed toward the rich and would give
the average family just 62 cents a day -- "enough money to buy one extra Diet
Coke a day," he said.
"Let me say it plainly," he said. "I will not go
along with a huge tax cut for the wealthy at the expense of everyone else and
wreck our good economy in the process."
Gore touted his plan for new tax
credits aimed at encouraging individuals to save for retirement and contrasted
it with Bush's proposal to give individuals control over part of their Social
Security payroll taxes. "That's Social Security minus," he said. "Our plan is
Social Security plus."
"If you entrust me with the presidency I will
fight for you," Gore said, vowing to take on "Big tobacco, big oil, the big
polluters, the pharmaceutical companies, the HMO's. Sometimes you have to be
willing to stand up and say no -- so families can have a better life."
He touched nearly every issue of interest to the Democratic party base
-- from abortion rights to increasing the minimum wage and passing an
unemployment nondiscrimination act. He promised to hire an additional 50,000 new
police and to seek enactment of a constitutional amendment to protect the rights
of crime victims.
Gore touched briefly on foreign policy, noting that he
broke with Democratic congressional leaders to support the Persian Gulf War and
that he had worked on nuclear arms control throughout his congressional career.
He said he would work for "truly free trade," signaling that he will be more
attuned than Clinton to the demands of organized labor that trade agreements
include strong protection of labor and environmental rights.
"Free trade
can and must be -- and if I'm president, will be -- a way to lift everyone up,
not bring everyone down to the lowest common denominator."
Before Gore
spoke some of his closest, oldest friends talked together on stage about Gore's
upbringing, family and values. Those speaking included author David Halberstam,
Gore's brother-in-law Frank Hunger and Jane Holmes Dixon, suffragan bishop of
the Episcopal Diocese of Washington.
They talked about Gore's life
experience and sought to get beyond the stereotype of a senator's son who got
his education at the exclusive St. Alban's School in Washington and Harvard.
They talked instead about the summers he spent working on his parents' farm in
Tennessee, his decision to enlist in the Army for service in the Vietnam war,
and the time he spent as a newspaper reporter and part-time student of divinity
and law before running for his father's old congressional seat at the age of 28.
In his speech Gore paid tribute to both his parents -- Albert Gore Sr.,
who died in 1998, and Pauline Gore, who was in the audience at Staples Center.
Gore made his entrance through the hall itself, mobbed by delegates who
waved white pennants with the letters "GORE" etched in blue.
The Gore
camp was dealt two wild cards just hours before he went on stage -- news from
Washington that a grand jury has been impaneled to consider possible criminal
charges against Clinton and Bush's call for three presidential debates and two
vice presidential debates.
The Associated Press reported that the issue
for the grand jury is whether Clinton committed perjury or obstructed justice
when he denied under oath that he had had an affair with former White House
intern Monica Lewinksy.
Democrats assailed the timing of the news leak
on the grand jury. Bush's campaign reacted cautiously too. "We've said that the
American people are tired of scandal and that they want a change in Washington,"
said Bush spokesman Tucker Eskew. He later called again to stress that the Bush
campaign also believes it was "inappropriate" for the news to leak on the day of
Gore's acceptance speech.
Bush's in-your-face strategy gets a jump start
today, when he and vice presidential nominee Richard B. Cheney travel to Memphis
in Gore's home state. On Saturday they hold a send- off rally in Dallas, the
last public event scheduled for Bush in Texas until election day.
Gore,
Lieberman and their families head off for LaCrosse, Wis., where they'll board
the Mark Twain Riverboat for a 400-mile campaign swing down the Mississippi
River. The trip, reprising the bus tour that Gore and Clinton made following the
1992 convention, ends Monday in Hannibal, Mo.
GRAPHIC:
PHOTO Color PHOTO by THE ASSOCIATED PRESS - Vice President Al Gore delivers his
speech to the Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles on Thursday.
(2)
PHOTO by THE ASSOCIATED PRESS - Tipper Gore takes photographs from the podium at
the Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles on Thursday.
(3) PHOTO by
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS - Sen. Joseph Lieberman blows a kiss to delegates after
accepting the Democratic nomination for vice president Thursday.
LOAD-DATE: August 18, 2000
