Copyright 2000 The Atlanta Constitution
The Atlanta
Journal and Constitution
September 30, 2000, Saturday, Home Edition
SECTION: News; Pg. 10A
LENGTH: 728 words
HEADLINE:
CAMPAIGN 2000: The Ticker;
QUICK HITS FROM THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL
BYLINE: From staff and wire reports
SOURCE: AJC
BODY:
NBC
giving local stations an option on airing debate
NBC backed away Friday
from its decision to broadcast baseball instead of the first presidential debate
Tuesday, saying it will offer its local stations a choice of playoffs or
politics. The network had been under fire for its earlier decision to show a
previously scheduled playoff game. "This has been a very difficult situation,"
NBC spokeswoman Kassie Cantor said. "We have a contractual obligation to air the
baseball game on the broadcast networks. By offering feeds of the debate and the
baseball game, we will leave the decision to our local stations and affiliates."
The network's all- news cable channel, MSNBC, will provide complete coverage.
Dole's advice for Bush
Former Sen. Bob Dole, the 1996 Republican
nominee for president, passed on some advice to George W. Bush heading into the
debates with Al Gore. "They always told me, 'Speak to that lady in the living
room --- no matter who's asking the questions, speak to the lady in the living
room' " Dole said. "I guess I wasn't very good at it, since I was beaten," he
added. Dole, 77, spoke at Denison University in Granville, Ohio, as part of the
American Conservative Tradition lecture series. He said Bush needs to groom a
presidential image. "I think for Bush it's critical," Dole said. "There's that
feeling that he's not quite ready for prime time, that he doesn't fill the suit.
I don't think that's true, but there's that feeling out there."
Some
brushing up to do
It's been more than a decade since Dick Cheney has
been in a debate. One opponent he faced "wasn't the most formidable candidate,"
he said. "He campaigned all over Wyoming in a pickup truck with Idaho plates on
it." Six years ago, Joe Lieberman debated three times with Gerald Labriola, a
doctor whom Connecticut Republicans basically had to beg to run against the
Democratic senator. Lieberman clobbered Labriola in the election. But Thursday's
vice presidential debate in Kentucky between Cheney and Lieberman promises to be
a bigger challenge, and both will be taking time off from campaigning in the
coming days to brush up on their skills.
No-dumping vow to Nevada
Nevada Republicans, like their Democratic counterparts, wanted a written
promise from their presidential candidate that he'd veto plans for temporary
storage of high-level nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain. They got
it Friday from George W. Bush, who saw his big lead in Nevada slip after Al Gore
made a similar promise at the Democratic National Convention. "I would veto
legislation that would provide for the temporary storage of nuclear waste at
Yucca Mountain," Bush wrote in a letter responding to a request
from Republican Gov. Kenny Guinn. Bush also repeated his earlier assertion that
science should determine where a dump for the nation's high-level radioactive
waste will be located.
Hillary Clinton's lead widens
Hillary
Clinton has opened a 10-point lead among likely voters in her Senate race
against Rick Lazio, an advantage that seems built on solid support among women
and city dwellers, according to a new poll. She also drew surprisingly strong
numbers in suburban areas thought to be Republican strongholds. The poll gave
Clinton a 52-42 edge over Lazio among those likely to vote, marking the first
showing of a clear majority for either New York Senate candidate. The poll,
conducted for Newsday and New York TV station WPIX (4 percentage point margin of
error), also was the first to show that more voters have an unfavorable opinion
of Lazio than they do of Clinton. The Lazio camp has been banking on Clinton's
high negative ratings to push Lazio over the top.
For the record, he's
peeved
George W. Bush's campaign is giving country music singer Billy
Ray Cyrus' father an achy breaky heart. Ron Cyrus, a longtime Democratic
activist and ex- state legislator in Kentucky, said he was stunned to find Bush
using one of his son's recent songs, "We the People," as its campaign theme
song. The lyrics include, "We pay the taxes, we pay the bills, so they better
pay attention on Capitol Hill." "That's a Democrat song; that's a working
people's song," Cyrus said he told his son. The record label, Monument, said it
offered the song to both campaigns last summer, and only the Republicans
expressed interest.
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