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Jewish World Review July 17, 2000 / 14Tamuz, 5760

Chris Matthews

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Consumer Reports


AlGore is executing a double dose of imitation


http://www.jewishworldreview.com -- A MONTH FROM NOMINATION, Al Gore faces a stark and surprising challenge from the left. In Michigan, a state both sides need to win, Gore trails Texas Gov. George Bush by a daunting 12 points.

But to close this wide and unexpected gap, the vice president must first steal the appeal of Ralph Nader, the crusading Green Party nominee whose opposition to economic globalization — and record of stoic, honest independence — has him winning 8 percent of the Michigan vote.

Listening to the vice president's speeches the last week, we hear a guy flattering his rival with imitation. A vice president who has marched so blithely with the Fortune 500 on trade and Robert Rubin on global finance is now talking in the populist tongue of that sulfurous corporate critic, Ralph Nader.

Here is Gore rallying a union meeting in Philadelphia last week:

"We know our opponents are on the side of the powerful, not the people, and they have powerful interests lined up against us — from the big oil companies, to the HMOs, to the big polluters.

"But let me tell you. We are going to win this fight. We are going to take the White House in November."

Here he is at a labor meeting in Chicago:

"I'm on your side, and I want to fight for the people. The other side fights for the powerful. That's why the big pharmaceutical companies are supporting Gov. Bush. That's why the big oil companies are supporting Gov. Bush. That's why the big polluters are supporting Gov. Bush."

Here he is in Connecticut last week:

"This is the do-nothing Congress of the 21st century — and the reason they do nothing is that the Republican leaders keep asking what they can do for the special interests."

"Do nothing for the people!" he mocks their motives. "Pass nothing that offends the special interests! Serve the powerful, not the people!"

By aping the message of Nader, Gore is executing a double dose of imitation. This is precisely what President Harry Truman did in 1948 when faced with a third-party challenge from the left. To limit the damage done by former FDR vice president Henry Wallace, who ran on the "Progressive" ticket that year, Truman simply moved to the left himself. He began attacking corporate power with a ferocity no one, including Wallace, could match.

Gore has the same objective as Truman because he faces the same three challenges: a united Republican party, a Democratic party badly lacking passion, a third-party challenge from the left.

To carry out the strategy, Gore needs more than baby talk populism: the "people" vs. the "powerful, the polluters and the special interests."

But to reject the pure allure of Nader, voters on the left need to buy the vice president as a genuine critic of the political establishment. For a guy who inherited a seat in the U.S. Senate, who has spent his life among lobbyists, Washington insiders and Bill Clinton, that could be a hard sell.



JWR contributor Chris Matthews is the author of Hardball. and hosts a CNBC show of the same name. Send your comments to him by clicking here.

Up

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