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Jewish World Review Sept. 12, 2000 / 11 Elul, 5760
Chris Matthews
Like Bush senior, Gore is changing people's minds,
actively shifting their allegiances. He has reversed the
national polls with a thunderclap, grabbing leads over
Gov. George W. Bush of Texas that in several cases
exceed the margin of error.
Gore deserves full credit for the turnaround. His hot surge
of voter support rises from the three potent assets with
which he began the campaign: a strong economy, which
always benefits the incumbent party; an agenda of
kitchen-table issues with special, but hardly exclusive,
appeal to women voters; the early, effective indictment,
fair or not, that his rival lacks the mental vigor needed to
lead the country.
The economy
Kitchen-table Issues
Brain power
Message to voter: Gore wanted to debate before a huge audience at least three
times; Bush didn't mind the cozier surroundings of a TV studio, but he was
scared to face Gore lectern-to-lectern on some cold, cavernous stage with 60
million people the way his father did with Bill Clinton.
The Democratic candidate has shown the same skill level in cutting his losses.
Before the Democratic convention, the world of press and political opinion
agreed that President Clinton could not, would not, get off the national electoral
stage and let his vice president star.
Clinton has proven us all wrong. His trip to Africa got him not just out of town
but into the hearts of those, including ex-Peace Corps volunteers like me, who
want to see that AIDS-plagued continent get some long-overdue U.S.
attention. His stop in Colombia, bolstering the anti-drug war, was another
winner, as was his attendance at the United Nations last week.
By eliminating his own troubling personality from the Gore-Bush fight, by
accenting his role as world leader — and intimate of Nelson Mandela —
Clinton has been the silent partner in the most impressive political barnstorming
since old man Bush demolished Mike
08/23/00: Truth and beauty in Bubba's farewell
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