Sunday Morning News

Presidential Candidates Gear up For Iowa Caucuses

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to our coverage of the Iowa caucuses.

CNN's Charles Zewe has covered the Bush campaign extensively, and he's also been following Arizona Senator John McCain for a few days. And we go to Charles now, who's standing by outside.

Now, Charles, with the vote now less than 36 hours away here in Iowa, let's go to Charles Zewe for his observations on how the candidates are doing in our Reporter's Notebook segment this morning. Charles?

CHARLES ZEWE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Leon, I think my observation about George Bush's campaign is the same one that I would have made months and months ago when Bush first announced. In covering the Southwestern U.S. for CNN, we've covered Governor Bush for a number of years as governor, and his run-up to his announcement for president, his presidential exploratory committee.

And throughout that period, the same thing has emerged that has come out in Iowa in the last few weeks, is that Bush has to be pressed on the issues. Now, yes, he is a lot more specific about issues like abortion and taxes and the military and on down the laundry list of problems that have been discussed during the campaign. But he has to be pressed on that.

Mark McKinnon (ph), one of Bush's key media strategists, told me early on in all of this, "Look, we're not going to bleed until we have to," meaning he's not going to be pinned down to specifics until he has to be pinned down to specifics.

And that happened again yesterday. He was pressed by reporters on abortion, whether he would support the Republican plank that opposes abortion, and he said he would. He would even include a provision in the plank of the Republican Party that would support a constitutional amendment banning all abortions. It's typical of the dynamic of the Bush campaign.

Now, McCain, McCain has been approaching this campaign in a sort of glib manner, that is, disarming to anybody who sees him. He talks bluntly, he talks candidly, and that's appealing to a lot of voters who hear him --Leon.

HARRIS: All right. Quickly, Charles, give us an impression of what you've noticed so far following the Democrats.

ZEWE: Well, it's all about Gore, whether Gore can be the man to win. The Republicans are focused on winning back the White House. They want that above all else. But Democrats are wondering whether Gore can do it, whether Gore can beat Bush if Bush is the nominee, particularly. And they wonder whether he has the staying power to make it all the way to defeat Bush in the general election -- if it is Bush.

HARRIS: All right, we'll -- yes, we'll find out about that soon. Charles Zewe, standing by in -- here in Des Moines, Iowa. Thanks much. We'll be talking to you later on.

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