ad info




CNN.com
 MAIN PAGE
 WORLD
 U.S.
 LOCAL
 POLITICS
 WEATHER
 BUSINESS
 SPORTS
 TECHNOLOGY
 SPACE
 HEALTH
 ENTERTAINMENT
 BOOKS
 TRAVEL
 FOOD
 ARTS & STYLE
 NATURE
 IN-DEPTH
 ANALYSIS
 myCNN

 Headline News brief
 news quiz
 daily almanac

  MULTIMEDIA:
 video
 video archive
 audio
 multimedia showcase
 more services

  E-MAIL:
Subscribe to one of our news e-mail lists.
Enter your address:
Or:
Get a free e-mail account

 DISCUSSION:
 message boards
 chat
 feedback

  CNN WEB SITES:
CNN Websites
 AsiaNow
 En Español
 Em Português
 Svenska
 Norge
 Danmark
 Italian

 FASTER ACCESS:
 europe
 japan

 TIME INC. SITES:
 CNN NETWORKS:
Networks image
 more networks
 transcripts

 SITE INFO:
 help
 contents
 search
 ad info
 jobs

 WEB SERVICES:

  Transcripts

Saturday Morning News

Reporter's Notebook: Gore Looks to Wrap Up Nomination on March 7th

Aired February 26, 2000 - 9:38 a.m. ET

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

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Primaries in two states this week have commanded political headlines for the Republican presidential candidates. And on the Democratic side, both Al Gore and Bill Bradley are out west today. California and Washington state are among 16 primaries or caucuses on March 7th.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: You could call that a big day, I think.

PHILLIPS: Yes, that's a big day.

O'BRIEN: CNN's Chris Black is traveling with the Gore campaign. She is in California as we speak.

We invite you to call us now with your questions for Chris. The phone number is 404-221-1855. Dial in right now.

And Chris joining us there from our San Francisco bureau, up early there but she tells us she's on East Coast time, so it's not that big a deal, right?

CHRIS BLACK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Miles.

O'BRIEN: Good to see you.

Let's go right to the e-mail, shall we? This one comes from David Lewis in Houston, Texas: "I'm a dedicated Democrat, but McCain is looking better and better. Is Gore worried about others who may be feeling this conflict despite past commitment to the party?"

And just as an afterthought to David's question, Chris, I find this somewhat odd when you look at the voting records of McCain. He's very conservative.

BLACK: Exactly. The Gore campaign officials are really not very worried about John McCain or George W. Bush. But particularly in terms of John McCain, the first thing they will all say to you is, well, he's a right-winger. He's a conservative. They think that there are a million issues that they could use against John McCain in November, the issues of abortion, his voting record on gun control, health care. You just go all the way down the line.

On issues they say that are of great concern to the voters, particularly swing voters, suburbanites, independents, they say McCain is on the wrong side, and they think they can make the case. So they're not worried at all.

PHILLIPS: All right, Chris. We're going to turn to the phones quickly. Steve in Connecticut has a question for you. Go ahead, Steve.

STEVE: Hi, this is almost a follow-up to that one. Is it ever going to be strategically the right moment for Al Gore to start attacking John McCain on some of his inconsistencies with things like the Keating Five scandal during the primaries?

BLACK: well, he -- this week, Gore added something to his stump speech, attacks on both Bush and McCain, very pointed attacks, laying the groundwork for November, pointing out that these two candidates are conservative Republicans, that they are on the opposite side of a number of issues that they think are of concern to Democratic voters and independent voters. So he's already begun to make the case.

He has not raised any sort of specifics in terms of the Keating Five episode, This is a campaign, the Gore campaign, that feels that they -- it is to their advantage to keep this campaign focused on issues. All their polling shows that voters are concerned about themselves and their health insurance, the education of their children, the livability of their communities. And they think that that's the wiser strategy, to stick to those issues.

But in terms of attacking the Republicans, that's what he's doing. You never here Bill Bradley's name from Al Gore, and if you do it's a parenthetical reference. It's off-hand. It's like, oh, yes, that other guy, what's his name.

O'BRIEN: All right, let's do a follow-up to the follow-up. This one comes from the Internet from Lauren Fox. The question, well, "Who is Gore more concerned about running against, Bush or McCain?"

BLACK: I don't think you can say that Gore is terribly concerned about any opponent at this point. He is keeping his focus on winning the Democratic nomination and winning it as fast as he possibly can. It really looks to days as if he could wrap this up on March 7th, not only because he has double-digit leads in all the big states that are voting that day -- in fact, all the small states as well -- but he also has in his back pocket more than 500 superdelegates. These are members of the Democratic National Committee, elected officials who have already endorsed him. Now you need maybe 2,000 -- more than 2,000 votes to win the Democratic nomination. He could actually be numerically very, very close to that by March 7th, which is kind of extraordinary when you consider it.

PHILLIPS: All right, Chris, Pat from Missouri is on the line. He's got a question concerning Gore. Go ahead, Pat.

PAT: Thank you.

Hey, Chris, from your perspective, do you feel that Vice President Gore is going to finally come out from underneath the shadow of President Clinton, or is he going to continue to try to ride that popularity that President Clinton has had and try to hope that that helps him to win the coming election?

BLACK: That's an interesting way to put the question. I think, as somebody who covered the White House for the last year and has watched Gore as vice president and now as the candidate for president, he is slowly but surely emerging from the shadow. He is very much becoming, defining himself, becoming his own man. You can really feel it on the stump. The fact that he was willing to campaign publicly with Mrs. Clinton in Albany on Sunday shows that they are fairly pretty comfortable that he is beginning to establish his own identity.

On the other hand, he would be insane to not capitalize on the economic growth of the Clinton-Gore administration years, and that is what he is going to do. It depends, I guess, upon the timing. Right now, he is sort of hitting Democratic issues, issues of most concern to Democratic voters because he is trying to lock this nomination up. But I think it is clear that as we move closer into a general election, he will begin to talk more and more about economy. He does talk about it from time to time. He sort of says, the Republicans want to go back to the bad old days. Why would we want to do that?

O'BRIEN: All right...

BLACK: It's a pretty strong pitch.

O'BRIEN: It's a strong pitch.

Chris, let's take the final e-mail. This one comes from a future political analyst who is now age 7, Yael Acker. Seems appropriate since you're sitting a few miles from the Pacific Heights home of Dianne Feinstein, "Will Mr. Gore consider Dianne Feinstein as a VP running mate?

BLACK: Well, the conventional wisdom, Miles, is that everybody is -- the Democratic candidate needs to consider a running mate from California because it's such an important state. A Democratic presidential candidate cannot win the presidency without California.

But on the other hand, if Al Gore can't carry California without Senator Feinstein than he's not much of a candidate. I think she will certainly be considered. She and Senator Boxer would be considered on any sort of short list, but I don't think it's necessarily a given that she would be selected in the end, because Al Gore is well ahead of Bill Bradley in this state, well ahead of Republican candidates as well, and it looks like California will be a pretty safe bet for him in November unless things change drastically.

O'BRIEN: CNN's Chris Black on the hustings with the Gore campaign.

Always good to see you. Thanks for dropping by.

PHILLIPS: Thanks, Chris.

BLACK: You're welcome. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com

  ArrowCLICK HERE FOR TODAY'S TOPICS AND GUESTS
ArrowCLICK HERE FOR CNN PROGRAM SCHEDULES
SEARCH CNN.com
Enter keyword(s)   go    help

Back to the top   © 2001 Cable News Network. All Rights Reserved.
Terms under which this service is provided to you.
Read our privacy guidelines.