|
|
 |
|
 |
 |
| ENDGAME: GEORGE W. BUSH | |
 November 6, 2000  |
|
|
Gwen Ifill reports on George W. Bush's campaign on the eve of Election Day. After this report, Shields and Gigot discuss the Bush campaign.
|
|
GWEN
IFILL: Listen closely to the cheers.
GOV. TOM RIDGE: Are you ready to roll? GWEN IFILL: The fireworks. Listen to the die-hard supporters.
GWEN IFILL: And listen to the candidate. GOV. GEORGE W. BUSH: I take nothing for granted in the great state of Pennsylvania. I want your vote, and I want your help. This is a close race. It's going to be a tough contest. After all, we're running against the incumbency. God bless. GWEN IFILL: What you hear and what you see is a confident Republican presidential campaign roaring toward the finish line on the last weekend of a neck-in-neck race that has become -- there's no other way to describe it -- a horse race. Governor Bush's advisors say these final campaign days are playing out exactly as they planned, a dash through crucial states and a fanciful grab for a few less winnable ones. Like New Jersey, where Governor Christine Todd Whitman suggested Bush might yet be able to overcome an Al Gore advantage.
GWEN IFILL: Traveling through Pennsylvania on Saturday, retired General Colin Powell was in tow. |
 |
|||||||||
| Leadership in Washington | |||||||||||
|
COLIN POWELL: We're looking for leadership in Washington, we're looking for leadership in the White House that will be principled leadership. We're looking for people who will restore dignity and honor to the White House and to the nation's capital.
GOV. GEORGE W. BUSH: I need your help on this election, because I'm running against old-style politics. I'm running against that politics of the past. I'm running against somebody who... I'm running against somebody who's trying to scare people into the voting booth. GWEN IFILL: The itinerary, a geopolitical tour of the Sunshine State, from the heavily Republican Jacksonville area, to prosperous West Palm Beach, down the coast to the population center of Miami and back up north to the state's agricultural and resort destination, Orlando. Along the way, he sprinkled his pitch with a little Spanish. GOV. GEORGE W. BUSH: Hola. GWEN IFILL: Attempting to turn his nickname W. into a cheer. Along for the ride to touch all the bases, Bush nephew George P. to appeal to the young. GEORGE P. BUSH: The big question is, is Miami ready to elect the next president of the United States? GWEN IFILL: Mayor Rudy Giuliani was there to reach out to expatriate New York retirees. The only other elected official who stands to lose more than the Texas governor would if Florida slips away -- Florida Governor Jeb Bush -- the candidate's older brother.
GWEN IFILL: George Bush also joked that if his brother doesn't deliver Florida, the family Thanksgiving holiday will be a chilly one this year. By deciding to spend so many of the campaign's waning hours here in Florida, George W. Bush is acknowledging a vital political truth. Even if he doesn't win Michigan, Pennsylvania, or any of the other toss-up battleground states, he can still capture the White House but not without Florida and its 25 electoral votes. Karl Rove, Bush's chief political strategist, joined the road show for its final swing. |
 |
||||||||||
| Florida: An all-day affair | |||||||||||
|
GWEN IFILL: Why are we in Florida all day today? KARL ROVE: It's a state that wants to be asked for the vote, and we're going to make certain. This is a state that Al Gore absolutely has to win if he's going to beat us, and he's not going to beat us. GWEN IFILL: Doesn't George W Bush absolutely have to win it too? KARL ROVE: No, there are lots of different ways to put together 270 for us. We start with a much broader base of support in the West and the South and the Midwest than does Al Gore. GWEN IFILL: Florida Congressman Bill McCollum in his own tight race for the U.S. Senate this year says the state is well within reach for Bush.
GWEN IFILL: As added insurance, millions of phone calls, thousands of pieces of direct mail, and this pre-election appearance Sunday with popular evangelist Billy Graham, a family friend, who all but endorsed Bush.
GWEN IFILL: Bush's message to the party faithful is not complicated. Now boiled down to an efficient 15 minutes, his theme: Al Gore, he insists, cannot be trusted. GOV. GEORGE W. BUSH: The role of a leader is to set clear agendas. The role of a leader is to make it clear what the nation must do. The role of a leader is to take the issues as clear as possible to the people. The role of a leader is to not to try to reinvent himself during the course of campaigns, but to be steady and firm. |
|||||||||||
| Not the government's money | |||||||||||
|
GWEN IFILL: A Bush presidency, he says, would reduce government, cut taxes, and improve education and retirement security. GOV. GEORGE W. BUSH: The surplus is not the government's money, Al Gore. The surplus is the people's money. And our people are over taxed! GWEN IFILL: And leadership, he concludes, is about more than just Washington experience. For the true believers, the message strikes a chord.
GWEN IFILL: Bush is not above taunting the Democrats. GOV. GEORGE W. BUSH: Now, I'm running against an opponent whose favorite - one of his favorite expressions is "You ain't seen nothin' yet." And he's right. We ain't seen nothin' yet. For eight years, for eight years this great nation has been wondering about Medicare reform, but we ain't seen nothin' yet. In the public education system there's an achievement gap. We long for reform, but for eight years we ain't seen nothin' yet. There's medical insurance issues -- people are uninsured who are working hard in America. We want reform, but for eight years we ain't seen nothin' yet. GWEN IFILL: To drive the point home, Bush's final campaign day began this morning in Al Gore's home state of Tennessee, and is scheduled to end in Bill Clinton's home state of Arkansas. His aides call this in-your-face-smash-mouth politics. And they say that they are increasingly confident that they can win big on Tuesday. KARL ROVE: We win in a walk. GWEN IFILL: Really. Why do you think?
GWEN IFILL: Bush ends his campaign at home in Austin, Texas, where he's counting on a raucous victory party Tuesday night. JIM LEHRER: A small correction for the record. George Bush is older than his brother, Jeb. |
 |
||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||
| |||||
 | |||||
| |||||
|
|
| |||
| |||||
| |||||
| Support the kind of journalism done by the NewsHour...Become a member of your local PBS station. | |||||
KATHLEEN
McCARTHY: I have 12 children and I've taught them from the time they
were babies to be people of principle and stand for what you believe,
whether it's popular or not. He has, I admire that, and aside from being
a man of integrity, he's got some excellent programs that we haven't
seen. The people have the power. That's one of the reasons I think he's
just an excellent choice, and I can't wait to go push my button. 
GOV.
CHRISTINE TODD WHITMAN: We're going to prove all those pundits wrong,
because we're going to vote for the next president, George W. Bush.
GWEN
IFILL: But Florida is the prize. Bush devoted all day Sunday to defending
his campaign against its most lethal threat: The chance that Vice President
Gore could steal Florida out from under him. 
GOV.
JEB BUSH: There's one candidate that does inspire us to be better and
to do better, and believes in a brighter future, and that's my brother,
George. Please go out and get 10 other people to go to the polls on
Tuesday. It is very important. We can make a difference for the future
of liberty in this hemisphere, for the future of freedom, and for the
future prosperity of the next generation of Americans. 
REP.
BILL McCOLLUM: I think we're now moving in the right direction, and
what I sense out there right now is intensity and momentum. One of the
things people don't always see in Florida and I see it now, because
I've been out here a lot -- this is the most invigorated the voters
have been in our base, the Republican base, conservative base in Florida,
since 1980 and Ronald Reagan. The workers are out there, they're getting
out to the polls. We have gotten more absentee ballots out than the
Democrats do by over 100,000, and so I feel we're doing the things that
are right to win, and the polling numbers in my race look very, very
good in parts of the state where people wouldn't expect us to do as
well. That's going to rub off and that's going to bring George Bush
home as well.
BILLY
GRAHAM: I've been praying that God's will shall be done. I don't endorse
candidates, but I've come as close to it, I guess, now as anytime in
my life because I think it's extremely important. We have in our state
absentee ballots, I've already voted, I'll just let you guess who I
voted for. 
PATRICIA
FRISBEE: There's a lot of candidates in the past that have not had Washington
experience. The current president did not have Washington experience.
Reagan did not have Washington experience. So I don't think that's really
an issue. I think he has the ability to have a cabinet that is filled
with a great deal of experience, and he's able to lead the country.
KARL
ROVE: I just think, look, the movement in the end in open races is to
the party out of power, to the non-incumbent party. Since 1952, the
late deciders have gone for the out of power party by a margin of 55
low to 72 high. And that's being borne out in this election. The last-minute
movement is to Governor Bush.
