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| BRADLEY ON THE TRAIL | |
 September 9, 1999 
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After excerpts from Bill Bradley's announcement speech, Washington Post reporter Thomas Edsall discusses the Bradley presidential campaign.
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| The man From Crystal City | ||||||||||||||||||||
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And it was just behind where I am standing now, on the hardwood floor of Crystal City High School gymnasium, that I found my first great love -- the feel of the ball, the leather ball in your hand... (Laughter) ...the squeak of your sneakers on the floor, the swish of the net. I loved everything about the game of basketball. I wasn't the most talented player in the world, but I had three strengths: I had a sense of where I was on the court; I had quick, sure hands; and I could out-work anyone. I loved the fact that on that gleaming wooden floor, hard work paid off and dreams became reality. It was also there that I absorbed the idea that a team is not just about winning; it's about shared sacrifice, it's about giving up something small for yourself in order to gain something large for everybody. And you know, it's the same for our country. ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Bradley spoke about many Americans' distrust of politics and politicians. ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: But he said he believed politics and government do have an important role, and that's why he's running for President. BILL BRADLEY: The numbers tell us that we're living in a time of unprecedented prosperity. But what are we doing with that prosperity? After ten years of a robust economy, are the important things truly better -- our health care system -- our schools -- our civic life -- our family life -- our children's future? In so many ways, we have failed to use our prosperity to improve the well-being of all our citizens. Shouldn't we be fixing our roof while the sun's shining? Shouldn't we be shoring up our foundation before the rain gets in? Now, above all, is not the time for complacency. I feel an urgency to seize this moment in history to strengthen the weak and to challenge the strong to lead us into our full greatness as a nation. (Applause) There are two kinds of politicians -- (Laughter) maybe more (Laughter) -- those who talk and promise, and those who listen and do. I know which one I am. (Cheers and applause) |
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| Becoming more than an abstraction | ||||||||||||||||||||
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ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Bradley left his hometown today for a bus trip up the Mississippi, and more campaigning in Iowa. For more, we turn to Thomas Edsall of the Washington Post.The NewsHour is working with the Post in covering the 2000 presidential race. Tom has been traveling with Bradley this week. He's in Keokuk, Iowa this evening. Tom, tell us a little more about that rally yesterday.
ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: I understand you got a tour, reporters got a tour of Crystal City with him last night. Tell us about that. THOMAS EDSALL: He took us on a tour of his home, the bank his father worked in, down to the Little League Park that he played in and then down to the Mississippi. And it was an event that was really designed for his contacts with the press. A lot of us in the media have seen him particularly as kind of abstracted, not really connected and separated in a way from the fight of the campaign. And this, he presented a side of himself that he had not really shown so far, and I think, in terms of his press relations, it was a pretty smart move.
THOMAS EDSALL: Today was really a much softer day. He started off with a press availability in the morning, talked about himself, talked to some degree about why should you vote for him over Gore and then he had a rally with a black fraternity in downtown St. Louis -- it was an event that he is pushing very hard on the idea that we have a nation that is experiencing a great deal of prosperity. But there are some people who are not doing as well as others. This fraternity is doing a lot of work with young children, tutoring them, and it's going to be building a whole center for senior citizens, and it's the kind of thing he does a lot of stops on his campaigns at these private, nonprofit civic groups, and this was meant to be emblematic of that kind of theme on his campaign. |
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| Still speaking in general terms | ||||||||||||||||||||
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ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: And, Tom, at these events, are you hearing specifics about programs which he will propose in this campaign? THOMAS EDSALL: That's where he has been... well, he has been specific on a few areas. One is campaign finance reform. Another is gun control, where he has been stronger and tougher, particularly than Al Gore on those two subjects. On the other big areas, though, he's really so far dealt only in abstractions. He's talked about a goal of trying to prevent all childhood poverty, and he's also got a goal of significantly reducing the number of people who are uninsured for their healthcare. These are two very substantial concepts. But he has yet to put flesh and blood on them. He was asked about them today, and he said he really does not want to talk about them, even in terms of possible costs, until he really knows what it is he wants to do. And he has not yet made decisions on these matters. ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: And you've touched on this, but go into a little more detail on how he is differentiating himself from Vice President Gore.
ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Give us a sense of what the polls show so far, how he's doing vis-à-vis Gore, for example. THOMAS EDSALL: Nationally, he's got a long way to go. Gore is about two and a half times ahead of him, 69 to 24, as I recall. Where he's doing quite well, though, Bradley is doing well, is in New Hampshire. There he has steadily moved up. The race is closed. There's a Boston Globe poll and a Franklin Pierce College poll both showed them within 4 to 7 percentage points. Part of the reason for that is that independent voters can vote for him in the New Hampshire primary, unlike most other states, where only Democrats can participate. Independents are stronger for Bradley. In fact, they are running 2-1 for Bradley. Whereas, Democratic voters are strongly for Gore. If Bradley can get into contests that are open to independents, non-affiliated voters, he has a much better chance than he does in a closed primary where only Democratic voters can get into it.
THOMAS EDSALL: Well, that's his dilemma. This morning he said, "I have-- someone asked him, "why do people want to support you and don't like Gore?" And he says, "well, you know, I run into that quite a bit, especially independent voters will come up to me and Republican voters will come up to me and they'll say 'I'll never vote for him, but I would vote for you'" That is a good credential for his general election campaign and suggests that he might be as good or better a candidate in the general as gore. But the problem is that he has to win in the Democratic primary and the whole Democratic primary process, and those on the whole are not Republican and independent voters. Most of those are closed events. The New Hampshire is an exception to that, but most, you have Democratic voters voting in Democratic primaries. But he has to break into that Democratic universe. To do that, he is stressing these programs that call on traditional Democratic goals of expanded healthcare, reduced poverty. It's really an attempt to renew a wing of the party that has been in trouble recently. The liberal and reform wing of the party have had a tough time. Clinton has been a centrist, third-way Democrat. Gore is somewhat following in the same footsteps. Bradley is trying to revive the liberal reform wing and to use that to add on to the base of support in the party that he now has. ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Tom Edsall, thanks a lot for being with us. THOMAS EDSALL: Thank you. JIM LEHRER: You can get more information on this story on the Washington Post Web site, and on ours. |
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ELIZABETH
FARNSWORTH: Bill Bradley, former Senator, NBA basketball player, Olympic
Gold Medal winner, and Rhodes Scholar, launched his presidential campaign
yesterday in front of the Crystal City, Missouri high school where his
great sports career began. The town played a major role in yesterday's
event-- 5,000 local women baked cookies, for example-- and Bradley began
his speech with fond memories of Crystal City, and how it had shaped
him.
BILL
BRADLEY, Democratic Presidential Candidate: Crystal City had one stoplight
then, but it had a rich array of ethnic families. When it came to race,
the town was a little ahead of its time. The Little League was integrated
before the schools. As a teenager, I can remember walking out of restaurants
in the boot heel of Missouri because they wouldn't serve our black catcher.
Racism disturbed me then, and still angers me now. For me, the only
thing deserving of hate is hate itself. (Applause) 
BILL
BRADLEY: I'm trying to run a different kind of campaign. I'm calling
on us to renew our faith in each other as neighbors. I'm listening to
America, not to the pundits. I'm raising money from ordinary citizens,
not from special interest PAC's. (Applause) And I'm hoping that by election
day, we'll be choosing between two people we esteem, not the candidate
we can still tolerate. (Applause)
THOMAS
EDSALL, Washington Post: Well, this was really an event that
allowed Bradley to put a little flesh and bones on himself. He so far
has been running -- most of the support he has are people who are angry
at Clinton, they don't really know much about him. Here he was able
to be a small-town boy, an honest small-town boy, to present himself
and to give a flavor of who he is, his background, his childhood, his
parents, growing up on the banks of the Mississippi. To sort of become
a little more human than the abstraction he's been so far. 
ELIZABETH
FARNSWORTH: And what was on the program today? 
THOMAS
EDSALL: He's got really two themes: One is that he comes from roots
of the small community, Crystal City. He delivered the paper in the
morning, went to public schools, he actually delivered the paper in
the afternoon. He played basketball. He was part of this community.
In contrast to Gore, although he does not say this, but that's what
implicit, here is Gore who grew up largely in Washington, the son of
a Senator, lived in a hotel part of the time, lived inside the beltway.
That's one strong theme. And along the same lines is the theme that
he, Bradley, brings to the campaign an independence and an integrity
that, if Gore does not lack may well be lacking in the Clinton administration,
and that has hurt Gore significantly. A lot of Bradley's support now
comes from people who don't like Clinton. In fact, that's really the
core of Bradley's support in this campaign are democratic and independent
voters who do not like Clinton or are unhappy with him. Bradley is now...this
event yesterday and what he's going to try to do further is to expand
on reasons why you need to vote for him in addition to just voting against
Clinton. That's not enough to win. An anti-Clinton vote in a Democratic
primary will not win. 
ELIZABETH
FARNSWORTH: So expand on this strategy a little bit. You said that he
needs to get people for him who are not just against President Clinton.
What else does he need to do? He's going for the independent vote and
some Republican votes, too, he wants, right? 
