RE-INTRODUCING AL GORE
August 17, 2000

Former presidential hopeful Rev. Jesse Jackson and Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle discuss what Al Gore needs to include in his nomination acceptance speech.

Online NewsHour Special Reports: 2000 Democratic Convention Election 2000 Aug. 14, 2000: Former President Jimmy Carter discusses Gore and the Democrats. Aug. 14, 2000: Former presidential candidate Bill Bradley on the campaign. Aug. 14, 2000: Delegates from Arkansas look at Clinton's legacy. Aug. 11, 2000: Sen. Joe Lieberman talks about his candidacy, religion and the campaign. Aug. 11, 2000: Shields and Gigot discuss Gore/Lieberman. Aug. 11, 2000: Examining Gore's economic plan Aug. 10, 2000: Los Angeles prepares for the Democratic Convention. Aug. 8, 2000: An historic choice. Aug. 7, 2000: Al Gore asks Lieberman to be his running mate. Browse the NewsHour's coverage of Politics and Campaigns and Election 2000   Democratic Convention Official Web Site	GWEN IFILL: Two prominent leaders of today's Democratic Party, Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle and the Reverend Jesse Jackson who, of course, ran for president twice. We were watching Joe Lieberman, Reverend Jackson, you were saying that you thought that this was a pretty gutsy move on Al Gore's part. REV. JESSE JACKSON: It's a record breaker. There was an invisible quota on a whole legacy of qualified Jewish leaders. But it was a quota of zero. With the act of affirmative action, Gore broke through. A political risk -- a moral certainty. The political risk, however, has electricity in it. Kennedy was a political risk, a moral certainty. He turned the anxiety and the challenge into an opportunity to convince the South, to convince non-Catholics that he was capable of being rooted in his faith on the one hand - also operating fairly under the Constitution. Lieberman has that challenge. He will reach that challenge, but in doing so, he will inspire people to act. Maybe Lieberman will be conducting a kind of crusade, not just a campaign. The campaign needs that spirit. GWEN IFILL: You know a thing or two about crusades. REV. JESSE JACKSON: Indeed.
	The re-introduction process
	GWEN IFILL: Senator Daschle, you've worked with Al Gore all these years. And now tonight is the beginning for real of this general election campaign for him. It's conventionally believed that he has to reintroduce himself. How does he do that? SEN. TOM DASCHLE: I really don't know that he has to reintroduce himself as if in the context you have to redefine somebody that you're not. I think what he has to be is himself. He needs to relax, he needs to tell this country what his vision for the country is going to be. And I think he needs to do it in a very personal way. If the people of this country get to see that personal Al Gore, they're going to be compelled to vote for him. I've seen it, Reverend Jackson has seen it, and it really is the kind of Al Gore that I hope will be projected tonight. GWEN IFILL: How does he do that? SEN. TOM DASCHLE: Well, I think he does... I've seen him do it in conversation. I've seen him do it on occasion in speeches. I must say when you see that kind of a personal Al Gore, he's a very compelling figure. He is a person who I think people feel very comfortable with. REV. JESSE JACKSON: There are also disadvantages of the short primary. He didn't have a chance to travel the country. He has to connect to the convention itself. SEN. TOM DASCHLE: Exactly. REV. JESSE JACKSON: And the convention is 40 percent labor; 1,000 African-American delegates, 1,000 Latino, native American delegates, half female, half male. Most conventioneers are meeting each other for the first time, meeting the ticket leaders for the first time and that connection will in fact create the energy to propel them forward. GWEN IFILL: And in this Democratic Party so many of the groups you mentioned all are listening for something a little bit different. How do you get all of that together in one speech, in one big prime time appearance? SEN. TOM DASCHLE: Well, I think you do it just by... You've seen it. You saw Joe Lieberman do it last night. What you saw is Joe Lieberman baring his soul to the country and explaining to the people that, you know, for the first time through his own introduction of himself, who he was, what he believed and deep down you knew that that was Joe Lieberman. You're going to see that from Al Gore tonight. He is going to bare his soul. He is going to talk about the kinds of things that he has been talking about, but he is going to frame it in a way that I think captures the essence of this campaign. REV. JESSE JACKSON: We don't have prosperity fatigue. Eight years ago there was a $40 billion deficit. Now there is a $2 trillion surplus. There has been growth. He must extend the prosperity and broaden that prosperity. I hope the first debate, Gwen, is in Appalachia because it will help create the setting: what do you do with the prosperity? Is it an entitlement that you give back to the wealthy, or is it, in fact, an opportunity to invest in those who need health care and who need housing and first class education? That setting itself would be a real challenge to the campaign.
	Into the limelight
	GWEN IFILL: How is it that after eight years of this kind of prosperity, that Al Gore still has to make the case? REV. JESSE JACKSON: Well, because if, as a vice president, if he stepped in front of the president, he would have been called ambitious and arrogant and can't play his role. And so he had to do what he had to do to be in line to be the president in case of a crisis, to back the president up; it takes a lot of discipline to play that role. I couldn't have played that role because in my own personality -- but he had the discipline to do that. Now, in terms of knowing him, when he speaks to workers' right to organize and raise the minimum wage, he speaks for self-determination for women, when he speaks to public education for all children, that connects the broad based interest of this convention because they want to be a part of America's growth and its prosperity. SEN. TOM DASCHLE: That's right. For the first time tonight I think people are going to see Al Gore showcased. He is now our leader, our political inspiration. And you're going to see stepping out of the shadows of the vice presidency and into the real limelight as our leader. And I think you're going to see the enthusiasm, the excitement for that new role for Al Gore like you've not seen it before. GWEN IFILL: How much time does he have to spend making the case against George W. Bush, if any time at all? SEN. TOM DASCHLE: Well, I don't know if it's done in a matter of time. It's really done in the matter of the context of his own candidacy. I don't think he needs to go after George Bush as much as he needs to showcase what he is going to be doing for this country and how the Lieberman-Gore approach is going to differ from the Bush-Cheney approach. REV. JESSE JACKSON: You are also going to see in the debates the preparation, experience factor when it becomes head on. You also have the George W. Bush team, not just the ticket; it's Bush and Cheney but also who you didn't see in Philadelphia. It's also Strom Thurmond and Jesse Helms and Orrin Hatch and Dick Armey. It's also a rather mean spirited group of people, who are kind of anti-labor, anti-trial lawyers, anti-civil rights, anti-women's rights and self-determination. They're working with great energy to conceal their team. But once the campaign really gets going, you are going to see that team, not just that ticket, but that team versus the Democratic team. When I think of the Southern Baptists and Orthodox Jew and Daschle and Gephardt and Charlie Rangel and Lou Gutierrez, this is the American dream team. It's a big tent team. GWEN IFILL: Reverend Jackson, Senator Daschle, thank you both very much.