Bush, Gore Getting Knee Deep
With the presidential debates over and the race still too close to call, George W. Bush and Al Gore are hitting the campaign trail hard. Not only are they focusing their energies on battleground states, but they are getting help to target key voter groups.
After appearing on Wednesday morning talk shows, both candidates planned to head out to the heartland. Bush was to stump in Wisconsin, Gore was scheduled to campaign in Iowa and both planned a visit to Michigan.
In the third and final debate on Tuesday, the Texas governor felt he stood his ground with an aggressive Democratic rival, while a CBS snap poll gave the debate to Gore by a margin of 45-40 percent.
Bush, in an interview with CBS News Correspondent Bill Whitaker for The Early Show, said " QUOTE ."
In an interview with CBS News Correspondent Bill Plante for The Early Show, Gore said he was pleased with his performance against Republican George W. Bush in their third and final debate before the election.
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Gore canceled a rally in Kansas City, Missouri, Wednesday so he could visit the family of Missouri Gov. Mel Carnahan, who was killed in a plane crash Monday night.
Afterward, Gore was to travel to Iowa and Michigan and then head to New York City, where he will give what aides said will be a major economic speech Thursday. He meets with business leaders Friday.
Gore has dubbed the final three weeks of his White House bid the "Big Choice Prosperity for All Campaign." The vice president argues that voters should keep him at the helm rather than take a risk by turning over the controls to the two-term Texas governor.
During the campaign's home stretch, Gore plans to attend daily "kitchen-table" discussions with "real families" -- at schools, in private homes, seniors' centers and work sites, aides said.
He will hold a rally later in the day -- at a factory, in a park or at a school -- and then cap off the day with an evening rally at an airport.
"Al Gore will be laying out the big differences between him and George W. Bush and the big choices that America faces on some of the most important issues of our time -- health care, education, Social Security, tax cuts and the environment," said Gore Press Secretary Chris Lehane.
"We've now finished the debate phase of this campaign," he told supporters. "It's now voter-turnout time. Grass-roots politics are going to make the difference."
Meanwhile, at a meeting over the weekend, the Democratic Committee decided to commit money to target black voter turnout in certain key states, suspending advertising in some other states, officials said. The party is buying almost $1 million worth of advertising in Florida, where Gore's campaign is increasingly focusing its hopes in a very close race against George W. Bush.
Among other states targeted by the party for the intensive black voer turnout drive are: Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio and Pennsylvania, officials said.
The money will be spent on canvassing for votes door to door, on the radio, on television and in newspapers, through phone banks and even Internet chat rooms.
With the pressure of debating over, Bush has also turned his attention to attracting the support of independent and swing voters in crucial battleground states and getting his supporters to go to the polls.
Bush began by exhorting the faithful to get "discerning Democrats, independents and lazy Republicans" to the polls after the second debate in Winston-Salem, North Carolina last week, combining policy speeches and pep rallies on his daily campaign rounds.
With less than three weeks to go, Bush has begun to focus on a handful of states where he can make inroads into traditional Democratic territory or where he needs to shore up a shaky lead.
Aides said Pennsylvania and Michigan were the top two where he and Gore are running neck-and-neck, closely followed by Wisconsin, Washington state and Oregon. The latter three states were reliably Democratic in the past three presidential elections but recent polls indicate they are now a toss-up.
Bush also planned to visit Florida soon in the hope of sealing the state's 25 electoral votes. His younger brother Jeb Bush is governor of Florida and the Republican nominee had hoped to have the state wrapped up by now. But Gore has concentrated on the state and turned the contest there into a horse race.
Bush's aides also expressed some optimism about Arkansas, home of President Clinton and Tennessee, Gore's home state, as well as New Hampshire, Iowa and New Mexico.
Bush starts the drive to the finish line in Eau Claire and LaCrosse, Wisconsin Wednesday afternoon, where he is due to talk about his plan to rescue the Social Security retirement system from bankruptcy, reform of the Medicare health insurance plan for the elderly and his $1.3 trillion tax cut.
He then plans to campaign in Detroit, Michigan for his ninth visit since Labor Day. In rallies there he intended to keep casting the philosophical divide between him and Gore in stark terms.
Bush has recruited his mother, former first lady Barbara Bush, his wife Laura and Lynne Cheney, the wife of his vice presidential running mate Dick Cheney, to lead an all-woman charge in the same two states this week.
The women planned to talk up his proposals on issues important to women - improving education and shoring up Social Security and Medicare - while helping voters get to know the Republican presidential candidate through the women who are closest to him.
"It'll give voters a chance to judge the candidates by the company they keep," said Lynne Cheney, wife of Bush running mate Dick Cheney. She was to help open the tour with a rally Wednesday in Grand Rapids, Mich., and continue on through Pennsylvania on Thursday.
Also taking part in the bus ride through battleground states are Condoleezza Rice, Bush's foreign policy adviser; Michelle Engler, wife of Michigan Gov. John Engler; and Jane Abraham, wife of Michigan Sen. Spencer Abraham.
Cindy McCain, wife of Sen. John McCain, who challenged Bush for the GOP presidential nomination, is set to join the group next Monday.