Gore Takes Manhattan
On his second day as a full-fledged presidential candidate, Vice President Al Gore visited the Big Apple and threw his support behind Hillary Rodham Clinton's likely bid for the Senate from that state.
Gore told reporters that a Clinton Senate bid can only have a positive effect on his own campaign.
Gore said a bid by Mrs. Clinton would be "a positive force" and generate Democratic enthusiasm throughout the country.
"I'm all for it,"the vice president told reporters on Air Force Two as he flew to New York. "It will generate enthusiasm here and around the country."
On the stump in Manhattan Friday, he promised true equality for women and minorities, after-school programs for teens and pre-school for younger children. But perhaps just as importantly, he punctuated those pledges with sweeping gestures.
"If you look at our economic circumstances today compared to what they were seven years ago, the contrast is truly astonishing," Gore said while warming to about 800 supporters at the midtown campaign reception at The Pierre Hotel.
He rattled off the statistics: budget surpluses instead of deficits, a rising stock market. And as the applause grew, so did his decibel level.
"We have higher wages, higher living standards, a better country!" Gore shouted in a voice growing guttural with the effort.
Aides said Gore was beginning to stake out his own record in the delicate job facing every vice president seeking the top spot -- distancing himself from the White House while not seeming disloyal.
"To begin unshackling from the vice presidency is the key," said campaign chairman Tony Coelho. "We need to break free of the vice presidency."
The trip through New York was part of a four-day, six-state campaign swing.
In addition to the nod he gave traditionally Democratic priorities like women's and minority rights, Gore has promised tax cuts targeted for small businesses and a doubling of the nation's investment in information technology.
Republicans are already honing charges that she's a carpetbagger, and are likely to revisit sex scandals at the White House and financial investigations in Arkansas.