Newman's Own Choice: Gore
Paul Newman, the renowned actor, writer, director, producer, philanthropist and longtime liberal, chatted with CBS News Correspondent Mark McEwen on the CBS News Early Show studio Tuesday.
PAUL NEWMAN: There's two things that make me sweat. Live television and government. In that order.
MARK McEWEN: Now, you're an actor. What do you make of the spin doctors out there when they spin? What do you think of that?
PAUL NEWMAN: Well, it's been interesting to kind of know the transformation of it. They've developed — especially the Republicans — seem to have developed the kind of a swagger and a smirk that Bush used to have that kind of says, "It's in the bag and it's a slam dunk" and everything.
And if the loyal Democrats get out there and have the same energy that the Republicans do, especially in the swing states, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Florida, Oregon, Washington, it's going to be a rock for the Democrats.
MARK McEWEN: The people checking in can tell where you're voting. You're voting for Al Gore. Why?
PAUL NEWMAN: Why am I voting for him? Well, I think he's got incredible credentials.
It really disturbed me when I heard Bush say that he didn't really know that Social Security was a federal program.
I'm concerned with a guy who is so inexperienced when those boys in the far right wing of the Republican Party — the guys that shut down the government in 1995 — when they get a hold of him by the collar, he's going to be twisting in the wind and just be held hostage by them.
MARK McEWEN: Tell people why they should vote.
PAUL NEWMAN: Why they should vote?
MARK McEWEN: Uh-huh. Because a lot of people say, I'm not going. My vote doesn't mean anything. Tell them why.
PAUL NEWMAN: Because there's a tremendous difference between these two candidates, and it concerns me that Ralph Nader says that there's no difference between the parties or the candidates.
You know, I had Nader in my living room very early on in March or early April because I believed he should have a platform. We should hear what he had to say. I have great respect for him. When he says there's no difference between these candidates, I suspect that if he were one of the 60 million American women of childbearing age, if he was one of those women, he would be a little less cavalier about saying, "It doesn't make any difference about who gets appointed to the Supreme Court."