Swing State Frenzy

Al Gore and George W. Bush canvassed four tossup states Saturday looking for an edge among the swelling ranks of wavering, undecided and unmotivated voters.

In Wilkes-Barre, Pa., the vice president pitched his health care plan to a university audience of medical professionals and took aim at the Republican Congress for new legislation that Gore says gives $34 billion to Health Maintenance Organizations.

Before a poster reading "Gore Lieberman: The Real Rx for a Healthy America," Gore said, "This week, Bush's allies on Capitol Hill passed a brand new health care bill, but instead of HMO reform, it’s an HMO boondoggle."

Gore said the Republican legislation, part of a larger, $240 billion tax-cut measure, "lets HMO's drop seniors."

"At a time when we should be challenging HMOs' unfair practices, it rewards them," Gore said. "That’s not a patient’s bill of rights. It’s an HMO bill of wrongs."

Gore said Bush’s plan for making prescription drug coverage available to seniors would not cover 95 percent of seniors for its first four years, forcing older Americans to enroll in private sector HMO’s.
By getting involved in the budget wrangling going on in Washington, Gore joins the debate over the 2001 federal government budget being negotiated between Congress and the White House.

President Clinton—he’s still relevant—promised Thursday to veto the budget after the White House fell out with Republican budget negotiators over immigration and spending issues.

It’s not clear how getting involved in what his rival might call typical "Washington politics” helps Gore at this late hour. Democratic efforts to link Bush to the GOP’s conservative congressional leadership haven’t worked before.

Bush wasn’t sweating the Gore health care charges Saturday.

With a slim lead in some national tracking polls and thousands of charged-up supporters chanting "No More Gore!" and waving red, white and blue pom-poms, what’s to worry?

"We're on the cusp of victory here in this great state of Wisconsin," Bush declared at an outdoor rally of 10,000, where he and running mate Dick Cheney worked to turn out the vote on Election Day.

"We need your help to turn out the vote," Bush said. "Don’t be afraid to turn to open-minded Democrats and disillusioned independents."

Cheney warmed up the crowd by mocking the Gore-Lieberman ticket’s campaign stops in Gore’s home state of Tennessee, where Bush is running strong.

Referring to his own home state, and the governor’s, Cheney said, "We're not having a campaign in Wyoming. We’re going to be okay in Wyoming. We’re going to carry Texas [and] we’re going to carry Wyoming!"

Bush promised an "Administration that stands on the side of the working people" and hit his core themes: his own across-the-board ta cut; the charge that the Democratic administration has failed to deliver any Social Security or Medicare reform; and the contention that a scandal-fatigued nation needs to embrace personal responsibility.

Bush also unveiled a three-fingered salute, which apparently refers to his middle initial, W.

Of Gore, Bush made yet another Internet joke, saying "But if the man was so smart, how come all the Internet addresses begin with `W'? Not only one W, but three Ws."

The sturdy, pom-pom wielding matrons who backed up Bush onstage nodded approvingly at his statement that we’re all "responsible for what we do in life" and it "starts with moms and dads."

Bush said "compassionate conservatism" means "any time we find someone who can’t help themselves, we'll help ‘em."

Bush told the crowd that it had Ronald Reagan - not Robert Rubin - to thank for the economic expansion of the 1990s and said that Gore is offering "targeted" tax cuts because "he’s got to have something to hang his hat on when it comes to tax relief."

Before the red, white and blue balloon launch that ended the rally (to the accompaniment of Ricky Martin) Bush told the crowd, with his typical agrammatical flair: "The best allies a family will have is a president who behaves responsibly in office!"

"I’m counting on you and you’re not gonna let us down!" he said before departing for a second rally in Columbia, Mo.

After his health care speech, Gore returned to Washington, D.C. for his son’s football game; he rarely misses one. Gore rallied with voters Saturday night in Minneapolis. On Sunday, he's in Michigan to meet with Arab-Americans and visit a church and synagogue.

Bush is off the campaign trail on Sunday, but he's expected to give a speech via satellite to Latinos in California.