The <i>Real</i> Race Is On

The day after wrapping up their parties' presidential nominations, Al Gore and George W. Bush began their eight-month, one-on-one battle for the White House with a flurry of partisan jabbing. Bush said he was braced for Gore's "politics of personal destruction and distortions,'' while Gore argued Bush's "risky tax scheme'' would hurt the economy.

After two and a half months of almost nonstop campaigning, Gore promised "there will be no let up at all.'' Appearing at the AFL-CIO state convention in Philadelphia Wednesday, the vice president thanked union members for helping to get out the vote. "Today we start moving forward to victory in November,'' he said.

Gore indicated he would attack Bush on a broad range of issues, including taxes, gun control and abortion.

"I want to protect a woman's right to choose," said Gore. "Gov. Bush, along with Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell, want to overturn Roe v. Wade and take away a woman's right to choose."

Gore also ridiculed Bush's plan for tax cuts, calling it "a $2 trillion risky tax scheme that would spend not only the entire surplus but $1 trillion over and above that, putting Social Security at risk, putting us back into deficits and building up the national debt again."

Bush, meanwhile, brushed off Gore's promise to hold off on television ads funded by "soft money'' as long as Bush does, too. The Texas governor predicted McCain supporters would come to his side and his passion for improving education'' would attract women voters.

"The Clinton-Gore team love the politics of personal destruction and distortions and I understand they're going to throw everything they've got at me,'' Bush said in an appearance on ABC's Good Morning America.

Tuesday night, Gore and Bush gathered up the last delegates needed to win their parties' nominations, according to CBS News exit polls.

Six Southern states held primaries Tuesday - Texas, Florida, Louisiana, Tennessee, Oklahoma and Mississippi. Originally intended as a bold regional statement, Southern Tuesday wilted after Gore and Bush won a rich cluster of primaries on March 7, or Super Tuesday. Two days later, Bill Bradley and John McCain dropped out within one hour of each other, and the field was cleared.

By 7 p.m., when Florida's polls closed, Gore was all set. He needed only 27 delegates to hit the magic number of 2,170, and Florida fulfilled his demand, showering him with 159 delegates. The remaining states, in quick succession, added icing to the cake.

"Tonight, the South put us over the top, and this son of the South is never going to forget it," Gore beamed at a victory celebration in Miami. "But we've got to keep fighting for every vote and every state, and we've got to move into the fall election strong and united."

Bush had to wait an hour longer. He started the day 281 delegates sy of the 1,034 needed to win the nomination. As polls closed in Texas, Tennessee, Oklahoma and Mississippi, Bush accrued 312 delegates, quietly ending the roller-coaster ride that began in early February with McCain's New Hampshire upset.

"I am honored by all these victories," Bush told supporters in Austin, Texas. He played to the hometown crowd, telling them he'd promised to come home to Texas with the Republican nomination. "Tonight we can say: mission accomplished."

While the two candidates had plenty to celebrate, they still have their work cut out for them. CBS News exit polls show they both need to garner support among independents and disaffected voters in their own parties. For example, nearly half of the people who voted for Bradley Tuesday said they'd vote for Bush in the fall; only around a third would support Gore. Conversely, one-third of McCain voters said they would support Gore, another third intend to support Bush and over a quarter said they would support neither.

A number of primaries and caucuses still remain, including Illinois, Indiana, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Oregon, and while their outcome is now numerically irrelevant, Bush and Gore might pop into those states if only to stake out some early territory.