Politics

The Vice President Speaks

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

December 10, 1999 / 4:28 PM EST / CBS

The CBS News Political Unit is tracking the political commercials of the presidential hopefuls. Sean Richardson analyzes the latest efforts of Democrat Al Gore.

In the past week, the Gore campaign has begun airing two 30-second education ads in New Hampshire. The campaign has been consistent in their ad buys in New Hampshire, purchasing between $35,000-40,000 of airtime and running the spots for about a week.

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Candidate: Al Gore

The Ad: The first spot Vouchers, which aired in New Hampshire last weekend, is an attempt by the campaign to highlight Gore's commitment to public education. At the same time, they are trying to highlight votes Bill Bradley cast in the Senate in favor of experimental voucher programs.

Audio: Gore: "I think it would be a big mistake to drain money away from our public school with vouchers that give public money to private schools. Private schools are fine. But not with money that's already designated for the 90 percent of the American children who go to public schools. Now is the time when we ought to be really beefing up our public schools making a very deep and firm commitment by the American people to really bring revolutionary progress to our schools."


" Vouchers "

Visual: The Vouchers ad opens with kids walking into a very modern looking school. They then cut to several classroom scenes with a wide range of ethnic backgrounds represented. The ad closes with Gore speaking to a class outside the school.

Fact Check: No Inaccuracies. On several occasions, Bradley supported voucher programs in the Senate, on a limited experimental basis. Most recently, Bradley supported a 1996 D.C. Appropriations bill, which contained funding for a 5-year, $42-million school vouchers program in the District of Columbia. However, Bradley is now on the record stating that he does not support voucher programs.

Learning

Candidate: Al Gore

The Ad: Learning is a 30-second spot where Gore outlines broad advances in education and technology he says are necessary for a first-rate education in the information age.

Audio: Gore: "We're in an information age now, learning's more important than it has ever been. We need to invest in quality, in standards, in smaller class size, in the kind of teacher training and professional development that will make a critical difference. We need to modernize the school buildings and wire all the classrooms to the Internet, with appropriate protctions for the kids. We need to use the new techniques that teachers know. Our children deserve our best efforts to give them the finest education in the world."


"Learning"

Visual: The Learning ad shares most of the school and classroom footage, but it opens with Gore, wearing a shirt and tie, sitting in his office. For emphasis, the ad uses words scrolling across the screen to highlight the major points of the ad, investment in quality and standards, smaller class sizes, teacher training, modernizing school buildings, and wiring all classes to the Internet.

Fact Check: No Inaccuracies.

The Strategy: In what seems to be round two in the escalating policy debate among Bradley and Gore, Gore seems to be using a "Good Cop, Bad Cop" strategy. The first ad rebuts his opponent for his voucher voting which is unpopular among Democrats. Gore's staunch opposition to voucher programs is a position that resonates well with Democrats and has earned him the support of the National Education Association, and American Federation of Teachers.

On the other hand, the Learning spot is a much "softer" ad that's tailored to a more general audience. Gore outlines broad proposals to achieve education excellence in a very non-controversial way.