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CNN Today

Presidential Candidates Gear Up For New Hampshire Primary

Aired January 26, 2000 - 2:10 p.m. ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

FRANK SESNO, CNN ANCHOR: Well, joining us now to try to better understand the races on the eve of the big debate -- or on the day of the big debate actually -- Karen Tumulty, "Time" magazine. Karen, you've spent -- been spending the bulk of your time certainly recently with Al Gore. What is the dynamic, what is his message?

KAREN TUMULTY, "TIME" MAGAZINE: Well, he has sort of simultaneously at this point trying to fend off Bradley and to begin to sort of lay the groundwork for some of messages he wants to get out there in a general election campaign against presumably George W. Bush. So you hear him talking a lot about the economy, because this is one issue that can work for him in both races.

SESNO: Well, it was very interesting in that speech as he claimed victory in Iowa I didn't hear Bill Bradley's name very much. I heard him talking about Bush and Forbes as if he is already there.

TUMULTY: That's right, and we have not heard the sort of harsh attacks in the last three or four days that we were hearing pretty consistently from the vice president just last week.

SESNO: Bradley's folks have promised a sharper message here in New Hampshire, focusing more on Gore's proximity to Clinton, counting on those dissatisfied Democrats to line up behind Bradley. Is it happening? Will it hurt?

TUMULTY: Well, they keep talking about it. The problem is Bill Bradley isn't talking about it that much. You know, up until about six weeks ago the strength of Bill Bradley's campaign was that he was running it on his own rhythm. Now, that appears to be the weakness of the campaign. And tonight's debate is really going to be probably his last big opportunity to lay out those distinctions that he wants New Hampshire voters to have in their mind.

SESNO: Just how vulnerable does Al Gore, do his advisers think he is to what we'll call the Clinton quotient?

TUMULTY: Well, he seems to within, say, the last couple of weeks made his peace with this. He understands that there are certain parts of his relationship with this administration that are going to work for him, again, primarily the economy. They're counting on the president to lay out some big things for them -- to help them in the State of the Union tomorrow night. It's -- he seems to have made his peace with what a few months ago looked like his most difficult problem.

SESNO: I am struck by the fact that the polls show that 80 percent of Americans think the country is fundamentally going in the right direction, but the incumbent party, the Democrats, Al Gore still lagging the Republican front-runner George W. Bush. Now, again, from -- both from the Gore perspective and the Bush perspective, what to do with that information?

TUMULTY: I think that they're hoping that time and issues and a lot of sort of head to head confrontations with the Republicans are going to help that out a lot, because the Democrats believe and the polls show that on most of the issues on the priorities of the issues the public is largely on their side.

SESNO: We'll see. Karen Tumulty, thanks very much.

TUMULTY: Thank you.

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