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Saturday Morning News

Gore Makes No Variations on His Theme

Aired February 26, 2000 - 9:33 a.m. ET

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

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Vice President Al Gore also plans to visit Washington state within the week. He'll also hit Colorado, Arizona, Georgia, New York and Massachusetts.

And, as CNN's Chris Black reports, voters in those states are very likely to hear the same speech.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRIS BLACK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Al Gore is on message all the time.

AL GORE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The presidency is a day-by-day fight for real people who face real challenges.

BLACK: He used the same pitch to win Iowa and New Hampshire, and it rarely changes -- by design.

CHRIS LEHANE, GORE CAMPAIGN SPOKESMAN: When you're running for president, you're running to be in charge of the entire country, and you're communicating to all the people -- not just Democrats, not just Republicans, not just independents, but to everyone -- so it's absolutely critical that you deliver the same message to everyone.

BLACK: Now that polls show that he is well ahead of Bill Bradley, his campaign is convinced it is a winning formula. So they're leaving nothing to chance and limiting any distractions, like press conferences. Gore has held only one press conference in almost six weeks, and that took place on the day of the Republican primary in South Carolina, when election returns swamped his comments.

It is a cautious strategy, one the vice president has borrowed from the White House, where control of the daily message is a top priority.

STUART ROTHENBERG, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: They don't want to risk mistakes. Whatever it is that day on whatever the issue is, to kind of control the debate and control the message so Al Gore can dictate what the press is saying rather then the press creating problems for Al Gore.

BLACK: As he crisscrosses the country, Gore is barely mentioning his Democratic opponent and is instead talking about his proposals on his terms. In Cleveland, the issue is health care for senior citizens.

GORE: I propose that we have a new initiative to improve Medicare by adding a financial benefit to help seniors pay for their prescription drugs. Don't you think it's time to add that to the Medicare program?

BLACK: Gore's dominance of the polls is also attracting more and generally positive attention from the local media.

LEHANE: The combination of being a sitting vice president and of winning the first two key primaries and caucus -- and the caucus of this season has helped, you know, heighten our press attention.

BLACK (on camera): John McCain has used the rolling nonstop press conference to great advantage in his campaign. Vice President Gore has been successful doing the exact opposite. But until it stops working, Gore has no plans to change,

Chris Black, CNN, Cleveland, Ohio.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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