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Gore Takes His Presidential Campaign to Texas

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ANDRIA HALL, CNN ANCHOR: Gore appears to have wrapped up his party's nomination, but that doesn't mean he can take a campaign trail break.

CNN's Chris Black followed the vice president Sunday during his visit to Texas.

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CHRIS BLACK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Al Gore went to the heart of Texas, George W. Bush's home state, to challenge the tax-cut centerpiece of Bush's presidential campaign and question whether Bush is up to the job.

AL GORE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Does Governor Bush have the experience to be president?

CROWD: No, no.

GORE: Proposals like that makes you wonder.

BLACK (on camera): Social Security has been a Democratic program since a Democratic president proposed it during the Great Depression. Now Al Gore is making it clear he has no intention of letting George W. Bush take it away.

(voice-over): And an aggressive vice president is drawing a connection between the wealthy interests backing Bush and Bush's advocacy of a major cut in federal taxes. Gore says the public does not want a massive tax cut.

GORE: Who is in favor of it? Well, by coincidence perhaps the same people that are making these soft money contributions evading the traditional campaign finance restrictions are the ones who have that risky tax scheme as their top priority.

BLACK: And Gore is citing an unusual authority.

GORE: You don't have to take my word for it. Recall the words of John McCain during the Republican primaries.

BLACK: And claiming the support of a critical constituency.

GORE: The way I look at it, the vast majority of independents want to see the soft money eliminated.

BLACK: Gore has dropped references he once made to the Reagan- Bush years and instead now contrasts the prosperity of the Clinton- Gore administration to the economic recession of the Bush-Quayle years, a subtle way to suggest the son is like the father.

Preparing for an early morning run with Olympian Carl Lewis in Houston, he was asked how he intends to run against Bush, the likely Republican nominee.

GORE: I haven't seen him run. I don't know. What kind of pace does he run?

BLACK: Gore is setting a quick pace for himself, unwilling to let up for a single day or give an inch to the Republican opposition and offset Republican attempts to tie him to Democratic fund-raising abuses.

Chris Black, CNN, Dallas.

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