Sunday Morning News

Gore Hits Campaign Trail in Midwest

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MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Republican presidential contender George W. Bush plans to unleash a new TV ad blitz today in 21 states. The ads will emphasize education, calling for improvements in public schools. Now, they are timed to match personal visits by Bush or running mate Dick Cheney. Bush himself is taking today off in Austin, Texas, before heading back out on the trail tomorrow in the Midwest.

And that's the region where Al Gore and Joe Lieberman are focusing their efforts with a riverboat trip down the Mississippi. A national poll from "Newsweek" magazine shows Gore gaining some ground since the Democratic Convention, 52 percent of the registered voters in that survey say they would vote for Gore, 44 percent say they would vote for Bush.

CNN's John King is with the Gore campaign.

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JOHN KING, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Bellevue, Iowa, population 2,486, another big small-town welcome for a vice president who thinks things are suddenly looking up.

AL GORE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I need your help so I can fight for you and your families and your future. Let's win for the families of Bellevue.

KING: You pass through a river lock to get here. The locals waited patiently for a chance to say hello and catch a glimpse.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Get close enough to see what they really look like without makeup.

KING: And a chance to serenade the candidate's wife.

UNIDENTIFIED MALES AND FEMALES (singing): ... happy birthday to you.

KING: Day two of Gore's riverboat journey began in Dubuque, the Mississippi the backdrop as he turned his attention to the environment.

GORE: It makes a difference if you have someone in the Oval Office who is willing to stand up to the oil companies and the big polluters. KING: It is an issue with proven appeal to independent voters, one of the contrasts the vice president hopes makes the difference in the big Midwest battleground states.

GORE: I will clean up the environment. My opponent does not reflect that commitment in what's been going on in his home state.

KING: The first post-convention trip is a signature moment for every campaign, and the crowds have the candidate in high spirits.

GORE: Thank you, thank you.

KING: The going out here is slow, sometimes three hours or more between stops. Trains move faster than a riverboat, and every now and then a few supporters float by as the vice president makes his way down the Mississippi, the birds oblivious to the VIP in their midst.

(on camera): The vice president is shrugging off an early wave of post-convention polling suggesting he has erased the big lead Governor Bush has held for months. Such quick polling is unreliable, Gore says, and that's true. But it's also true that the mood around here has taken a clear turn for the better.

John King, CNN, Dubuque, Iowa.

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