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Morning News

Election 2000: Gore Continues Florida Push

Aired November 1, 2000 - 9:06 a.m. ET

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

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR: Now we turn to the presidential election. With just six days to go, the candidates are trying rev up their supporters and win over the remaining undecided voters. Our latest CNN-"USA Today"-Gallup tracking poll shows that George W. Bush is maintaining a slim lead over Al Gore: 47 percent of likely voters say Bush is their choice, while 44 percent say they favor Gore.

The latest ABC News poll has Bush leading Gore 48 percent to 45 percent.

"The Washington Post" survey gives Bush a two-point lead.

And the MSNBC/Reuters/Zogby poll has Bush at 46 percent and Gore at 41 percent.

Both candidates are battling now for votes in the key battleground states today, and we are on the road again with them. CNN's John King is with the Gore campaign in Kissimmee, Florida, and our Kelly Wallace is in Seattle covering the Bush campaign.

We begin, though, with John King.

Good morning to you, John.

JOHN KING, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Martin.

One of the reasons this race so close nationally is that so many of the big battleground states are still up for grabs, none bigger than Florida, 25 Electoral votes. It is the biggest state in terms of its Electoral prize. Still viewed as a competitive state. The vice president here today, trying to take away a state Governor Bush has been counting on from day one, as he tries to reach the 270 Electoral votes needed to win the White House.

The vice president stops today just outside Orlando. Then on to Tampa, that along the I-4 corridor where most of the swing voters are found in Florida. Again, a state that changes by the day with its population in flux.

Then, for the vice president, it's off to Pennsylvania, Scranton, Pennsylvania his stop there. A blue collar battleground within a battleground state. The most hotly contested area of Pennsylvania, a state where the vice president had a big lead in the late summer months, now viewed as very close heading into these final six days.

This campaign being fought not only on the ground, but increasingly on the airwaves, and campaigns running out of time to decide which ads they want on the air in the final days. There has been some nasty back and forth over the competing Social Security plans, but the vice president's campaign in the final days also going to a more positive biographical spot that makes the case he is the candidate most prepared to be president.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, GORE CAMPAIGN AD)

ANNOUNCER: Experience to be president, a life of service from the Army in Vietnam to the Senate, where he broke with own party to support the Gulf War. He led in the fight for welfare reform.

Now his cause is prosperity for all; improved education, with new accountability and smaller class size; pay down the nation's debt; strengthen Social Security; cut taxes for middle class families; save our environment.

Experience, vision, values, Al Gore.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Now, the unspoken message there, by using the word experience over and over again, the Gore campaign trying to make the case that Governor Bush is not ready to be president. The vice president not saying that himself yet. He is leaving that line of attack to his vice presidential nominee Sen. Joseph Lieberman and other prominent Democrats, hoping in these final days to swing the key undecided voters left with the argument that the nation's economy would be at risk with an unexperienced president.

Also, though, urgent appeals to supporters of the Green Party, Ralph Nader. In several key states traditionally Democratic states most of them, the Gore campaign worried that, in effect, a vote for Nader would be a vote for Governor Bush -- Martin.

SAVIDGE: John, we understand the vice president is planning to head back to his home state of Tennessee in the waning days of the campaign. Why would he do that? Why so late?

KING: Well, he is in trouble in his home state, again. One of the remarkable things about this election, we are seeing the demographic changes of the country since the last really competitive presidential election back in 1992. Tennessee, an increasingly Republican state. Remember, in 1996, the vice president had to go home to secure that state for the Clinton-Gore ticket. Right now, polls show a dead heat. Some even showing Governor Bush ahead. The Republicans would love to embarrass the vice president in his home state. So he is going home to try to rally, to try to win once more back in Tennessee -- Martin.

SAVIDGE: John King, thanks very much, traveling with the vice president.

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