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Morning News

Democrats Wonder Why They Lost Election

Aired January 24, 2001 - 9:31 a.m. ET

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

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: As President George W. Bush begins his term in office, Democrats are trying to analyze how they blew it, how they lost the election.

Our Bruce Morton now reports the Democratic Leadership Council is holding a forum to figure out what Al Gore did wrong and to decide what to do next time around.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRUCE MORTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): After a presidential campaign, the losing party does a lot of soul searching. The centrist Democratic Leadership Council thinks Gore lost because he was too much of a populist, an us-against-them guy, did too much of this.

AL GORE: I want to fight for you.

MORTON: Too old-fashioned, DLC leaders say, not enough appeal to the Clinton record and the middle-of-the-road voters Clinton courted so successfully.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Al Gore got the base Democratic vote, but the base Democratic vote is not enough anymore to win an election. You also have to win voters who we normally call swing voters: They're voters in the new economy who've done well in the economy.

MORTON: Suburbanites, upper-middle-class Americans, quite well. Of course, not everyone agrees Gore's us-against-them populism was bad.

RUY TEIXEIRA, CENTURY FOUNDATION: It's really part of the heritage of the Democratic party, being on the side of the people, being on the side of the middle class, being on the side of the little guy and the little gal. I don't think there's anything wrong with that. In fact, I think that helps.

MORTON: He cites other problems with Gore: a kind of moral weariness with the Clinton administration, and of course, the fact that George W. Bush ran a good campaign, competing for and even taking over traditionally Democratic issues like education.

And next time? The electorate is changing. Factory workers use computers and own stock. But it may, again, be the economy. KEATING HOLLAND, CNN POLLING DIRECTOR: If the economy is in the tank in 2004, a populist message would probably work very well. If the economy is doing extremely well in 2004, populism probably doesn't get you many more votes than Gore got, and in fact, might even conceivably lose you a few votes.

MORTON: Of course, we just inaugurated a new president. Of course, the next campaign is under way.

Bruce Morton, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: They don't waste any time thinking about that.

LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Didn't take long, did it?

KAGAN: No, absolutely not

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com

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