By Jill Zuckman, Globe Staff, June 18, 1999
MANCHESTER, N.H. -- More than 16 months before the general election, it already seems like a Bush vs. Gore campaign.
Just two days after Texas Governor George W. Bush swept into town to cheering Republican crowds, Vice President Al Gore blew in to a slightly less frenzied reception yesterday.
Although the two men are far from having wrapped up the presidential nominations of their parties, their dueling announcement tours prompted inevitable comparisons of the two front-runners.
Bush attracted about 150 reporters here, while Gore drew half that number. Twenty-nine television cameras recorded Bush's words, while a dozen focused on Gore's.
For his speeches, Bush stuck to broad themes about a philosophy of "compassionate conservatism" and appeared to be aiming for moderate voters in the general election more than the conservatives who dominate the GOP primaries.
Gore, for his part, sought to distinguish himself from Bush at a forum on the high-technology economy yesterday at Hesser College. In the afternoon, in a speech on New York's Wall Street, he promised to have a federal budget in balance or surplus every year, and to seek "the authority to negotiate labor and environmental protections in (new trade) agreements, whenever necessary."
"When nobody knows what he stands for and there's a big swell of support, then it's built on sand," said Debby Butler, an accountant from Concord who served as a cochairwoman for Gore during his 1988 run for president. "At the moment, it's not based on reality, so it's not scary."
Peter Hoe Burling, the Democratic leader of the New Hampshire House, said big Republican crowds in New Hampshire are no novelty. "I'm more interested in how he handles himself in the luncheonette in Franklin," he said.
Eventually, Burling said, Granite State voters will begin questioning Bush on his record, asking him about the escalating rate of executions in Texas, as well as what Burling contends is Bush's lack of commitment to cutting property tax rates there.
"New Hampshire voters are highly trained at being critical," he said.
The vice president's supporters did agree that Bush performed well on his initial voyage to the first-primary state.
"He's obviously charming. He's likeable on a personal level and good with people," said Joe Keefe, a Gore adviser from Manchester.
Tony Coelho, Gore's campaign chairman, said Gore is the candidate with the answers to America's problems. "They're not providing solutions, they're saying, 'Trust me,' " Coelho said of the Bush camp.
At Hesser College, several hundred people arrived early in the morning for a chance to cheer Gore and talk to him about the economy. The crowd was overwhelmingly in support, with the exception of about six protesters who jumped up next to the vice president and raised a banner that said: "Gore Kills. AIDS Drugs for Africa." The demonstrators shouted "Gore kills" over and over, just inches away from him.
The crowd booed the protesters as Gore told them he would be happy to talk to them later. A group of firefighters then jumped up with their own banner in support of Gore, and the crowd began chanting "We Want Gore." Campaign organizers hustled the demonstrators out of the hall as Secret Service agents looked on.
Part of Gore's strategy in New Hampshire is to remind voters that before he and President Clinton took office, the economy was struggling.
"Instead of the biggest deficits in history, we now have the biggest surpluses. Instead of quadrupling our national debt, we've seen the creation of almost 19 million new jobs. Instead of a deep recession and high unemployment, America now has our strongest economy in history," he said, to sustained applause.
To continue the strong economy, Gore said he would make permanent tax cuts for research and development. Currently, companies cannot count on those tax cuts because they are reauthorized annually. Gore also said he would double the nation's spending on information technology to $3 billion a year to help create jobs.
"I will craft these tax cuts specifically to help the small businesses and startups that are crucial to our high-tech future," he said.
"There's a very lengthy list of specific and hard-hitting proposals to make this country a better place," said Gore. "I haven't heard any of the others support this."
During a question-and-answer period, Larry Morris of Andover stood and told the vice president that they were classmates at Harvard in 1965: "I wanted to say how proud your classmates are about what you are about to do."
When Chip Moynihan, a Gore supporter from Hampton, stood to ask his question, he avoided public policy altogether. "How's Karenna doing?" he asked, referring to Gore's pregnant oldest daughter.
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