CHICAGO - Joseph I. Lieberman, the first Jew to run for vice president on a major party ticket, assured members of a pro-Israel lobbying group yesterday that ''the quest for peace in the Middle East will be a priority'' if he and Al Gore are elected to the White House. Lieberman told about 150 members of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee that he and the vice president have always supported Israel, pointing in particular to their 1991 decision to cross party lines as senators and join the few Democrats who supported the Gulf War. ''Just as the quest for peace has been a priority for the Clinton-Gore administration because it is so clearly in the strategic and world interests of the United States of America, the quest for peace in the Middle East will be a priority for a Gore-Lieberman administration,'' he said. Lieberman said he and Gore ''both believe that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel and should remain an undivided city accessible to people of all faiths and that the United States Embassy should be relocated to Jerusalem, hopefully soon.''
Lieberman received three standing ovations at the group's national meeting. (AP)
Polls show Gore has lost his lead
WASHINGTON - Six weeks before the presidential election, polls yesterday showed Republican George W. Bush has erased Democrat Al Gore's lead and the race is tied once again. Three weekend polls by Gallup, Newsweek, and Fox TV showed the Nov. 7 race a statistical dead heat. The vice president led by 3 percentage points in a Newsweek survey - he had led by 14 points a week ago - but Bush jumped into the lead by a single point in a Gallup daily tracking poll. In the Fox poll, the two candidates were tied. Bush is leading Gore by a 10 percentage point margin in Kentucky, a state that went Democratic in the 1996 presidential election, the Bluegrass State Poll, conducted by the Louisville Courier-Journal, showed yesterday. The poll found the Texas governor led the vice president 51 percent to 41 percent among 608 likely voters. The remaining 8 percent was divided among other candidates and undecided voters. (Reuters)
Obituary implores a vote for Bush
FORT WORTH - When James E. Fete Sr. of Canton, Ohio, died of natural causes Sept. 19 at age 71, his adult sons and daughter ran an obituary in the Canton Repository. The obituary listed the retired telephone repairman's accomplishments: Korean War service and 39 years with Ohio Bell. Nothing out of the ordinary, until the last line: ''In lieu of flowers, Vote Bush.'' Fete, once a staunch Democrat, became a diehard Republican 40 years ago. He never let the readers of the ''Repository's'' letters-to-the-editor column forget his strong political views. (Knight Ridder Newspapers)
Nader is drawing the largest crowds
SEATTLE - Ralph Nader, the Green Party presidential candidate, drew more than 8,000 paying supporters to a rally Saturday night, a turnout that far exceeds daily crowds drawn by the major party candidates but that seems to be doing little to shore up Nader's position in voter polls. The event was the third in a series of Nader ''super rallies'' that have been drawing some of the largest crowds of the presidential campaign. Nader drew 10,000 in Portland, Ore., last month, and Friday night in Minneapolis he spoke to an estimated 12,000 - the largest rally of the 2000 race outside of the national conventions, his aides said. Saturday's rally in Key Arena took on the air of a progressive revival show with comments by Nader, a video-fed speech by running mate Winona LaDuke, and an appearance by populist social critic Jim Hightower. It also included a brief performance by Eddie Vedder, lead singer for the rock band Pearl Jam. (Los Angeles Times)
