BRADLEY: I think that the far right has gone too far time after time after time on social issues, and has tried to dominate this country with their particular viewpoint. I think it's important to resist that. I've always resisted that. As a United States senator, I've never voted in ways that they wanted. And I would be very emphatic in saying that religion should not be a part of politics. I think that if you look at what the two Republican candidates have done, they have gone to South Carolina, and Governor Bush has gone to Bob Jones University, the university that practices racial discrimination, and he's gone there to give a speech on the new conservatism. Based on going there and sending that symbolic message, I believe that the new conservatism, from his standpoint, is not a lot different than the old conservatism.

GORE: You know, I thought that Senator McCain's speech (criticizing some religious leaders) made a very powerful point, and I agree with him on a lot of the points that he made. I agree with him in his advocacy of campaign finance reform. I agree with him in taking on big tobacco and the special interests, but I think his speech illustrated that the Republican Party today is in the midst of an identity crisis. They're trying to figure out who they are. And frankly, he was introduced by Gary Bauer for that speech. Both he and Governor Bush are for taking away a woman's right to choose. Neither had the guts to speak out against the confederate flag flying above the state capitol building in South Carolina. Both are in the hip pocket of the NRA. So I agreed with the speech as far as it went.

GORE: I think we have a problem with racial disparities in law enforcement. I think you see it in the sentencing differences for crack cocaine and powder cocaine. The experts say you can't justify that wide disparity today. We are now in the administration investigating intensively within the Justice Department to see whether or not there is a pattern of racial discrimination and distortion in federal law enforcement.

I think that we are justified in collecting information to see whether or not racial profiling is common throughout the United States, anecdotal evidence would have us believe that it is. I think it is, and I think it has to stop. I want to be tough on crime. I want to be tough on discrimination, too. Our future depends on a much lower crime rate and ending discrimination, especially in law enforcement.

BRADLEY: The first thing I would do is make the Voting Rights Act permanent. I wouldn't let it expire every period of time. Racial profiling is a deep and serious issue. It challenges all of us. It's not simply a police issue. It's also how we view African-Americans and Latinos. It's whether we can see deeper than skin color and eye shape and ethnicity to the individual.

The Amadou Diallo case is a case in point. As you know, the West African was surrounded by police in New York, they fired 41 shots, 19 hit him. He fell, died, and that was a tragedy. But what it said to me was that the real tragedy was how deeply racial profiling had seeped into the mind of those who were in the police department so that a wallet in the hands of a white man would be viewed as a wallet, but a wallet in the hands of a black man would look like a gun. I looked at this, and I say we have to challenge ourselves.

BRADLEY: We make a mistake when we take an incident like the first grader or like the kids outside Pittsburgh that were killed, the five who were killed today, and we look at that one individual case and we failed to realize a much broader case. Columbine, everybody was struck by Columbine. Why? Because we saw our own kids, they looked like our kids, we thought. But 13 kids are killed every day in America with a gun, and 800,000 kids took a gun to school last year. Now, that is not going to change unless there's concerted leadership from the national government that is willing to marshal public opinion to overcome the vested interests, the special interests in Washington that's embodied in the NRA. What we need to have here is we need very tough gun legislation, registration and licensing of all guns, gun dealers out of residential neighborhoods, trigger locks, background checks, and banning Saturday night specials. But above all, what we need is a leader who is committed to this every day he is in office. Otherwise, you'll never beat the NRA. And I am there to beat the NRA.

GORE: This is an almost unimaginable tragedy. Now with some of the details coming out, the little boy was in a home where he didn't even have a bed. His dad is in jail. His mother moved in with her brother. It was what the local D.A. called a "flop house." People were coming in allegedly buying drugs with guns. The guns were laying around there.

We need child safety trigger locks. We need to ban junk guns and Saturday night specials. We need to require a photo license I.D. for the purchase of a new handgun. We need to reinstate the three-day waiting period under the Brady law. We need to also deal with drugs. That was a part of this problem. We need more psychologists and guidance counselors in our schools and more teachers with smaller classes. I was a co-sponsor of the Brady law. I cast the tie-breaking vote to close the so-called "gun show loophole." The NRA has targeted me as a result. I believe that we have got to take them on strongly and pass new gun control legislation, not aimed at hunters and sportsmen, but at these handguns that are causing so much distress in our country.

BRADLEY: Most people in this country think democracy is like a broken thermostat, you turn the dial and nothing happens, and money is at the core of that problem, and so I believe you need to have fundamental campaign finance reform, which means no soft money, public financing of elections, both general elections, partial financing of primary elections and free television time for people who are in campaigns in the last six weeks of that campaign.

I believe that the rich have a right to buy as many houses or vacations or cars as they want, but they don't have a right to buy our democracy. And this will take, again, leadership that is unencumbered and ready to challenge. We need a cold mountain stream to run through Washington carry away the special interests and empower the people once again to make decisions.

GORE: I agree with Bill Bradley and John McCain on the need for campaign finance reform. I would point out to you that in this Democratic contest, we are agreed on this issue. I first proposed complete public financing of federal elections more than 20 years ago. I don't accept PAC contributions in this race.

I called two years ago for the elimination of so-called soft money from campaigns. I think that we can do more. I proposed legislation 10 years ago to require broadcasters, radio and TV, to give free time in election years to qualified candidates as a condition of their license. I think the American people are calling out for this, and while I disagree with Senator McCain and Governor Bush on lots and lots of other issues, choice, gun control, health care, education, Social Security, Medicare, all down the line, I agree with John McCain on this issue, and I agree with Bill Bradley on this issue. If you entrust me with the presidency I will put this in the highest priority category and make it happen.

GORE: Well, you know, the fact that we have this issue in the Congress every year now, to raise the limits for more highly educated people to come in and take jobs that 60 percent of the businesses in America have open now that they can't fill, should lead to us take two steps. First of all, we should address this on its own merits, yes, I think that we should allow more immigrants to come in. As my Latino friends say, somos una nacion de imigrantes y con orgullo, we are a nation of immigrants and with pride.

It is what has made us a great nation. All of us, save the Native Americans, need only count back the generations to find when our families immigrated here, or when they were brought here in chains. We all came from somewhere else. But we should also realize that we have to do more to educate our own people and give the job training necessary for American citizens who are already here to fill those good jobs.

BRADLEY: Yes, I do think that we need to open our doors to more immigrants. I think raising the number for H1B visas, which are the highly talented individuals that the vice president is talking about, is important.

But I also think something else is important. In 1986, we passed an immigration law. The immigration law provided for amnesty, provided for an amnesty for those who were here before 1982. Unfortunately, a lot of the people who were here before 1982 didn't get to the place they were supposed to go to file for that amnesty. I believe we should have late amnesty for those who had not gotten to it in time, because their hardworking people, they're in America today, they're the backbone of the country, in many respects.

So yes, H1B visas, but also late amnesty for those people who were here in the country before 1982.