Vice-President Al Gore called on Americans to vote for a better environment next month, pinning Texas' bad pollution on Governor George W. Bush, his Republican rival, and distancing himself from environmental candidate Ralph Nader.
In a swing Thursday through the central states of Missouri, Iowa and Wisconsin, Gore highlighted a new UN report that confirmed the global warming trend has its origins in human production of greenhouse gases.
Author of a well known 1990s book on the environment, "Earth in the Balance," Gore criticized Bush for saying that global warming had not been proven conclusively.
He urged America to be at the forefront of the fight against pollution and the greenhouse effect.
Reminding crowds of the increasing number of children that suffer from asthma, Gore said that improving the environment not only would make people healthier, but also create millions of better-paying jobs in industries producing cleaner trucks, cars, furnaces and anti-pollution technology.
He said Texas led all US states in industrial pollution, and slammed Bush for proposing oil prospecting in a nature preserve in Alaska, regardless of the harm it could cause the local environment and wildlife.
In Madison, Wisconsin, Gore was introduced by his 23-year-old daughter Kristin as "a great guy."
"I'm very proud of his record" in fighting to keep the right to abortion and for a cleaner environment, she said.
When he began talking about the environment, she added, "they ridiculed him then as 'ozone man', now everybody knows it is serious."
In an animated speech late Thursday to thousands of cheering followers, Gore said: "The big polluters, the oil companies are going all out to defeat me.
"They would say: 'vote for George Bush or (even) for Ralph Nader, in any case not for Al Gore' ... I need your help in this."
A legendary consumer advocate, Nader threatens to be a spoiler in the November 7 vote. If he gets more than five percent of the vote in some key, Democratic states, Gore could lose to Bush.
Opinion polls show the race to be among the closest in US history.
In a local radio interview, Gore deflected attention from the Nader threat.
"I don't want to emphasize the argument that a vote for him is a vote for Bush," the vice president said. "I prefer to do my best to persuade all of the voters my agenda with enthusiasm."
"And incidentally, where the environment is concerned, I'll stack my record up against anyone, including his," he added referring to the green party candidate.
Bush on Thursday attacked his Democratic rival's character during campaign stops in Ohio and Pennsylvania, a crucial state which could go either way in what is shaping up as an agonizingly close election.
The Texas governor called for a new "responsibility era" in public life, then went on to train a spotlight on the character of Gore, and mocked his performance in three presidential debates, which Republicans claim exposed flaws in the vice president's personality.
"A good leader is predictable," Bush said. "He doesn't try to be all things to all people, or change personalities, say, for different debates."
Turning one of Gore's most notorious remarks against him, Bush promised "we will make it clear there is the controlling legal authority of conscience."
Bush was referring to a comment Gore made after he was charged with making improper fund raising calls from the White House.
He also branded Gore a friend of an intrusive federal government.
"I've nothing against the fellow personally, it's just that he thinks Washington DC is the answer," Bush said in Toledo -- DAVENPORT (AFP)
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
