During the convention speculation around who would join a Bush cabinet arose after Bush stated that " I hope Colin Powell 's greatest service still lies ahead . " and after Condoleezza Rice 's speech . On August 2 Cheney was approved by acclamation and in his acceptance speech stated that the Clinton administration was marked by " little purpose " and proclaiming that Texas Gov. George W. Bush would " repair what has been damaged . " The following day Bush was also approved by acclamation and accepted the nomination and in his acceptance speech attacked the Clinton administration for squandering the past eight years . Later Bush 's nephew , George P. Bush gave a bilingual speech about the message of compassionate conservatism . Over the past months Bush had made more appeals to black voters and at the convention multiple African Americans were given the podium , but had only increased his polling among black voters by five percent to fifteen percent for him and the remaining seventh seven percent for Gore . Following the Reform primaries a split formed between the Pat Buchanan and John Hagelin factions over who would receive the $ 12.5 million federal matching funds that the party gained Perot 's 1996 campaign and multiple polls showed the Reform party taking far less than they had in 1996 or Perot had in 1992 at less than 1 % . By late July the Republican National Committee was coming close to its goal to spend $ 100 million in support of Bush at $ 78 million having already been spent , which was double the $ 35 million spent by the Democratic National Committee . However , despite the large sums being spent by and in favor of the Bush campaign Gore was able to match and overtake Bush in multiple polls following his boost due to the Democratic convention . Due to Gore 's rise in the polls the RNC and the Bush campaign each prepared $ 5 million in advertisements in swing states to match the $ 30 million the DNC and Gore campaign had spent in the past two months
Democratic convention
2000 Democratic National Convention
George W. Bush 2000 presidential campaign