Election 2000: Gore Under No Pressure to Pick Running Mate
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Vice President Al Gore will be picking up a key though unsurprising endorsement today. He will do so in Grand Rapids, Michigan. And let's go there now live where CNN's Chris Black is standing by -- Chris.</s>CHRIS BLACK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Leon. Gore campaign officials say Vice President Al Gore is not feeling any pressure at all from the Democratic Party or its constituency groups to pick a particular candidate to be his running mate. So they say that gives him the luxury of some time to make a very careful assessment of the choice that Governor Bush makes and to decide whether or not he even needs to react to it. The vice president has said that he would like to pick someone who could be a full partner, as he was to Bill Clinton. This suggests that he will pick someone who he is philosophically compatible with and someone who can definitely do the job of president if that should be necessary, rather than someone who only brings some sort of political advantage to the ticket. The vice presidency has evolved over the last 25 years. The role has broadened considerably to the time when the vice president was just someone who represented the United States at foreign funerals. In fact, the vice president himself has changed the expectations for that role because he has played such a large role in policy development of the Clinton administration and been given such a large area of responsibility by Bill Clinton. The vice president selection process, however, has been very, very private, very much behind the scenes. He knows all of the candidates who are under consideration; knows them well, in fact. So he has been consulting one-on-one with Warren Christopher, the former secretary of state, who is heading up the selection process for him. As to the speculation about Dick Cheney potentially being George Bush's running mate, Gore campaign officials say that they think Cheney is a respectable person, has a great resume. They're not so sure, however, that it will help George Bush. They view Cheney as something of a throwback to the last Bush administration. Chris Black, CNN, reporting live from Grand Rapids, Michigan.</s>CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, thank you very much, Chris.