Super Tuesday: Bush, Gore Predict Victory; McCain, Bradley Hope for Upsets
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Polls will be open across the country today. In some places, the polls have been open for an hour or are opening right now. Republican George W. Bush is predicting victory in several key states; his campaign tone has already shifted to the November election. Democrat Al Gore could score a 15-states sweep today; he's also turning his attention to the fall, taking on the Republicans in his current stump speeches. Now, those 15 states represent more than half the delegates needed for the Democratic nomination. And on the Republican side, voters in 13 states will cast ballots today.</s>CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: This day is certainly critical for Republican John McCain. The Arizona senator says he's optimistic, despite polls that say George W. Bush will benefit the most in today's voting. CNN's Jonathan Karl has been on the campaign trail with McCain.</s>JONATHAN KARL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The insurgent is looking for yet another upset victory, his biggest yet.</s>SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R-AZ), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We are going to send a message from California to the country and to the world that we are taking the government out of the hands of the special interests and the iron triangle and give it back to the people of this country.</s>KARL: In the face of polls that show him trailing in most of the big Super Tuesday states, John McCain is upbeat.</s>MCCAIN: I'm very optimistic. We're very excited, and I think people are beginning to realize I'm the only one that can beat Al Gore.</s>KARL: McCain dedicated the final day before Super Tuesday to California, a state where only Republican votes count when it comes to winning delegates. His aides concede McCain is unlikely to win that battle. McCain has been deluged with negative advertising in recent days from his rival and from an independent group financed by two Texas allies of Governor Bush.</s>MCCAIN: If they can put millions of dollars into this campaign, they can destroy and hijack ever campaign, and that's why we've got to send a message, not only to Governor Bush and his Texas cronies, but to America that California will not allow our elections to be bought by Texans; take your dirty money and bring it back into Texas.</s>KARL: McCain backed up those words with a complaint to the Federal Election Commission. Bush denies any involvement with the ads. In Los Angeles, McCain said he is fighting for more than his party's nomination.</s>MCCAIN: I, as a person whom not only engaged in a candidacy for the president of the United States, but also am trying to change the direction of my party.</s>KARL: McCain's top aides say that is a battle that will continue, even if McCain loses his party's nomination.</s>KARL: As difficult a challenge as McCain faces today, it only gets tougher from here. Today's races are in several states where McCain is strongest, including New England, and he has also had the resources to compete with George W. Bush with television advertising. After today, the battle moves to the South, where George W. Bush is stronger and McCain begins to have troubles, potentially, with having the resources to keep up on the television advertising -- Carol.</s>LIN: John, what are you hearing from McCain's own aides about the future of the campaign?</s>KARL: Well, McCain's aides are predicting that they will do better than expected today, that they will -- they think they've got a really good shot at winning New York, doing very well in Ohio. But I spoke to one of his top advisers, somebody who is usually very, very upbeat, and he said, although we'll do better than expected today, it may not be enough to continue on much further because we start to run into problems with delegate math. They're worried that George Bush, winning all these delegates in California -- they can see that they don't have really a shot here of winning the Republican vote in California -- that puts all 162 delegates right in George W. Bush's camp. They say they begin to face a problem of: Can they get enough delegates to win the nomination?</s>LIN: That's right. It all gets down to the math, Jonathan Karl. We'll get more from the campaign, the McCain campaign, in the next hour of EARLY EDITION when we speak with John McCain's communications director.</s>HARRIS: Well, we turn now to the Bush campaign. This day could be a big step for him in locking up his party's presidential nomination. Let's go now to CNN's Patty Davis. She's in Austin, Texas, where Governor Bush is going to be awaiting the voting results today. Good morning, Patty.</s>PATTY DAVIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. Texas Governor George W. Bush camping here in Austin, his home, attending to state business today. He'll watch for the results here in Austin of Super Tuesday. Now, he campaigned yesterday in California, Super Tuesday's big prize with 162 GOP delegates. Although somewhat subdued, George Bush is fighting a lingering cold, his voice raspy, his campaign pulled out all the last-minute stops yesterday, from San Diego to Long Beach to Los Angeles to try to convince voters to get out and vote for their candidate George W. Bush. Only registered Republican votes now count toward awarding those GOP delegates here in the state, and Bush has the edge here in California, a double-digit lead over John McCain among Republicans. He's also leading in Georgia and Ohio. Now, Bush, who still gets questions about whether he's angry (ph) from his visit to Bob Jones University in South Carolina several weeks ago, preached tolerance in Los Angeles at the Simon Wiesenthal Center.</s>GOV. GEORGE W. BUSH (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Tolerance can never be assumed and it always must be taught. We must teach our children to respect people from all walks of life. We must teach our children to respect people whose skin is of a different color. We must teach our children to respect those whose ancestry or religion may be different from their own. And finally, we must teach our children they're one -- we are one nation, one people, all of us Americans.</s>DAVIS: Now, the Bush campaign getting down to the business of getting out the vote today, nine states, two million phone calls going out between yesterday and today. Also, a blip of pro-Bush hand- delivered mail. I'm Patty Davis, CNN, live in Austin, Texas.</s>HARRIS: All right, thank you, Patty. Now, when it comes to the number of delegates at stake today, three states are the biggest prizes. Let's take a look at them right now: California is the biggest one, 367 delegates there Democratically, and 162 for the Republicans; New York is next with 243 Democratic delegates, and 93 Republicans; and then comes Ohio, it chooses 146 Democratic delegates and 69 Republican delegates. And as we now turn to the Democratic candidates, Al Gore is showing in today's contest could effectively knock Bill Bradley out of the race. As CNN's Gary Tuchman reports today, Gore's stump speeches indicate that he may already be shifting his focus to the general election.</s>GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Bill Bradley's native state was Al Gore's last state for Super Tuesday campaigning.</s>VICE PRES. AL GORE (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Missouri has a chance to make a decisive statement about the Democratic nomination. I ask for your vote and your support in the vote tomorrow here in Missouri. I ask for your help to be the Democratic nominee.</s>TUCHMAN: The vice president's late Monday night rally in St. Louis, Missouri followed a hectic day of campaigning in New York City, where the candidate who says he is not taking anything for granted in the Democratic primaries nevertheless continued to concentrate his attacks on the Republicans. He blasted George W. Bush during a stop at a hospital in Brooklyn.</s>GORE: Under his leadership, the state of Texas now ranks 49th in health insurance for children, and health insurance for woman, 50th, 50 out of 50.</s>TUCHMAN: He spoke to traditional Democratic constituencies, meeting with American-Jewish leaders in Manhattan.</s>GORE: The United States must have an absolute, uncompromising commitment to Israel's security and an absolute conviction that Israel alone must decide the steps necessary to ensure that security.</s>TUCHMAN: And he also spoke to a gay and lesbian group.</s>GORE: It is an unparrelled opportunity in this election of the year 2000 to build a future where all Americans are seen for who they really are, not because of who they fall in love with.</s>TUCHMAN: Fifteen states, and American Samoa hold Democratic presidential contests on this Super Tuesday. And Al Gore takes great comfort in the fact that in not one of those places is he behind in the polls.</s>TUCHMAN: So which one of those 16 places will Al Gore spend what is likely to be his most successful night as a presidential candidate? None of them. Instead, he's coming home here to the state of Tennessee. The vice president will fly from St. Louis to Nashville late this morning. He'll stay at a hotel across the street from Vanderbilt University. When he gets here, he has a short event with union workers, and then he'll take it easy much of the day and watch election returns for what he expects and hopes will be a very good evening. And tomorrow, he'll go to Carthage, Tennessee, very close to here, to visit his mother, and then he hits the campaign trail once again. Leon, back to you.</s>HARRIS: Well, Gary, once he does hit the campaign trail, where does he go to?</s>TUCHMAN: Well, as you know, we have another sort of Super Tuesday, a mini Super Tuesday, a week from today when states like Florida and Texas and Tennessee go to the polls. But there are some contests in between there. Al Gore will head on Wednesday to Michigan and Minnesota. Michigan has Democratic Party caucuses is this Saturday; Minnesota has caucuses this Sunday.</s>HARRIS: All right, Gary Tuchman reporting live this morning -- Carol.</s>LIN: Well, Bill Bradley is ignoring the polls. In fact, he remains optimistic about his chances. CNN's Pat Neal is with the Bradley campaign in New York. Pat, what's giving him hope?</s>PAT NEAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, in fact Bill Bradley has been more upbeat in the last several days than we've seen him for weeks on the campaign. And right now, he is out trying to make a last-minute pitch to voters. He is stopping by polling place. And despite those gloomy predictions, Senator Bradley has been full of energy, he spent the last campaigning time here in New York, which is like a second home to him. He played basketball for the New York Knicks and then represented nearby New Jersey in the Senate. Bradley and his team thought New York would be his, but the polls show the vice president leading Bradley here in New York by about a two to one margin, and across the country Bradley trails in virtually every state that has a primary or caucus today. Even so, Bradley pushes own.</s>BILL BRADLEY (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Don't listen to the polls and pundits, go to the polls and vote your convictions, vote your heart, vote for the future this country; if you share my dream make it your dream and help me make it our dream.</s>NEAL: For 14 months, Bradley has been pushing his big ideas, including universal access to health care for all Americans and sweeping gun-control, including the registration and licensing of all handguns. But not having won a single contest to date, Bradley does not appear to have connected with the core Democratic groups, of African-Americans, women, and unions which are standing firmly for the vice president. Despite the fact that some around him are preparing an exit, they say, Bradley said he's the only one who can do that. And for right now, Bradley plans Wednesday to take a day off and for now, publicly, the campaign says they'll head Thursday, to Florida, which has a contest on March 14, but of course everything could change after tonight. Pat Neal, CNN, reporting live from New York.</s>LIN: We'll hear more from the Bradley campaign, next hour, when Eric Hauser, Bradley's communications director joins us.