Poll Shows Gore Has Slight Lead on Bush
GENE RANDALL, CNN ANCHOR: The latest CNN/"USA Today" Gallup presidential tracking poll is just out. It shows Democrat Al Gore still ahead of Republican George W. Bush. Gore is at 48 percent among likely voters to 42 percent for Bush. Green Party candidate Ralph Nader gets 3 percent, and the Reform Party's Patrick Buchanan, 1 percent. Margin of error: 4 percentage points. For more on the national political landscape, we welcome David Broder, noted columnist for "The Washington Post." He is in Columbus, Ohio, today. David, it's a battleground state. How do things look there for Bush and Gore?</s>DAVID S. BRODER, "THE WASHINGTON POST": Well, it's one of many states here in the Midwest, Gene, where the race has really tightened up. I think the polls show, probably, Bush with a slight lead, but, talking to people here all day yesterday on both sides, this is going to be a real battle here. I'm -- it's beautiful day here, I have to say, in contrast to what we were just hearing, and I'm on my way out this afternoon to the Delaware County Fair to talk to some real voters.</s>RANDALL: David, the Bush campaign certainly capitulated on the issue of campaign presidential debates, now accepting the bipartisan commission on debates proposal, dropping away from their own proposal for more limited debates. Also, we're hearing that the Bush camp will have a more -- a busier campaign schedule in the weeks ahead. What's the message, here, from the Bush campaign?</s>BRODER: Well, they have been hearing from their party leaders and their campaign allies here in states like Ohio and Pennsylvania and Michigan -- all of the battleground states -- that Gore has had three very good weeks in a row, and that Bush has to step it up if he's going to win this race. I think every Republican I've talked to in the past two weeks thought that Bush was making a mistake in drawing out this controversy about the format and the timing and the sponsorship of the debates, so they had to close that down, and do it quickly. Now, I think, with the Olympics on, we're probably in a period where the polls are not going to move very much; but as you know, Gene, we're going to have an intense two weeks between the third and the 17th of October, with three presidential, one vice presidential debate. I think that's the time when this election is probably going to be decided.</s>RANDALL: David, you probably heard the latest "USA Today"/Gallup/CNN tracking poll numbers -- 48 percent for Gore and 42 percent for Bush. It is not much of a spread, but is there cause for concern, there, in the Bush campaign, given what many see as Al Gore's momentum?</s>BRODER: Well, I think that what's -- the concern is not so much the margin because, with the sampling errors that we all have in our polls, that could very well be a tie race. But, everybody I've talked to, including the officials here in Ohio yesterday, understand that the trend has been toward Gore; that he has had a good convention, a good vice presidential selection, and that he is -- the issues that he has chosen to talk about have been the issues that are now dominating the debate. Bush has to find some way to change that dynamic. It's going to be difficult to do while the country is watching from the Australian Olympics but, I think, coming out of that, he's going to have to rally. One thing we should say, and you know it as well as I do, we should not be quick to call George Bush out of this race. He was in trouble coming out of New Hampshire and he rallied in -- very well in South Carolina. He was in trouble coming out of the Michigan primary, and he rallied very well, again, after that. So this is a fellow who has some resilience in him.</s>RANDALL: David, let's talk about the Senate race in New York. It is clear that Democrats are counting on what they see as a stature gap between Hillary Rodham Clinton and Rick Lazio, the Republican. And yet, this week, after you watched the two debate, you wrote a column headlined "What Stature Gap?" What did you mean by that?</s>BRODER: Well, I thought Lazio performed very well and that, if you hadn't known the biographies of the two candidates, and somebody said to you, one of those people has been a world figure for the past eight years and other is a back-bench congressman, you wouldn't have known which was which. But I have to say, the interesting thing about the reaction to that is, as in so many other parts of our politics, Gene, there does seem to be gender gap in the reaction. Gail Collins of "The New York Times" watched the same debate that I did, and she came away thinking that Lazio had been much too aggressive toward Mrs. Clinton and was really put off by it.</s>RANDALL: David Broder, in Ohio, to talk with real voters. David, thanks very much.</s>BRODER: Thank you, Gene.