Convention Bounce Gives Gore 5-Point Lead

Aug. 21, 2000 -- Riding high on momentum from last week’s Democratic National Convention, Vice President Al Gore has catapulted to a five-point lead over Republican rival George W. Bush among registered voters.

According to a new ABCNEWS/Washington Post poll, the Democratic candidate has taken a 50-45 percent lead over Bush, erasing the commanding 14-point lead Bush built up at his own convention.

The five-point edge is Gore’s first in the presidential race since March.

Gore’s populist rhetoric appears to be resonating with voters: According to the survey, 62 percent of registered voters now think the vice president understands the problems of average people, vs. only 50 percent for Bush.

Dueling Tax Plans

Today on the campaign trail, Gore is putting the core Republican issue of tax cuts front and center, as he seeks to contrast his economic agenda with that of Republican opponent.

Gore is highlighting his own tax cut proposal while continuing to portray his opponent’s as a “risky scheme” that would squander the projected budget surplus, jeopardize the booming economy and disproportionately benefit the wealthy.

“They would focus the benefits of a giant tax cut on the wealthy at the expense of everyone else,” Gore told supporters at a rally in Quincy, Ill. this afternoon, “We don’t begrudge the wealthy a tax cut, but if it puts our economy into deficits again and offers just peanuts to middle class families … that’s not a good deal.”

Bush has proposed an across-the-board reduction in marginal income tax rates, which his economic advisers claim would cost $1.3 trillion over 10 years. But the Gore camp pegs the 10-year cost of the Bush plan at $2.1 trillion, and argues that such a sweeping tax cut would make new spending in vital areas such as education and health care impossible.

The vice president has offered a more modest half-billion dollar tax cut plan that includes tax credits for education costs, retirement savings and health and child care costs. Gore says his approach would provide greater relief to middle class taxpayers than Bush’s proposal.

“I’m not going to stand for it,” he said of his opponent’s approach. “I will never support a tax cut for the wealthy at the expense of everyone else, that wrecks our economy in the process … I favor, instead, tax cuts for middle class families.”

The Price of Diet Coke

Gore also repeated an assertion he made in his acceptance speech at the Democratic convention in Los Angeles last week: that under the Bush proposal, a middle class family would receive a tax cut that amounts to a paltry 62 cents per day.

“The plan offered by the other side is so geared to the wealthy that for every $10 that goes to those in the wealthiest 1 percent,” he said, “middle class families would get one dime and low-income families would get one penny.”

Earlier today, Gore conceded that he misspoke during his prime-time address when he said that, under the Bush tax plan, middle class families would receive “about enough money to buy one extra Diet Coke per week.”

“It’s per day,” the vice president corrected himself on NBC’s Today show. “But … that itself is a striking enough contrast.”

Be it per day or per week, the Bush camp disputes Gore’s figures and insists that their candidate’s plan is in fact aimed at helping the middle class.

“Under the Bush plan, those needing tax relief most receive the largest percentage of tax relief,” said Bush spokesman Dan Bartlett, “including a child tax credit, lowering the 15 percent bracket to 10 percent and eliminating the marriage penalty and death tax.”

According to the Bush campaign’s calculations, a family of four making $35,000 would pay no income taxes under the governor’s plan — roughly a $1,500 reduction — while a family of four making $50,000 would see their taxes cut in half — roughly a $2,000 reduction.

Bush advisers also claim that the Gore plan would provide no relief to some 50 million taxpayers.

“Gore is not fighting for them,” Bush communications director Karen Hughes told reporters today, mocking the vice president’s “fighting for you” campaign slogan. “He’s leaving them behind.”

Gore and Lieberman were wrapping-up a four-day post-convention boat trip down the Mississippi River today, with stops in Quincy and Hannibal, Mo. Bush was campaigning in Milwaukee, Wis. and Des Moines, Iowa.