Bradley To Drop Out, Endorse Gore
By RON FOURNIER, AP
WASHINGTON (AP) Bill Bradley intends to bow out of the
presidential race Thursday and endorse Vice President Al Gore who
vanquished him in 16 Super Tuesday contests from coast to
coast. Bradley's decision marks the end of a candidacy that soared
briefly but floundered when the first votes were cast in the Iowa
caucuses and New Hampshire primary. It also eliminates the last
shred of doubt that Gore will be the Democratic presidential
nominee, and allows him to turn his attention to November with a
party united behind his candidacy.
Both men praised one another in public comments Tuesday night
after Gore's victories sealed Bradley's fate.
Two senior Bradley adviser, speaking on condition of anonymity,
said the former senator would leave the race Thursday and endorse
Gore at a news conference near his New Jersey headquarters.
Bradley, 56, plans to stay active in public life and is not
expected to rule out another presidential run, the advisers said. His quick embrace of Gore is bound to increase speculation about
Bradley as a potential running mate. Bradley himself has said he
wouldn't want the vice president's job, though his supporters have
not discouraged such talk.
In a contentious campaign that stretched for more than a year,
Bradley questioned Gore's truthfulness and dismissed his policies
as small-bore ``old politics.'' Still, he made it clear in recent
days that he would back the party's nominee - and the adviser said
he would do so in a speech that aides were working hard today to
plan.
Bradley's options were few, and his departure assumed, after
Gore swept Tuesday's voting and pivoted quickly to the general
election campaign against likely GOP nominee George W. Bush. ``I'll make my plans known shortly,'' Bradley said after
minority voters and union workers sealed Gore's shutout Tuesday in
15 states - including Missouri, where Bradley was born, and New
York, where he was a basketball star.
Even as Bradley made plans to drop out, Gore was criticizing the
Texas governor today on issues from gun control to Social Security. In a signal of how he will handle one of his own thorniest
issues - allegations of improper fund-raising in 1996 - Gore
answered repeated questions on the subject on morning TV shows with
virtually the same words: ``I've learned from my mistakes,'' and
the nation needs campaign finance reform.
Gore easily took as much as 60 percent of the vote in the 15
contests. In a victory address that aides said would become his
standard stump speech, he painted the GOP as beholden to its right
wing - himself as ``mainstream'' - and clearly counted on riding
the strong economy to victory in November.
Today, he said on ABC's ``Good Morning America'' that the two
sides should make the general election campaign one of ``ideas and
not insults.'' He had no insults for Bush today but said the Texas
governor was badly off track in his support for positions of the
National Rifle Association, in recommendations on Social Security
and refusal to support a ban on unregulated ``soft money''
political donations.
He said Tuesday night that he had the know-how to continue the
economic growth begun under Bill Clinton - the only time Gore used
the president's name. In an unnamed reference to Bush's policies,
Gore cautioned against ``wasting the (budget) surplus on a risky
tax scheme.''
Gore defeated Bradley in primaries in 11 states, including the
big prizes of California and New York. Bradley came closest in
Vermont, where he pulled 44 percent of the vote. In addition, Gore
won party caucuses in North Dakota, Idaho, Washington state,
American Samoa and Hawaii.
Gore gained at least 936 delegates, increasing his overall total
to 1,418. He needs 2,170 to win the nomination. Bradley won at
least 349 delegates, for a total of 406, according to the AP's
count.
Bush emerged from the Republican voting as the prohibitive
front-runner over Sen. John McCain, who today planned to
contemplate the future of his campaign at his Arizona retreat. Presaging how bitterly personal a race between Bush and Gore
could prove to be, Gore also alluded to the presidency of Bush's
father, George Bush, whom Clinton defeated in 1992.
``We need to build on our record of prosperity,'' Gore said.
``We don't need to go back to where we were eight years ago. They
tried their approach before; it produced a triple-dip recession and
quadrupled the national debt.''
Gore amplified a challenge he first put to Bradley and later
turned on the Republican presidential candidates:
- To agree to a ban on so-called ``soft money'' campaign
donations and all 30- and 60-second political ads.
- To hold joint open meetings with voters plus twice weekly
debates between the nominating conventions and Election Day in
November.
Gore said his goal would be ``to make this a contest of ideas
and not insults, a campaign conducted in full daylight and not
through secretly funded, special-interest attack ads or smear
telephone calls from the extremist right wing.''
Bush, in an interview broadcast today on ``Good Morning
America,'' suggested Gore's campaign-finance stance was self-serving. ``He's trying to make America forget what went on in
Washington, D.C., for the past eight years. Americans aren't going
to forget,'' Bush said.
Polling place interviews with voters in every region of the
country underscored the vice president's strength among core
Democratic constituencies.
Blacks preferred Gore over Bradley by a margin of 6-to-1; and
Hispanics by 8-to-1. The margin among union members was smaller,
but still a healthy 3-to-1.
Bradley Biographical Highlights By
The Associated Press
NAME - Bill Bradley
AGE-BIRTH DATE - 56; July 28,
1943
EDUCATION - B.A. Princeton
University (1965), Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University
(1966-67).
EXPERIENCE - Professional
basketball player (1967-1977); U.S. senator from New
Jersey (1978-1996); Author, lecturer, presidential
candidate (1996-present)
FAMILY - Wife, Ernestine; Two
children, one of them a stepchild from his wife's first
marriage.
QUOTE - ``Every election is new.
Every election is shaped by the dynamics of that time.''
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