Published: Thursday, November 2, 2000

Gore camp goes on the offensive


David Roberts
It is crunch time in the campaign season, the time when negativity flows over the airwaves. Of course, I particularly enjoy it because I love to watch the candidates make all these promises about staying positive — yet they end up breaking those promises when it comes down to the wire and release a torrent of negativity. Why?

Classic political studies show that negativity moves poll numbers the most. Humorously, this shows the mindset of society and people in general. I have to laugh at people because they are out there saying, “We’re tired of negativity in politics!” Yet, they allow negativity to sway their opinions. They say they’re sick of it, but they eat it up. I sometimes wonder when these people will get a clue.

We’ve seen the campaign go negative and candidates go back on their pledges to stay positive. Let’s look at everyone’s favorite politician – Al Gore. Being the superior genius that I am, I have long since learned that everything which comes out of Gore’s mouth must be scrutinized for truth content. Hence, it should not be a surprise to anyone that I was skeptical, when during the summer months, Gore promised to keep the campaign positive and not launch a negative attack against Bush.

I secretly knew Gore would not keep that promise. Now that the campaign is down to its final days, Gore has realized that his lagging poll numbers cannot be changed by any other method than unadulterated negativity. Just recently, the NAACP released an audacious and offensive ad which unequivocally blamed Bush for the death of James Byrd. This claim is absolutely ludicrous!

We all know that the men who killed James Byrd will receive the death penalty in Texas. There is no higher punishment to be meted out. Yet, despite the ad’s negative overtones, neither Gore nor Lieberman denounced it. Therefore, we can only conclude that they’ve condoned it. What’s worse is that this is only one of many negative ads to be released recently from the Gore camp.

This should be not only disturbing, but also alarming to any level-headed and intelligent individual. There is a underlying message here, and it is important that we notice it. If Gore cannot keep his promises while on the campaign trail, what makes us believe that he will keep his promises if he becomes the next president? For example, if he cannot keep his promise to stay positive, then why should we expect him to keep his promise to pay down the national debt or keep Social Security in a lockbox? We can’t expect him to keep even a single promise that he’s made during this campaign. Hence, if we are voting for Gore because he has promised us something, then I highly recommend that we seriously reconsider our vote. We will not receive what he has promised us.

I realize the gravity of the point that I just made.
However, I know that if I didn’t have the guts to bring this to light — no one else would. Some of you reading this column are just now realizing what I have known for quite some time, and that is that Gore cannot be trusted and that his campaign has been nothing but a trail of lies and false anecdotes. We all have the option to decide who our next president will be. Let’s carefully consider who gets our precious vote.

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