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http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?.../20/MN88719.DTL

Gore uses visit to pump up state Democrats to vote
He and the governor tout respect for elections

Carla Marinucci and Zachary Coile, Chronicle Political Writers

Saturday, September 20, 2003

Former Democratic Vice President Al Gore stumped the state with Gov. Gray Davis on Friday, trying to link the 2000 presidential election fiasco in Florida and the California recall by reminding Democrats that "when the people vote in an election, it should be afforded the respect that's due."

Gore received an enthusiastic reception from a crowd of 150 labor and party activists at a San Francisco labor hall, where chants of "Recall Bush! Recall Bush!" echoed through the building. The 2000 Democratic presidential candidate urged Democratic voters to cast a "no" vote on recall against Davis.

In San Francisco and Los Angeles on Friday, Gore and Davis compared the recall to the impeachment of former President Bill Clinton and the Florida election debacle, in which the U.S. Supreme Court refused Gore's request to recount votes after the results were disputed in several counties.

"Al Gore should have been president of the United States," Davis said. "Nobody can speak with more clarity as to what the Republicans are doing and the attempt to overturn legitimate elections that they lost the first time around."

Davis and Gore were surrounded by a score of key Democratic leaders, including state party Chairman Art Torres and Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown. Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi -- who briefly considered running as a Democratic candidate in the replacement portion of the recall election -- and House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco also attended the event. Pelosi was among the congressional Democrats who urged Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante to enter the race to provide Democrats with a fallback in case voters toss out Davis.

But Bustamante's name was conspicuously absent from the San Francisco event Friday, as Democrats stuck to a theme of "no on recall" with no mention of the candidates on the second part of the ballot.

They warmly greeted Gore, whose San Francisco address turned into an impA*ioned sermon and remembrance of the 2000 election, delivered to an audience that responded "Tell it!" and "That's right!" Many in the crowd carried "Draft Gore in 2004" signs.

The former vice president remains enormously popular among Democrats in California -- a state he won by 1.3 million votes in 2000.

"Some people actually said it really didn't make a difference which way the vote went -- but it made a difference," Gore said. "From peace and prosperity .

. . we now have a recession and three years in a row of job loss that hasn't happened since Herbert Hoover.

"This nation has tragically bungled into a situation in Iraq where our brave soldiers are paying too high a price for a historic mistake."

The former vice president often injected humor into his speech.

Speaking of the country's current economic problems and job loss, Gore told the crowd of laborers, "I was the first one laid off. You never forget something like that. In my case, it was just before noon -- Jan. 20."

One of the audience members yelled out that it was not too late to submit a grievance. Deadpanned Gore: "Where do I file?"

And at another point, Davis told the crowd that it was only fair that elections should go to the candidates who get the most votes. The former vice president turned to Pelosi. "I thought that, too," he joked, referring to the 2000 results in which he won more popular votes than George Bush.

Earlier Friday, Davis joined Gore at an African American voter registration rally in Los Angeles to urge people to register by Monday to be eligible to vote.

Coming on stage to the pumping beat of James Brown, Davis showed a looser style than his usually stiff image by clapping his hands, dancing with Rep. Diane Watson, D-Los Angeles, and giving Gore a bear hug.

Davis initially introduced Gore as the former vice president, then said, "let's drop the 'Vice' -- President Gore!"

"What happened in California really began when they tried to impeach Bill Clinton after they couldn't beat him in '96, when they tried to stop and did stop the vote count in Florida because this man, Al Gore, had already gotten more votes than George Bush," Davis said.

"Now they're coming out to California to try to overturn an election they lost fair and square," Davis said, referring to his re-election in November.

Gore never mentioned actor Arnold Schwarzenegger by name, but in Los Angeles, he criticized those who want to see elections "transformed into mere entertainment." He said the state had a great deal to lose if Republicans won the governor's office.

"Their ideas are very different from ours," Gore told the crowd, which was filled with union members.

"I don't want you to wake up on the morning after the election and see somebody that you don't even know (the person's) views, somebody who's going to take your state down in the wrong direction," he said. "That will be too late."
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LA Visit:

http://asia.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?...storyID=3476936

Gore Joins Davis to Urge 'No' Vote in Calif. Recall
Fri September 19, 2003 05:08 PM ET
By Steve Gorman

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Former Vice President Al Gore, whose contested defeat in the 2000 White House race has become a rallying cry for California Democrats, joined Gov. Gray Davis on Friday in urging rejection of the Republican-led campaign to oust him.

Gore's appearance with Davis at a voter-registration rally in a predominantly black neighborhood of south Los Angeles capped a week that also saw former President Bill Clinton spent two days campaigning with Davis to help the governor keep his job.

It also came as the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed to reconsider its controversial decision to postpone the Oct. 7 recall election.

A three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit ruled earlier this week that the recall should be delayed until March because older, error-prone punch-card ballots still used in some counties would effectively disenfranchise some voters.

If the recall challenge reaches the U.S. Supreme Court, it would mark the first major test of the decision that halted the recount of Florida ballots in 2000, ending that bitterly contested race in a victory for George W. Bush.

The appeals panel that issued Monday's decision based it principally on the high court's precedent in Bush v. Gore.

Davis and his allies have portrayed the recall as a bid by Republicans to steal the gubernatorial race they could not win last year and as part of a larger Republican pattern of attempting to subvert the will of voters, starting with the disputed 2000 presidential contest.

Gore himself sounded that theme as he addressed a crowd of several hundred civic leaders, clergy members, union representatives, and school children.

"This is about a very large struggle in our country. It is a struggle over the future of self-government," Gore said. "The people who want to see this recall take place are disrespecting the majority of Californians who voted in the election last year."

Gore, introduced at the lectern by Davis as "a man who should have been president," did not mention by name any of the Republican candidates running to replace Davis. But he alluded to the campaign of the leading GOP contender, actor-politician Arnold Schwarzenegger.

"There are those who would make a spectacle of our democracy," Gore said. "There are those who feel that (election) process should transformed into mere entertainment."

Transcript of LA speech:

My friends, distinguished guests, Mayor Hahn, members of Congress, members of the Council, the Legislature, Senate and House, other disguised guests, members of the clergy, leaders of organized labor. This is an extremely important vote that we're asking you to cast, and that we're asking you to persuade others to cast. This is about a very large struggle in our country. It is a struggle over the future of self-government.

This nation was founded on the proposition that we, the people are best able to chart our own destiny. We, the people are the ones who ought to have the right to make decisions about what happens to us and to our families and to our communities. And when we vote and when the majority votes to have a particular set of policies and ideas and individuals to be controlling the course of our future, then nobody ought to overturn the say of the people. The people ought to govern themselves and have a right to make the decisions.

There are those who would make a spectacle out of our democracy. There are those who think that the sacred proposition that we have God-given rights, we are created equal and therefore we decide for ourselves what happens - - there are those who think that process should be transformed into mere entertainment, with each new twist and turn of the plot guaranteed to make jaws drop and eyes open. Just as amusement. As if there's no difference between the ideas advocated by those of us here in this room and the ideas advocated by those who went out and collected signatures, often from people who were not really given a clear idea what they were signing up to set in motion. The people who set this recall process in motion, their ideas are very different from ours. And those who tell you there's no difference between candidates, there's no difference between the kind of governance that you have now and what would happen if this other crowd got in place - - let me tell you, that's what they said to a lot of people in 2000. "There's no real difference. The country will be pretty much the same, regardless of who is in charge, who is in office."

Have you noticed a difference in this country in the last three years since the Clinton/Gore administration ended and since the Bush/Cheney administration came in? Have you noticed a difference?

Nationwide, the surplus is gone to the biggest deficit in history. Nationwide, the unemployment rate has gone up.

I'm concerned. I was the first one laid off. You hear me? You hear me? A*emblyman, you never forget something like that. It happened right just before noon on January 20th. It changes your perspective, you know?

I've thought about some of those other people who've been laid off since then. God bless them, they and their families have been going through some hard times.

The people had made a different decision. The people made a decision here in California to have a set of policies in place that would help this state get through hard times, that would help this state continue to build toward a bright future. It's not about each and every one of those policies. It's not about Governor Gray Davis. It's not about the individuals involved. It is about the right of the people to have their decision in the election afforded the respect that it is due.

The people who want to see this recall take place are disrespecting the majority of Californians who voted in the election last year, disrespecting the right of the majority to engage in self-governance.

Now as the Governor and others have said, in addition to this recall motion there is the Proposition 54. And here again, the forces behind it would have you believe one thing, but actually what would take place if they prevailed would be something else again. They want you to believe that we now have a colorblind society. And that race matters for nothing anymore. We've reached the Promised Land after all, have we not? All the discrimination's gone, all the problems have disappeared. Hallelujah, it's time to celebrate.

The reality is very different. And we, the people, regardless of our ethnicity or race or religion or background know that we, the people are stronger if we have the right to see the world as it is, to understand the challenges for what they really are, and to continue the long struggle to overcome those obstacles that have been laid in the path of too many who have disadvantages and don't have the opportunities to lift themselves up. Vote no on 54. Vote no on 54!

"Colorblind". "Colorblind". They use that "colorblind" phrase the way duck hunters use a duck blind. They hide behind it and hope the ducks won't see what they're really up to.

So this will make a difference. It does matter whether these measures are defeated or whether or not they are tricked into place. Whether the vote goes the right way or not depends on one thing. One thing. And it's not out there. It's not on the television screen. It's not in Washington, D.C. It's not over in Iraq. It depends on what you have right here (points to his own heart). Right here.

Eighty five years ago there was a poet who wrote a poem that included these lines: "The best lack all conviction and the worst are full of pA*ionate intensity. And the centre cannot hold." Sometimes I listen to some of those right wing talk radio people and I think the worst are full of pA*ionate intensity. And then sometimes I hear people who agree with you and me about what's right and what needs to be done and how much work is still undone, and they're laying back. And they think "Ah, I don't think it really makes any difference." And I think: hmmm. The best lack all conviction.

That poem is not an accurate description of Los Angeles. It's not an accurate description of California. But the extent to which you overturn that description depends on what's in here (points to his own heart). The extent to which you stop this effort to nullify the will of the majority depends upon your intensity.

So I'd like to close by saying that now's the time to go out and talk with your family, with your friends, with all that you have some pull with... Hear my words, now. Hear my words. Don't let it wash off like the proverbial water off a duck's back. You've heard words like these before, but I want you to open your ears. And open your hearts. I don't want you to wake up on the morning after the election and see somebody that you know don't even know, somebody who's views are very diff - - somebody who's going to take your state down in the wrong direction, walking in, overturning the will of the people. That will be too late. So hear my words now. And pA* them on. Are you ready to listen?

With everything you have, convince people: vote no the recall. No on 54.

No on the recall. No on 54. No on the recall! No on 54! No on the recall! No on 54! Let's do it!