Ending a cross-country sweep marked by huge and enthusiastic crowds, many cheering Bob Dole's selection of Jack Kemp as a running mate, Kemp stepped forward Sunday and attacked President Clinton's opposition to the ban on certain abortions after 20 weeks. He called such late-term abortions a "tragedy" that tarnished the nation's reputation across the world.
Kemp made his statements at a picturesque rally by the Ohio River in Pittsburgh. His remarks marked the first time either man had taken on the issue directly since their nominations in San Diego last week.It came on a day when the two men made a concerted effort to appeal to Roman Catholic voters, attending Mass at St. Joseph's Cathedral in Buffalo, N.Y., where the presiding bishop, Henry J. Mancell, repeated the church's opposition to abortion, and a Pulaski Day parade in Cheektowaga, outside Buffalo, Sunday afternoon.
"Wherever you stand on the issue of abortion - listen to this - on this Sunday afternoon, when we just came from St. Joseph Cathedral: I can't imagine our nation being that city on a hill if we continue to allow the partial birth abortion tragedy in the United States in America," Kemp said at the rally at Point Park in Pittsburgh.
"We're not out to preach," he said. "We're out to persuade the American people that there is something at stake here, that this nation is going to be that city on a hill that our founding fathers and mothers wanted to establish."
The bill that Clinton vetoed in April would have banned a kind of abortion that takes place after 20 weeks of gestation, and is described by abortion opponents as a brutal extraction of a mostly developed fetus from the birth canal.
Kemp's remarks were noteworthy because they suggested that, his comments in interviews since his selection to the contrary, he is prepared to take the lead in attacking Clinton on politically volatile issues. Dole, who throughout his career has had to fight the perception that he is mean, has made a concerted effort in the days since the convention to declare he would not make sharp attacks on Clinton.
Dole's aides said they were happy not only with the crowds, but also because Dole himself was exhibiting a vigor and crispness in his stump speeches which has appeared only intermittently over the past seven months.