TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Their presidential nominations at last secured, Al Gore and George W. Bush dug in for the eight-month battle to November. Bush said he was braced for Gore's "politics of personal destruction and distortions," while Gore argued Bush's "risky tax scheme" would hurt the economy.
Gore used rhetoric Wednesday from Bush's defeated rival, John McCain, tying Bush to conservative evangelists. Gore, who supports abortion rights and tighter gun laws, said Bush shares the anti-abortion views of Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell and also is a strong supporter of the National Rifle Association.Gore said his own fund-raising mistakes in 1996 have enhanced his commitment to reform. "I bring a new passion to it born of personal experience, just as John McCain did," he told ABC's "Good Morning America."
Bush brushed off as a stunt Gore's latest challenge, his promise to hold off on television ads funded by "soft money" as long as Bush does, too. Saying he relished competition, Bush predicted McCain supporters would come to his side and his "passion for improving education" would attract women voters.
"The Clinton-Gore team love the politics of personal destruction and distortions and I understand they're going to throw everything they've got at me," Bush said in an ABC interview aired Wednesday.
The son of a president who lost the White House in 1992 to Democrats Bill Clinton and Gore, Bush cast his own Republican effort as pay back for his father's defeat.
"We must face one more Clinton-Gore campaign. . . . This time we will prevail and they will fail," he told a cheering crowd in Austin, Texas, on Tuesday.
Gore, whose late father was a longtime Tennessee senator with unfulfilled White House ambitions, was equally personal in describing himself as better prepared to manage the economy.
"There are two avenues leading from November of 2000. The path that I want to lead our country toward continues our prosperity, uses the surplus for constructive purposes," Gore told supporters at a Tallahassee, Fla., high school gym.
"The other fork in the road leads off toward the right wing and curves around back toward the approach that failed during the Bush-Quayle years," he said. Wednesday he said Bush's "risky tax scheme" threatens Social Security and would build up the national debt.
Both Bush, the Texas governor, and Gore, the Democratic vice president, celebrated Tuesday night after anticlimactic primaries in six Southern states -- Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas -- pushed each man well beyond the number of delegates needed to win their parties' presidential nominations at the national conventions this summer.
An AP analysis showed Bush's delegate count would reach 1,093, and Gore's would reach at least 2,530 -- far more than required by each party.
All suspense was drained from the primaries last week when McCain and Democrat Bill Bradley bowed out of a race that had spurred record-breaking voter turnout. Former ambassador Alan Keyes remained on GOP ballots, but was not a threat to Bush.
Turnout was low Tuesday but exit polls exposed general-election vulnerabilities for both candidates: Gore's supporters were not as motivated as Bush's, while Texas Republicans reported disappointment with Bush's education agenda.
After 2 1/2 grueling months of virtually nonstop campaign travel, Gore promised "there will be no let up at all." He was headed Wednesday to Pennsylvania to address an AFL-CIO state convention and attend a fund-raiser in Philadelphia.
Bush planned to savor his victory and try to wipe out a lingering cold by relaxing at the Governor's Mansion. A brief vacation also was planned following a day trip Thursday to Illinois.
Gore made a feint at collegiality with an e-mail to Bush to challenge him not to run the ads, funded by unregulated contributions, that both parties plan to use to help their nominees after the costly primary fights.
Bush dismissed the offer. "If I believed him, I might be willing to accept it," Bush told CNN.
He did not, however, dismiss fascination with retired Gen. Colin Powell as a potential running mate.
"It's a little early to talk about vice presidents, but there's no question that a man of Colin Powell's stature would send a strong signal to America that I know how to attract the best minds in America," Bush said on CNN.