FREE ESSAY ON 2000 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGNS

2000 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGNS

The 2000 Presidential campaigns are going to be a very close according to the recent poles
made by CNN with Gore in the lead with 43 percent and Bush with 42 percent. The main
Presidential candidates are Vice President Al Gore representing the democrats and
Governor of Texas, George W. Bush representing the Republicans. The candidates disagree
on some issues including abortion, healthcare and education. However they do agree on
some things but they have different methods of obtaining their goals. Abortion, for
example is one issue that they have different views about, Bush is pro-life and Gore is
pro-choice. Healthcare is going to be an important point because Gore is helping more of
the elderly, which could really hurt Bush. The biggest issue is going to be education.
Both want education to excel while they are President but have different ways of doing
it. 
I think abortion is going to be a big one for getting women's votes. Gore supports
abortion rights as Bush opposes them except in cases of rape, incest or to save a women's
life. The Gore administration will be better off in this one because Gore is for it and a
lot of women are too. On the CBS news Bush stated, "He would support a Constitutional
Amendment to ban abortion but won't push for one." In relation to his statement Bush
said, "I don't believe there is enough public support for it." A major issue that Gore
has over Bush is that Bush opposes the FDA approval of abortion pill Mifeprex while Gore
believes the pill will be a better way to get an abortion done. Gore opposes parental
consent or notification that will have many of the younger women's votes. On the other
hand Bush is for parental consent that will get many of the parents on his side. 
Health Care is a major issue concerning the elderly and may be very helpful on who the
swing states are going to vote for. For example Washington is a swing state and in the
past ten elections five were for Republicans and the other five were for the Democrats.
It could go either way but right now it looks as if it's in favor of Gore. Many of the
elderly in this state are pushing for Gore because of his prescription drug plan for the
elderly. His plan is to create a new Medicare prescription drug benefit offering $1,000 a
year to cover the drug costs of recipients paying $24 a month in premiums. A former
teacher and counselor in Washington said, "Gore comes across as far more
presidential…his responses to foreign policy and Medicare…he seems to look at
the bigger picture." Gore is for seniors 55-65 years of age to buy into the Medicare
program, that would be a big plus. Bush is for a plan that would be totally new to
America that is to offer medical savings accounts to all Americans no matter what age.
Gore supports the creation of a "National Family Care Giving Program;" a one-stop support
center for families who care for elderly relatives. Many voters are in favor for Gore
because of this. Another swing state, Florida is a big one for Health Care because of all
the retired people that go to live in the warm weather. This state will lean towards the
candidate with the better health plan for senior citizens. A plus for Bush is that his
brother is the governor of Florida but it doesn't mean that he will get the vote. 
In other health issues Gore supports expanding the federal children's health insurance
program (CHIP) to include children living within 250 percent of the federal poverty
level. He also wants to allow low-income parents to buy into CHIP. Bush wants to return
CHIP to its original design as a flexible block-grant program to provide states with the
freedom to innovate and expand coverage of the greatest number eligible uninsured. Gore's
plan is much better and will get a lot of support from low-income families especially in
the swing states. 
"Education is my number one concern," stated Gore in the second Presidential Debate. I
think that education is going to be the biggest part of this election. Many people are
uneducated and Gore's plan will stop that. For example, Gore supports hiring 100,000 new
teachers nation wide in order to reduce the class size will help with children getting
better education. Gore had stated that at the end of the second debate. He also proposes
mandatory teacher testing for all new teachers and rigorous evaluations after granting
teacher licenses. This will make for education in America to be the same in every school.
This is what needs to be done to make every child as well educated as the next. Bush
wants to allocate $5 billion to establish the "Reading First" initiative so every child
can read by the third grade. This plan is good but most kids can read before third grade
and with help of parents this will improve. I don't think Bush's plans are going to go
over as well as Gore's. 
Al Gore supports the interests of the middle class while Bush is for the wealthier. "We
need help for the middle-class families to pay college tuition by making it tax
deductible. I'm for a lifelong commitment to education," Gore stated to CBS news.
Middle-class families don't make enough money to send their children to college without
any help from the government. In Michigan, which is another swing state, Gore is in favor
because 40 percent of voters come from union households. They like the fact that Gore's
pledge is to "fight for working families." As for Bush's $1.6 trillion tax cut promise:
Almost half goes to the richest one percent. Bush has nothing to say about making college
more affordable for the middle class except that he wants to expand educational savings
accounts to $5,000 per year. 
The election date is not to far away, and for many people it means making a decision on
who they want to run their country. While some will make their decision after the last
debate, other won't decide until they are sitting in the voting booth. With Gore in favor
of the middle and working classes, Bush has more of the wealthier in his favor. In the
end it will come down to what the candidates have to say about the issues stated above. I
think that Gore has the better chance of winning because he is a man of supporting the
middle-class, which I am supporting.