Posted on 11/03/2002 2:36:51 PM PST by Oldeconomybuyer
EATONVILLE, Fla. - Former Vice President Al Gore on Sunday urged black voters "to walk through fire" to cast their ballots, testifying to his experience during the Florida recount of 2000.
"If anybody ever tells you that one vote doesn't make a difference, ask them to come talk to me," said Gore, who two years ago lost the presidential election to George W. Bush in part because of the electoral debacle in Florida.
That line, repeated at three Orlando-area black churches, was met every time with applause and cries of approval.
Democrats have long regarded black voters as a crucial part of their base, and Gore's appearance was intended to boost Democrat Bill McBride in his race against Gov. Jeb Bush - the president's younger brother.
McBride also appeared with former President Clinton in South Florida during the weekend as part of the party's tactics during the campaign's last weekend to get out the vote.
A large turnout from the Democratic base is crucial to a McBride victory and preventing Bush from becoming the first Republican governor in Florida to win re-election.
Gore cited allegations in the aftermath of the 2000 election that blacks were improperly removed from the voter rolls.
He framed the issue as part of the Civil Rights struggle, even noting that his father had sacrificed to give blacks the vote. Tennessee Sen. Albert Gore Sr. lost his 1970 re-election bid, five years after helping pass the federal Voting Rights Act.
"I want somehow to communicate to you how important I believe it is that you overcome any obstacle, external or internal, to get to the polls," Gore said to a packed house at Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church. "That you walk through fire, if it's necessary, in order to exercise that right to vote."
Gore's visit was important, said Rep. Corinne Brown, D-Jacksonville, because it offered proof that turnout matters.
"Who better can say it?" asked Brown, who appeared at two churches with Gore. "Clearly, he received more votes in 2000 - 500,000 more nationwide and more in Florida. So, it's important for him to come and say, 'Listen, let's do it again. Let's try it again.'"
In Gore's short addresses, he mixed in self-deprecating humor over his election loss with jabs at the president's record on the economy, the environment and prescription drug plan for senior citizens.
"I'm concerned. For eight years, we had an economic plan that produced the strongest economy in the history of the United States," Gore said during an afternoon appearance at Bethune-Cookman College in Daytona Beach. "And now, everything that should be up is down, and everything that should be down is up."
While much of Gore's rhetoric was against Bush, he declined to say whether he would run for the White House again in 2004. "I haven't ruled it out, but I'm not going to make a decision until the end of the year," he said.
After Gore's speech at St. Mark African Methodist Episcopal Church, a parishioner said he found Gore's appearance to be uplifting.
"I sense that people still believe in the vote," said Chris Harris, a 39-year-old computer business owner, "and that's very encouraging."
Gore was traveling to Miami later in the day to attend an early voting event.
... "I'm concerned. For eight years, we had an economic plan that produced the strongest economy in the history of the United States," Gore said ...I find it strangely gratifying that this clerk-like gentleman will go to his grave with the taste of sour bile in his throat, still railing about Florida, November 2000.
Congressional Quarterly reported that, in the House of Representatives, 61% of Democrats (152 for, 96 against) voted for the Civil Rights Act as opposed to 80% of Republicans (138 for, 38 against). In the Senate, 69% of Democrats (46 for, 21 against) voted for the Act while 82% of Republicans did (27 for, 6 against). All southern Democrats voted against the Act.
In his remarks upon signing the Civil Rights Act, President Lyndon Johnson praised Republicans for their "overwhelming majority." He did not offer similar praise to his own Democratic Party. Moreover, Senate Minority Leader Everett Dirksen, an Illinois Republican, collaborated with the White House and the Senate leadership of both parties to draft acceptable compromise amendments to end the southern Democrats' filibuster of the Act. It was Dirksen who often took to the Senate floor to declare, "This is an idea whose time has come. It will not be denied." Dirksen's greatest triumph earned him the Leadership Conference of Civil Rights Award, presented by then-NAACP Chairman Roy Wilkins, for his remarkable civil rights leadership
When a Democrat candidate calls in the big WHITE gun to go looking for BLACK voters two days before the election you know he is in deep do do.
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| Sun Nov 3, 3:27 PM ET |
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Former Vice President Al Gore (news - web sites), right, with Rep. Corrine Brown (news, bio, voting record), D-Fla., pander and incite members of the Carter Tabernacle C.M.E. Church in Orlando, Fla., Sunday, Nov. 3, 2002. Gore was appearing with Florida Democratic candidates on Sunday and Monday to split the electorate along racial and ethnic lines. (AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack) |
"Vote so we can gain momentum and finally elect the first black woman President...Hillary"
And Senator Byrd's sheets.
The only thing a church burning ever benefitted was the Democrat Party.
Follow the votes, follow the money....
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