Gore Verses Bush Essay, Research Paper
Bush Attacks Gore, Citing ‘Pattern of Embellishments’
By ALISON MITCHELL
ORLANDO, Fla., Sept. 23 At the end of a campaign swing that was intended to focus on issues, Gov. George W. Bush stepped up his personal criticisms of Vice President Al Gore today, accusing him of “misleading Americans” through a “pattern of embellishments and sudden reversals.”
Mr. Bush assailed Mr. Gore in a speech he delivered by satellite to the state committee of the Pennsylvania Republican Party. He cited a series of incidents involving the Gore campaign last week that he said provided telling insights into the vice president’s character.
“My opponent has unfortunately spent the week misleading Americans,” Mr. Bush said. “His misrepresentations are serious business not the legitimate debate of political disagreements. They are a disturbing pattern of embellishments and sudden reversals.”
Mr. Bush also took aim again at President Clinton’s decision to release oil from the nation’s emergency reserves, portraying the move as political opportunism. The reserve, Mr. Bush said, “was created for America’s national security, not for the vice president’s political security.” Mr. Gore had called for the reserve to be tapped just a day before Mr. Clinton acted.
Mr. Bush seized on Mr. Gore’s assertion at a news conference that he had been involved in discussions about the strategic oil reserve in its early stages. “Just yesterday, there he went again,” Mr. Bush said, evoking Ronald Reagan’s well-known rebuttal of Jimmy Carter in a 1980 campaign debate.
“He claimed he was involved in the very invention of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve,” Mr. Bush said. “The problem is the reserve was first established in 1975, two years before Al Gore even went to the United States Congress.”
More broadly, Mr. Bush offered a week’s worth of examples to ridicule Mr. Gore. He brought up matters as varied as Mr. Gore’s attendance at a Hollywood fund-raiser, at which the vice president muted his previous criticism of the entertainment industry, and his quip to a union group that “Look for the Union Label” had been one of his childhood lullabies. (The song was not written until years after Mr. Gore’s childhood.)
Mr. Bush made a similar mistake earlier this year when he named as one of his favorite childhood books one that had not been written until he was a student at Yale.
And Mr. Bush pointed to Mr. Gore’s assertion that an arthritis drug used by his mother-in-law cost more than the one given to his dog. The vice president’s aides later acknowledged that the figures were taken from a study of drug prices by House Democrats, not actual medical bills. Mr. Bush said Mr. Gore had used “numbers he later had to admit weren’t even true, and we still don’t even know the real story.”
Mr. Gore responded to Mr. Bush in remarks to an electrical workers’ union meeting in Cleveland. “The other side said they wanted to talk about the issues, but that didn’t seem to last very long,” Mr. Gore said. “With our whole future at stake this is no time for personal attacks, which is why I’ll never make any.”
But one of Mr. Gore’s aides, Douglas Hattaway, pointed to the ties that Mr. Bush and his running mate, Dick Cheney, have had to the oil industry. “The Texas oil ticket is on the defensive because they’ve been making excuses for the oil industry while Al Gore is fighting to cut oil prices,” Mr. Hattaway said.
He stood by Mr. Gore’s assertion that he had been involved in discussions about the oil reserve since its inception. He said while it was authorized by law in 1975, the reserve was in its early stages in 1977, when Mr. Gore was serving on a House subcommittee on energy.
Mr. Bush, who has called for more domestic oil exploration, sought today to turn the focus to the country’s increased dependence on foreign oil.
“Americans are understandably worried about the high and rising prices of gas and home heating oil, and I sure am as well,” Mr. Bush said. “The vice president blames big oil. I’ll tell you what I’m worried about. I’m worried about big foreign oil. I’m worried that under the vice president’s policies America is more dependent on foreign oil, and domestic production is at its lowest level in almost 50 years since 1954.”
A response to the article:
Bush Attacks Gore, Citing ‘Pattern of Embellishments’
This article is about how Bush is accusing Gore of making false statements on certain issues. He says that making these embellishments is a serious issue especially since they have occurred more than once. One of Mr. Bush s arguments is about the issue of releasing some of the nations oil reserves to compensate for the high demand. Gore a little earlier claimed that he had been involved in discussions on the planning of oil reserve in its early stages in 1975. The problem however, Bush argues, is that Gore was not even in Congress until 1977. In addition, Bush says Gore claimed that an arthritis drug used by his mother-in-law cost more than one that his dog takes. At a later time the vice president s aides said the evidence was actually gathered from a study of drug prices by House Democrats not his medical bills. Now Bush is accusing Gore of making a false story.
Even though Bush is trying to make me, the reader, think that Gore is ” misleading Americans through a pattern of embellishments and sudden reversals “, I do not buy it. I believe these are petty arguments on Bush s part. To begin with, George Bush is guilty of the very criticisms of which he accuses Al Gore. For example, by claiming that Gore made a mistake concerning which he first became involved in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve is making a great fuss over a minor detail. In fact, Al Gore did in become involved within two years of the date of 1975 to which Mr. Bush referred. Even Mr. Bush has been responsible for making mistakes concerning some details ion his own life. None of these minor mistakes make any difference in terms of the major issues of the presidential campaign. By focusing on an error made by Gore in reference when he referred to a date some twenty-five years ago Bush is acting as a desperate candidate who is himself guilty of exaggeration. Attempting to focus voters on personal issues, Bush shows himself afraid to confront the national and international concerns that are of importance to the American people. Mr. Bush shows himself to be a hypocrite because he and his party are guilty of the same criticisms he levels at Gore.
Why clitin released oil more reasons. Information concerning why mr Clinton chose to release the oil reserve is not detailed. More than politics are involved. More info of natl concern. More detail of keeping oil reserve. Given oinly sound byted of both Bush and gores speeches.We cant draw concl;usion because we no longer have the full picture the speech has already been edited parts were cut.