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Three days after they traded sharp jabs, the Democratic presidential candidates, Al Gore and Bill Bradley, wrapped up the first full week of the 2000 election year yesterday with a congenial debate that accentuated their disparate views of leadership and their often-similar positions on issues.
Here, in a nutshell, was the campaign for the Democratic nomination. Gore, a former member of the House and Senate, vice president for seven years, argued that he knows how to get things done, that he would fight for Americans by proposing programs that Congress would pass. Bradley, a former U.S. senator, basketball star and tax-policy wonk, contended that he knows how to aim high and bring the nation along, even if the task is daunting.
"They didn't say well we're going to cover 20 percent of the people and see how it works out," he said, in a thinly veiled criticism of Gore's health-care plan, which would cover children first, adults in phases. "They said we're going to cover everybody with Social Security, everybody with Medicare, just like I want to cover everybody with health care. And when they did that they made us all better off. And so bold leadership is important."