Gore steps up PR offensive

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

WASHINGTON, NOV. 30. In the battle for U.S. presidency, the Vice- President, Mr. Al Gore. has stepped up his public relations offensive. Mr. Gore may argue that polls did not really matter in this election, but there is no question that he is trying to retain the momentum. He hit all the major television networks saying he was going to win and put his chance of proving it in court at 50-50.

Authorising the appeal to the Florida Supreme Court and putting his point across on television were not the only major things Mr. Gore did on Wednesday. With the Texas Governor acting busy with his transition process, Mr. Gore went about meeting his own transition team behind closed doors. The Bush campaign announced that its transition headquarters will be in McLean, Virginia, a Washington suburb.

In Austin, Texas, Mr. George Bush moved from the Governor's mansion to his ranch in Crawford where he plans to meet some key members of his ``administration''. On Thursday, his running mate, Mr. Richard Cheney, will be travelling to Texas; so will the former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen.Colin Powell, widely considered to be the Secretary of State in a Bush administration.

But the former Democratic Senator from Georgia, Mr. Sam Nunn, has said he is not interested in returning to government service. Both Republicans and Democrats were looking at Mr. Nunn, an expert in foreign and defence policies, as a potential Secretary of Defence.

Though for political reasons Mr. Bush would like to announce some high-profile members of his administration, it is for the same reasons he is holding back. For one, people like Gen. Powell themselves do not be wished to be used for partisan political purposes; for another, there is an impression that Mr. Bush perhaps went a bit too far in claiming victory and starting the transition process when the matter is still tangled up in courts, State and Federal.

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Section  : International
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