Word: gore
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...late October, Gore challenged Perot to a debate on Larry King's interview show. Hardly anyone noticed, and the idea seemed dead. But then Clinton went on what amounted to a campaign swing for NAFTA; after he had finished a speech to factory workers in Lexington, Kentucky, last Thursday, the President, in his best jaw-jutting, finger-pointing style, issued a dare: he recalled Gore's challenge and said, "Let's see if he ((Perot)) takes...
Perot was delighted. Sure, he said, I'll debate -- Gore, Clinton, both together, "anytime, anywhere." Specifically he proposed three debates, at venues that just happened to be previously scheduled Perot rallies. White House aides were flabbergasted and far from pleased by their boss's bravado. Complained one: "There hasn't been enough oxygen for Perot, and now we've gone and given him a whole lot more oxygen." For a while on Friday, some Clinton aides were suggesting, hopefully, that maybe negotiations on time and place would fail and no debate would come off. But Clinton and Perot's reciprocal...
...threats to them. Nonetheless, they and others are seriously worried that the Texan and his followers will try to defeat them at the polls next year if they vote for NAFTA. That, says a White House official, is another reason why Clinton chose to take on Perot -- or have Gore do it -- in debate. If the White House can knock Perot down a peg, it will win the gratitude, and maybe the pro-NAFTA votes, of Republicans who would be afraid to tangle with Perot all alone...
What this whole thing really seems to hinge on is the polls. If Lee Iacocca can enlist Rush Limbaugh to persuade his listeners to rally round NAFTA, and if the Gore-Perot debate is scored on the basis of who's more right and responsible rather than who's funnier, the poll numbers will rise and NAFTA will pass...
White House officials attempted to ensure that the unease caused by the Democrats' Election Day losses did not hurt the North American Free Trade Agreement. Pollster Stan Greenberg was sent to Capitol Hill to convince Democrats that supporting NAFTA would not displease voters. In the meantime, Vice President Al Gore surprisingly challenged Ross Perot, NAFTA's fiercest opponent, to a debate over its merits, and Perot, unsurprisingly, accepted...