WASHINGTON – Vice President Al Gore’s brash new campaign chairman hit the airwaves yesterday, throwing punches at Gov. George W. Bush even as he vowed not to “go negative.”
William Daley, the outgoing commerce secretary, went on all five Sunday talk shows with his charge that Bush is ahead in polls because he’s “all things to all folks.”
“At some point, the real George Bush has got to step forward,” Daley said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
Daley’s high visibility and aggressive tone is in stark contrast to the stealthy style of his predecessor – one-time Congressman Tony Coelho, who resigned from the struggling campaign last week.
Coelho, who is under investigation by the State Department for questionable spending and hiring during the World’s Fair in Portugal, avoided television to spare himself tough questions.
Gore is also fearful of live television and usually sticks to tightly controlled press events.
But even as he kicked off a new kind of Gore campaign, Daley, who officially starts July 15, insisted he wouldn’t hit Bush below the belt.
“We’re not going to go negative,” he said on ABC’s “This Week.” “I want to make sure that this campaign is one that we’re all proud of.”
Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer quickly hit back at Daley for taking up Gore’s heavy lifting while still commerce secretary.
“I hope the president and his Cabinet focus on working for the American taxpayer and don’t take up jobs as full-time consultants for the Gore campaign,” Fleischer said.
Fleischer also said Bush is ahead because “he is winning the idea race,” and mocked the promise by Daley not to engage in negative campaigns.
Daley, meanwhile, suggested the Texas governor’s success was due partly to big ideas that fall apart under scrutiny, and he predicted Gore will trump Bush when they debate.
Bush “has run a very masterful photo-op campaign over the last three months. You have to give him credit for that,” Daley said.
Daley also conceded that the veep’s campaign may be hurt by soaring gas prices if Americans blame the administration.
“It’s not good for Al Gore,” he said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”