Subject: Al Gore Has No Worries

 When Irving Berlin played "White Christmas" for Bing Crosby, Der Bingle lit up
 his pipe and  said, "You don't have to worry about this one, Irving."

 I say the same to Democrats who are worried sick about George W. Bush.
 Vice President Gore sure ain't Berlin, and W's 12-point lead in one poll will
 probably jump this week, but when the real campaign gets going, after the fall
 debates, Bush will be gasping for air.

 Reasons for this prediction abound, from the boom economy to the peace of the
 world, but all doubts will be put away by the American Woman.

 On the three basic issues decisive for women — abortion, gun control and
 health care — Bush fails completely, and in that order. For all his vaunted
 control over the Philadelphia convention, he has approved a plank that leaves
 nothing to choice.

 Not rape, not incest, not even the survival of a woman can justify abortion.
 Bush bought this in South Carolina, and he sticks with it to the end.
 His choice of Dick Cheney as running mate establishes no-choice as a
 fundamental tenet of the Republican Party. If Bush sometimes allows as how he
 doesn't really mean what he says about abortion, Uncle Cheney's congressional
 record leaves no doubt.

 Does anybody believe the women will buy this? That they will vote for a
 ticket that will return America to the days of Prohibition, when doctors were
 jailed for performing abortions?

 Because that's what the Republican platform amounts to — prison and the
 comeback of Hatpin Mary. If Roe vs. Wade is overruled by a Supreme Court
 appointed by Bush, the state statutes that make abortion criminal will be
 reinstated on the spot.

 That's right.

 Except for New York and a couple of other states that went pro-choice
 before Roe vs. Wade, the criminal laws automatically are revived.
 Gore understands this, and in his interview with the Daily News Editorial
 Board in the spring, he said he would put it to Bush.
 "I'm going to pin him to the wall on abortion, you can bet on it."

 Gore also will cut him three ways to Sunday on gun control, bet on that.
 The Republican platform assures the National Rifle Association that nothing will
 be  done to cut down the right to bear arms. Which is at one with W's position in
 Texas and Cheney's everlasting love for the gun lobby.
 On health care, Bush waffles a bit, but he remains in the arms of the
 American Medical Association, and its right arm, the insurance companies.
 Put it all together, and it spells Women Against Bush. And women have
 controlled presidential elections since Bill Clinton took W's daddy out in 1992.

 Bob Dole, who tried mightily to overcome his party's anti-abortion plank
 — "I never read it," he said — lost the women's vote by 17 points.
 And, of course, when the women say no, the men are not far behind. We are
 talking about a society where men change diapers, and if they drink, they swig
 the baby's formula.

 So against all this, how come Bush leads in the polls and most pundits think
 he will win?

 The answer we are getting is that Americans don't care about issues.
 What  they want is a candidate who will assure them that issues don't count.
 It's  called "leadership" and "confidence" and most of all a desire to cleanse the
 country of Clinton.

 The same argument was made when Clinton was impeached. And it went nowhere.
 Indeed, Bill, if he could run again, would win in a walk, as the moralists
 concede even as they say Gore will lose to Bush.

 They were wrong then and they will be proven wrong in November.
 Don't worry about this one, Irving.
 
 
 

 Raleigh Chiarelli