Al Gore speaks to students on National Student Day
Daffy Duck
on National Student Day at the University of MD, College Park. Students
from all major area schools including Johns Hopkins, Georgetown, George
Washington, Trinity, UDC, and Howard were also present to show solidarity.
Police estimated the crowd at almost 12,000 who had to put up with hot
weather and Mr. Gore showing up an hour and fifteen minutes late. However
when he showed up, he had an excellent speech.
First, Maryland is a secure state for Clinton/Gore, Bush won in 88 by a
small margin only because the "gun ban" on the ballot that year brought
out a huge amount of the "redneck" vote, which typically goes Republican.
Gore was introduced by a super senior at the University(fifth year student
who couldn't graduate because of lack of classes) who told the Bush/Quayle
hecklers that they were at the wrong rally and this was the wrong year,
and they stayed pretty quiet after that. Even the ACT UP jokers were
there, but the campus police kept them in check, plus Gore mentioned AIDs
in his speech.
Anyway Gore had some good jokes, including noting that unlike Bush he
wasn't going to tell the hecklers to "sit down and shut up", and noted
when Bush was asked to produce more jobs he told the jobless "sit down and
shut up", and when environmentalist urged him help save the planet, he
told them to "sit down and shut up." He also noted that if Bush wanted to
go into movies like his Reagan he could star in "Honey I Shrunk the
Economy" and the sequel could be "Honey I Blew Up the Deficit". The crowd
itself was boisterous, with one sign giving Bush a report card of all "F"s
and "D"s on important issues like Pell Grants, Dan Quayle, Student Loans,
Education, the Environment, and Head Start (he got a "D" for that his only
non "F" he got). Gore BLASTED the Bush administration for proposing to
cut federal student loan support by $10 billion to support tax increases
for the rich, he lambasted Bush for creating the worst economic situation
in decades, he criticized the Bush administration for clinging to old
ideals in a new era. He even boasted on how Clinton/Gore would win Orange
County, California for the first time in over 40 years. He noted how Bush
was a pander bear to the Republican Right and how the Republican party was
being taken over by the ultra-right wing fundementalist like Jerry
Falwell, Pat Robertson, and Pat Buchanan.
Overall it was an excellent speech, I'd like to see him debate Quayle and
show Quayle to be the true fool he is.
OlsonDL
} Senator and the next Vice President (we can all hope!) Al Gore
"All"? Hardly.
So, how do you feel about a Vice President who believes that the news
media should *not* report on things that *he* thinks should be kept silent?
Gore is on record as telling reporters that they should not make reports
on the environment that aren't alarming, because such reports, in his
words, "undermine the effort to build a solid base of public support for
the difficult actions we must soon take."
} Overall it was an excellent speech, I'd like to see him debate Quayle and
} show Quayle to be the true fool he is.
And I'd like to see Gore shown to be the flaming menace he is.
--
David Olson d...@drutx.att.com
"The American Republic will endure, until politicians realize they
can bribe the people with their own money." Alexis de Tocqueville