George W. Bush Unveils Campaign Reform Plan
GOV. GEORGE W. BUSH (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: These are reforms that will make the system work better, these are real reforms, these are wholesale reforms.</s>BERNARD SHAW, CNN ANCHOR: George W. Bush offers his own version of campaign finance reform as he tries to steal John McCain's thunder in South Carolina.</s>SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R-AZ), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It would be bogus if we didn't get rid of soft money, because everybody knows that's the root of all evil.</s>JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: We'll focus on McCain versus Bush heading into their big debate showdown tonight, and tell you how Rhett Butler reflects South Carolina's political dynamic.</s>SHAW: Plus, a new endorsement of Al Gore as an abortion rights champion that has the Bradley camp seething.</s>ANNOUNCER: From Washington, this is INSIDE POLITICS, with Bernard Shaw and Judy Woodruff.</s>WOODRUFF: Thank you for joining us. John McCain joked today that George W. Bush is borrowing so many pages from his campaign playbook the Texas governor soon may move to Arizona. Bush's new emphasis on campaign finance reform comes at a significant moment in his battle with McCain in South Carolina. Their only debate in the state begins four hours from now. Here's our senior political correspondent Candy Crowley.</s>CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): On debate day in South Carolina, George Bush tried to put his imprint on John McCain's signature issue.</s>BUSH: I'm a reformer when it comes to how we fund are campaigns. I want to enunciate some reforms that need to be in place about campaign funding reform to make it really clear to the people of this state.</s>CROWLEY: The ideas include a ban on corporate or union soft money contributions; a moratorium on contributions from lobbyists while Congress is in session; and instant disclosure of contributions. It was largely a packaging of initiatives Bush has talked about many times before. It was dismissed by McCain as a joke, because there are no limits on individual contributions to political parties. Why take on McCain's trump suit now in South Carolina? Because the race is tight, and with South Carolina Republicans now showing themselves solidly in Bush's corner, Bush is trying to peel off some of the independents who have flocked to McCain, and he feared on campaign finance reform they had not heard his message.</s>BUSH: And I felt for certain that people were hearing it, evidently they weren't, so I just -- I'm putting out -- officially putting out a plan now so that there should be no question in anybody's minds that I'm now on the record with a plan that I have been on the record for ever since last summer.</s>CROWLEY: Also with independents in mind, Bush will focus on HMO reform and a patients' bill of rights in speeches leading up to Saturday's primary. As for the evening's debate, aides say Bush needs to be humorous. Still, he can't be seen as too flip. Aides say he needs to outline his own record as a reformer and challenge McCain's results. Still, Bush can't seem too negative. No pressure here.</s>BUSH: Somebody told me it was what we call free-flowing, whatever that means, and I'm looking forward to free-flowing with the best of them.</s>CROWLEY: Aides do not see this as a do or die debate, nor do they see Saturday as a do or die primary. Still, they knows if they don't do it in South Carolina, it will be a very, very rough road elsewhere -- Judy.</s>WOODRUFF: Candy, you say it's not do or die. How important is it?</s>CROWLEY: Well, look, it's pretty important. I mean, this wasn't in the original game plan, as you know. They thought they'd be coming to South Carolina with a win off New Hampshire. They lost big in New Hampshire, so there's a lot on this, but you know, Bush clearly has the money to go on. He still talks about the long road. They still talk about primaries in Texas and Florida, where Republicans' vote is supposed to, you know, always be open primaries, which they're getting right now with the independents and the Democrats coming in. Still, it's very important. They would really like to begin to turn the dominoes toward Bush as opposed to toward McCain as they have been since coming out of New Hampshire.</s>WOODRUFF: All right, Candy Crowley in South Carolina, thanks -- Bernie.</s>SHAW: Now to Bush's prime opponent. John McCain kept on courting South Carolina voters this day, apparently undaunted by Bush's new campaign finance proposal or tonight's debate. Our man John King is in Columbia, South Carolina.</s>JOHN KING, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Bernie, the second town hall today at a synagogue, John McCain, a woman stood up in the crowd said she had read a letter in the local newspaper today saying any Democrats that wanted to vote in the Saturday primary were "idiots." Senator McCain said that's not the case. He said it was an obvious effort by supporters of Governor Bush to suppress turnout. The senator's focus on Democrats and independents here an obvious sign that in his camp they are concerned that Governor Bush's attacks on McCain's conservative credentials are taking hold.</s>MCCAIN: Best kind of Democrat I know.</s>KING (voice-over): It's debate day in South Carolina and John McCain is warming up.</s>MCCAIN: I am fully prepared to be president of the United States, and assume these responsibilities, and I need no on-the-job training.</s>KING: A key McCain debating point will be his plan to set aside 62 percent of the federal budget surplus for Social Security and to pay down the national debt.</s>MCCAIN: Governor Bush wants to put it all into tax cuts.</s>KING: McCain wants South Carolina and the nation to see him as a populist reformer.</s>MCCAIN: I am going to fight until the last breath I draw to give the government back to the people of this country and get young people connected back again to their government.</s>KING: McCain's conservative credentials are under attack in Bush campaign speeches and mailings, and the senator expects there's more to come in tonight's debate.</s>MCCAIN: I hope you'll judge me on my record, I'll hope you'll judge me no my commitment to conservative causes and beliefs, but I also hope that you'll make a judgment as to how I can lead this country in the next century and restore integrity and respect to the institution of the presidency of the United States.</s>KING: McCain supporters says Bush and others are distorting the senator's record on issues like abortion and gays in the military.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want you to go back and tell your Christian conservative friends that my number is 864-224-7401, and you give me a call and you put this trash in the trash can where it belongs.</s>KING: South Carolina polls show a close race, McCain perhaps narrowly trailing.</s>KING: Yet the senator says he's optimistic he can pull off a victory here. On the hand, also today though on his campaign bus he said he wanted to -- he was more concerned about how his campaign would be remembered than he was about winning, perhaps a sign he has been reading the polls. In any event though, McCain people feel confident regardless of the results here. They're very competitive in Michigan, obviously ahead in his home state of Arizona. The McCain campaign will go on from here regardless of the results Saturday -- Bernie, Judy.</s>SHAW: John, on the Saturday results, what's the outlook for turnout?</s>KING: Well, that is the big question in the McCain camp. They are desperately trying to get Democrats to cross over and vote, desperately trying to get the independent vote. The McCain camp privately, begrudgingly a hat's off to the Bush campaign today, they view his campaign finance reform statements as a tactic, they don't -- they question his commitment to the issue, but they do think it is a very wise tactic in courting independent voters. McCain wants a big turnout because that would mean more than Republicans are coming out to vote -- Bernie.</s>SHAW: John King in Columbia, South Carolina. Now, of course, the third remaining Republican presidential candidate, Alan Keyes, also will take part in tonight's debate in South Carolina moderated by CNN's Larry King. But given his distant showing in the polls, many viewers and political observers will be focusing on McCain and Bush. Ron Brownstein of "The Los Angeles Times" joins us now from the debate site in Columbia. He spent some time with Governor Bush today. Ron, a question, is there any difference in George Bush's pre-South Carolina debate attitude versus his pre-New Hampshire debate attitude?</s>RON BROWNSTEIN, "THE LOS ANGELES TIMES": Well, I think that in both of them -- in fact, I was with McCain yesterday, and both Bush and McCain said the same thing, after so many debates and really more to the point with so much information being directed at people here -- this campaign, Bernie, is really omnipresent on the front page of the newspapers, on the news, in the ads -- neither one of them see any single event as a make or break defining kind of moment unless something unusual and unexpected happens.</s>SHAW: In South Carolina, what do you see as the strategic difference between Bush and McCain?</s>BROWNSTEIN: Well, Bernie, right now this is a very unusual and engaging campaign in this sense, I think both of them are largely succeeding in what they're setting out to do. John McCain is trying to define the sort of coalition of the center of independents, moderate Republicans and Democrats, a sort of Perotesque coalition drawn to the issue of political reform, and as you go around the state with him you see it. People are turning out and they are very enthusiastic. George W. Bush, even more aggressively than in New Hampshire, is trying to define this as a left-right race and rally the conservative Republican base sort of against the infidel, John McCain, and as you travel around with him, he is succeeding in doing it. One telling sign, when you go to a McCain event often the biggest applause line is when he promises to pay down the national debt. When you go to a Bush event often the biggest applause line is when he promises to cut taxes, antithetical programs. The problem McCain has, Bernie, is that if both of them succeed the share of the electorate that Bush is mobilizing is in fact larger in a conservative state like this and it becomes very hard for McCain to get over the top if Bush really can consolidate Republicans, especially conservative Republicans to the degree that he seems to be at this point.</s>SHAW: So if someone were to tap you on the shoulder and say, tell us, South Carolina, what issues are playing best, what would you say?</s>BROWNSTEIN: Well, I think as I -- I think we talked about this a little last week, it's almost as if there are parallel campaigns going on. For McCain, certainly what is most effective for him is campaign finance reform and paying down the debt, this idea of being fiscally responsible, not spending a lot of money on a tax cut. And also I think the military strength and his focus on veterans issues -- a lot of veterans turn out at his rallies; it's really striking. For Bush, it's really -- it's the flip side. I think the tax cut issue, the overall conservatism, the sense that he is more conservative on social issues is very important here. And the sleeper, and what is probably a better reform emphasis for Bush than sort of the campaign finance reform, is education reform. I'm struck: A lot of voters seem attracted to his record in Texas. I mean, this is a state that has struggled to improve its public schools. And even in a Republican primary, the idea that Bush has a fairly broad agenda for federal action to try to leverage reform at the state level comes up a lot with voters when you talk to them.</s>SHAW: Very quickly, I must ask you this last question: Who, who has the best chance of capitalizing on the wild card? The independent vote?</s>BROWNSTEIN: Well, certainly -- certainly McCain does. But one thing that's really striking here, Bernie, is that unlike New Hampshire Bush is having more success at peeling away conservative independents, independents who consider themselves ideological conservatives. We saw that very clearly in our "L.A. Times" poll this week. It's a sign that he is basically building the box around the election that he wants, a left-right frame, just as McCain is, an insider- outsider frame. They're both succeeding. McCain's problem is Bush's box seems to be a little bigger right now.</s>SHAW: Ron Brownstein, "Los Angeles Times," Columbia, South Carolina. Thank you.</s>BROWNSTEIN: Thank you.</s>SHAW: Judy.</s>WOODRUFF: Well, the intense lead-up to Saturday's South Carolina primary is a far cry from some presidential races of the past. Our Bill Schneider has been looking at political traditions and trends in the Palmetto State -- Bill.</s>WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Judy, for the first half of the 20th century, the GOP presidential vote in South Carolina averaged 4 percent. That's 4 percent. But after Barry Goldwater carried the state in 1964, the floodgates opened and South Carolina has voted Republican in every presidential election since, with the exception of Jimmy Carter in 1976. It's a state where the Republican tradition is fairly new, but the conservative tradition is very old.</s>SCHNEIDER (voice-over): In fact, there are two conservative traditions. The low country along the coast has a tradition of aristocratic conservatism: big plantations, slavery, rich food and good breeding. The low country is deeply conservative on economic issues, but socially cosmopolitan: Charleston, the Spoleto (ph) Festival, and coastal resort towns like Myrtle Beach and Hilton Head that attract wealthy Northern retirees. Remember "Gone With the Wind?" Rhett Butler of Charleston typifies the low country attitude toward moral issues like drinking and gambling. Frankly, my dear, they don't give a damn. Right now, the low country is John McCain country. He's the less hard-line conservative. The up country of South Carolina has a tradition of populist conservatism: hard-scrabble farmers, barbecue and the "Bible Belt." Up country conservatism is more social than economic. Fast-growing places like Greenville and Spartanburg, with a lot of new industrial growth and foreign investment, and a lot of old-time religion in places like Bob Jones University, where they do give a damn -- make that a darn -- about moral issues. The up country is George W. Bush country, where social conservatives are trying to hold the line for the true conservative faith. The big split is not geographic, but partisan. It appears to be between Republicans who favor Bush, and independents and Democrats who can vote in the primary and who favor McCain. McCain jokes that the Bush forces see his campaign as threatening a hostile takeover of the Republican Party. Ha-ha. They do.</s>GOV. GEORGE W. BUSH (R-AZ), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And so what I worry about, what I think about is I think about Democrats coming in our primary and not staying with our nominee.</s>SCHNEIDER: Is that why so many independents and Democrats support McCain? Actually, no. Almost two-thirds of non-Republicans who are voting for McCain believe McCain would have the best chance of beating the Democrat in November. They're not voting for McCain because they see him as a loser; they're voting for McCain because they like him.</s>SCHNEIDER: The McCain forces are threatening a takeover of the Republican Party, but it's not a hostile takeover. They want the GOP to be a Reform Party. In fact, Bush now calls himself a reformer too while McCain protests that he's just as conservative as Bush. You see why this race is so close? Two conservatives, both of them claiming to be reformers. Now, conservatives, that's something South Carolinians understand. Reformers, that's something new to South Carolina -- Judy.</s>WOODRUFF: And by the way, Bill, you were just looking at that -- those numbers we were showing and saying that they weren't the numbers that were supposed to be up there, just to be clear.</s>SCHNEIDER: The numbers were showing that among independents and Democrats who are supporting John McCain 64 percent -- roughly two- thirds of them -- believe that McCain would be stronger than Bush as the nominee who could beat the Democrats in November, which means that they're not voting for McCain because they think he's a weak candidate. They're voting for McCain because they think he's a strong candidate who could win.</s>WOODRUFF: All right, Bill Schneider, thank you. And still ahead on INSIDE POLITICS, the vice president gains a crucial endorsement. We'll look at how his rival reacted when we examine the Democratic race next.