Gore cannot win without California, and Bush would find it hard without Florida. Bush's programme is a brazen one with a kernel of tax cuts, designed to cut back the growth of government and stimulate savings and investment. The bulk of the rest goes to the top tenth of earners. Over Social Security and Medicare, Bush plans to create voluntary individual retirement accounts invested in the stock market, while Gore wants to leave the pension system unchanged and use the Social Security surplus to pay off the national debt and open a 'rainy day' fund for when the baby-boom generation retires. The CBO warns that, even under the most optimistic scenario, the cost of providing what is promised to the retired baby-boom generation will 'ultimately overwhelm the federal budget'.
Many voters remain undecided, and a thick fog hangs over the exchanges of 'math' and 'counter-math'.
But the politics must share stage space with the 'beauty contest'. Gore spent the past week trying to vamp up recollections of wild college days riding motorbikes and wearing leather, while Bush has been at pains to sweep his frat-brat encounters with booze and cocaine under the carpet. Bush is a son and heir who never had to justify what he was saying. Finally, there is the Clinton problem. Gore has claimed the mantle of Clinton's policies while keeping as great a distance as possible from the man he served.