(Johnston, IA) Democratic presidential candidate Bill Bradley used less than a minute of his speech at a suburban Des Moines high school to urge Iowans not to “settle” for his rival, Al Gore.
“Now is not the time to settle. Now is not the time to settle for nibbling around the edges with health insurance. Now is not the time to settle by doing virtually nothing for family farmers for three or four years and then recognizing there’s a crisis and trying to respond in the last minute,” Bradley said.
Bradley’s campaign complains about a new Gore campaign ad which features Iowa Senator Tom Harkin, who says in the ad that Gore was the “only democrat running for President” to act to provide flood relief to Iowa farmers in 1993.
Bradley contends he voted for a disaster relief package, but rejected an amendment Harkin offered which would have provided more flood aid, but handed out “pork” to other interests.
During his speech, Bradley said his own “big” ideas for the future were dismissed as “too hard” by Gore.
“And I want to contrast that with what Al Gore is saying. Registration and licensing of handguns? Too hard to do, he says. Universal access to affordable, quality health insurance for all Americans?…Yea, but not now, and I’m not putting any money in for how we’ll ever get there,” Bradley said.
Bradley spoke to a gathering of high school students, who asked him questions about abortion, campaign spending restrictions and environmental policy.