The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer

JIM LEHRER: Good evening. I'm Jim Lehrer. On the NewsHour tonight: Some politics with Bush, Gore and Nader campaign speeches; a one- on-one debate between two Silicon Valley executives; and a get-out-the-vote report from Florida; plus, a look at what life may be like on the international space station. It all follows our summary of the news this Thursday.

NEWS SUMMARY

JIM LEHRER: A car bomb exploded today in Jerusalem, killing two people. The militant group Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility. The attack came shortly after Israel and the Palestinians agreed on a new truce. We have a report from Gaby Rado of Independent Television News.

NEWS SUMMARY

GABY RADO: Had it not gone off in a narrow Jerusalem alley, the car bomb's effect would have been even deadlier. As it was, the two who died were reportedly passers-by and not the terrorists, as was first thought. The scenes were reminiscent of the murderous few months in 1996 when a series of bus bombings by Islamic extremists first badly derailed the peace process. Today, it is with a kind of weariness that the Israelis warned Yasser Arafat to keep his house in order.

SPOKESMAN: And as long as these terrorists are... As long as the Palestinian Authority does not put them back in jail, they will continue... they will continue to try to derail any peace process by deadly terrorist operations.

GABY RADO: Chairman Arafat was around the time of the bombing supposed to go on TV, urging Palestinians to tune down protests in the spirit of a truce hammered out overnight -- instead, no statement at a tense meeting with his advisors in Gaza. Before the car bomb, there were positive signs that the Palestinian authorities were trying to play their part. Policemen on the West Bank pushed away teenagers engaged in stoning an Israeli military post and their leaders were sounding conciliatory.

SPOKESMAN: This deployment of heavy forces and tanks, and disproportionate use of force has to end. And that... And this only would be the road to calming down the situation and going back to the peace process.

GABY RADO: In keeping with the new agreement, Israeli tanks were this morning withdrawing from Palestinian areas and the sealing off of West Bank towns is also ending. But the Israeli prime minister, Ehud Barak, also cancelled a TV announcement on the cease-fire.

JIM LEHRER: And as the day wore on, there was new fighting between Palestinian gunmen and Israeli soldiers on the West Bank. Two Palestinians were killed. In the presidential race today, Governor Bush and Vice President Gore crisscrossed the battleground states. Bush began in St. Louis, Missouri. He said voters need to send an outsider to the White House if they want tax and Medicare reform. He went on to stops in Illinois and Wisconsin. Vice President Gore started the day in Scranton, Pennsylvania. He said nation's pity was on the ballot, and he attacked Bush's environmental record. He went on to Illinois, Texas and New Mexico. We'll have excerpts from the Gore and Bush speeches, plus a Ralph Nader speech, right after this News Summary. An American and two Russians arrived at the international space station today. They're the first crew to live there, and they'll stay four months. Their first priorities aboard: To turn on lights, get the toilet working, and power-up life-support systems. The space station is a joint project of 16 countries. We'll have more on this story at the end of the program tonight. And between now and then, Bush, Gore, and Nader speeches; a one- on-one; and getting out the vote.

FOCUS - ON THE STUMP

JIM LEHRER: Speeches by the three leading presidential candidates. First, Governor Bush, speaking in St. Charles, Missouri, this afternoon.

GOV. GEORGE W. BUSH: I am running against a man who trusts the federal government. Ours is a philosophy that says we trust people to make decisions in their own lives. And I am running against a fellah who's of Washington, by Washington, and for Washington. You can understand why. He was raised in a hotel in Washington. Today, I want to spend some - a little extra time talking about a important program called Medicare; it's a program that must work. We say to seniors we understand how important prescription drug coverage, so prescription drugs will be an ingrainable part of the Medicare plan. We'll say to poor seniors, we'll help you with all of your prescription drug bills and we'll help all seniors afford prescription drugs. It is a different point of view though from that of my opponent. He wants to force seniors into what's called prescription benefit managers. There's going to one prescription drug manager per region of the country. He says it's not an HMO; but it certainly looks like an HMO. The rules make it seem like an HMO. And it quacks like an HMO. He says he's for a step-by-step plan for universal coverage. No, folks. He's for a hop, skip, and a jump to nationalized health care. He wants - he thought Hillary care made a lot of sense. We think differently. In 1992, they went around the country saying we'll modernize Medicare. In 1996, they said the same thing. We had a debate here in St. Louis, and he said the same thing in the year 2000. My opponent says, you ain't seen nothing yet. And how right he is. We haven't seen anything yet. This country wants to reform Medicare, and we ain't seen nothing yet. We need to reform Social Security, but we ain't seen nothing yet. There's an achievement gap in American education that needs reform, but we ain't' seen nothing yet. There's a military that needs to have morale boosted, but we ain't seen nothing yet. We need health insurance, but ain't seen nothing yet. And our message on November 7 is, we've seen enough. It's time for new leadership in America. We've had interesting moments in this campaign. One came I think it was in St. Louis during the third debate -- when my opponent actually looked at the cameras, and said, I'm against big government. I could barely contain myself. I was afraid in the middle of the debate I was going to break out in hilarious laughter. I knew the man was prone to exaggerations, but I think this one took the cake. There's a danger in growing the federal government too big. Not only does it crowd out people's ability to save; it could stop this economic growth of ours. The era of big government will not be over if our opponent wins. But guess what? With your help, he's not going to. We're going to carry the great state of Missouri.

JIM LEHRER: Now, Vice President Gore speaking in Scranton, Pennsylvania, this morning.

VICE PRESIDENT AL GORE: I'm running for President to keep our prosperity going not just for prosperity's sake itself, but so we can achieve major changes for families. I want a real patients' bill of rights so doctors and families make the medical decisions. We want to take them away from the HMO's and the insurance companies and give them back to the doctors and medical professionals. Here is the first thing you need to know about my HMO reform plan. The HMO's are against it. The insurance companies are dead set against it. You need to know also the doctors and nurses are for it and want to see it passed into law, and the families who have been facing this problem, are for it. I'm telling you this is an issue that people are rightly concerned greatly about. When a doctor says you need a medicine or treatment based on education or training and his or her concern for you, that doctor's decision should never be overruled by some clerk in an HMO who doesn't have a license to practice medicine and who doesn't have a right to play God. The choice is yours. And it's on the ballot this Tuesday. Governor Bush opposed health coverage for a additional 220,000 children in Texas, not withstanding the fact that Texas was 49th out of 50 now - and 50th in some categories of health insurance, courtesy of the national economic recovery the last two years, he found himself in possession of the largest budget surplus that state had ever had, and several in the legislature tried to use it to address this terrible problem of children without health insurance. One out of every 10 children in America without health insurance is in the state of Texas. But he fought against it and made his priority tax cuts for special interests and the first one was another tax cut for the oil companies, which was labeled an emergency. Now, I want to ask you: If you ere governor of a large state that was near the bottom in health insurance for children, and all of a sudden you had a big budget surplus, don't you think you might want to use part of it to maybe lift your status from 50th to 49th or 48th or maybe even better? It just seems to me to be basic common sense. But, now, he fought against that and now that state ranks dead last in the nation, in health insurance for families. Now, that's relevant for this reason: You can look at our records and get some indication of what kind of President you want and what we'd be. Now, the President elected five days from now will take office in January of next year, at a time when our country has the biggest surplus in history. And he's proposing to use that surplus for giant tax cuts for the wealthiest of the wealthy. And here is what I think we ought to do. As I've told you, I think we ought to have middle class tax cuts and balance the budget andpay down the debt. And then I say this: Let's make a commitment that we will cover with high-quality health insurance every single child in the United States of America by the year 2004. And we can do it. That's not just an issue, it is a moral imperative and it is a big difference in this election, so let me ask you again, are you with me? I want you to know I'll always be with you. I need your help. I need Pennsylvania. I need your heart. I need your vote. I want to be your President to fight for you and your families and Pennsylvania and the future of the United States of America. God bless you, and thank you. Let's win Pennsylvania.

JIM LEHRER: And now, the Green Party's Ralph Nader, speaking in Dearborn, Michigan, earlier this week.

RALPH NADER: I don't think it can be debated that these two major parties-- the Republicans and Democrats-- are becoming more and more and more alike; more lookalike... ( Applause ) ... because they're funded by the same commercial interests. They're funded by the auto industry, and the drug industry, and the oil industry, and the insurance and banking industries, and the security industries. But the cardinal truth is not only are they bought and paid for by the same commercial interests, not only are they morphing the two parties into one corporate party with two heads wearing different makeup preventing the American people from having an adequate clear- cut choice in a two-party dominated system. If you're only going to have two parties, it's a pretty good idea for these two parties to give you a clear choice instead of morphing into one corporate party. As voters, our votes are nullified by money and politics. As workers, our efforts to form unions and our efforts to gain some sort of power over the workplace nullified by repressive labor laws that are still on the books. As consumers, we're told to sign on the dotted line and shut up. Who's standing up for a type of economy that allows one breadwinner to have a middle class standard of living for the family? (Applause) More and more members have to work at low-paying jobs, commuting longer distances, worrying about day, an ailing grandparent. Who's going to pay? Don't have time for shopping, have to take the kids to McDonald's. No time to have dinner around the table and talk and transmit the wisdom from one generation to another. No time for community activities. Just time to cater to a corporate designed economy that has shut us out of any role in deciding where we're going. (Applause) And in a poll of the American people, 72 percent said, yes, to the question, "is there too much corporate power over your lives?" It's not just a few commentators, it's millions of Americans who feel that power when they're pushed around on the job and they don't have any rights, when their personal privacies are invaded on the job when their medical records... outside their job, their medical records, their financial records, their genetic records, their credit records, when these computers know more about you than you know about yourself because you can't keep it all in your head at one time, whirling around the world in electronic databases, knowing what medicine you bought, knowing how long you've been on vacation here, knowing what your genetic type is, knowing things about you that no one but you and only you have a right to know. And you have no power. (Applause ) If you're happy with politics, you can vote for Bush and Gore... or Gore. But if you're not happy, if you want more power as a voter, worker, taxpayer and consumer; if you want to be able to band together with your fellow workers, taxpayers, consumers and voters more easily; if you want to reassert the sovereignty of the people over this country and what it could mean for the rest of the world and furthering justice and democracy, vote the Nader/Laduke ticket on November 7. Thank you. (applause)

SERIES - ONE ON ONE

JIM LEHRER: Now to a one-on-one, our last week debate on who should be the next President of the United States. Elizabeth Farnsworth in San Francisco has tonight's.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Joining me tonight are two executives in the high-technology field. Floyd Kvamme is partner at Kleiner, Perkins, Caulfield, and Byers, a Silicon Valley venture capital firm. He has advised Governor Bush on technology issues. David Ellington is co-founder, chairman, and CEO of Netnoir, an African-American culture and lifestyle Internet site. He has also served as president of the Telecommunications Commission for the city and county of San Francisco. He supports Vice President Gore.

Mr. Ellington, why do you support Vice President Gore?

DAVID ELLINGTON: There is a variety of reasons of course -- the first being his resume. I mean, he's been in public life for about 24 years, congressman, Senator, of course Vice President for the last eight and he helped to lead and been part of the team that's helped lead the biggest economy, the most roaring economy we've ever had in the history of this country. I find him to be truly competent approachable, and sensitive to those things that I really find near and dear to my heart.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Like?

DAVID ELLINGTON: A variety of issues. His position on technology issues, of course, which is why we are here tonight; but also civil rights, his approach to the environment, global issues, whether it is violence or in general, child, children's abuse and different countries in terms of labor. There is a host of issues that I really find that he's really sensitive to and I support.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: And Mr. Kvamme, why do you supports Governor Bush?

FLOYD KVAMME: Well, I think a number of things as well. First of all, I would say his leadership. I think he's done an outstanding in Texas. I don't think 70% of Texans would have reelected him had he not done an outstanding job and I think that's shown in his education record in Texas and a number of other areas. I think secondarily because of his entrepreneurial feel. Entrepreneurship is a real reason why America has had the technology boom that we've been part of. And he has understood that people are the assets today, not machines. And I think that's very, very important to have that understanding, and I think he shows a clear understanding of that. I think he understands part of entrepreneurship is a shareholder in a democracy. Certainly out here in the valley, all of our employees have stock options. We want them to be part of the company, and we think that's an important role. I think his Social Security plan for example, for the young goes in that direction and that's why I support that. And then lastly, compassion; I am -- I have got on the know the Governor. He is a very compassionate individual -- his education program not wanting to leave any child behind I think is a big part of that. But not only that, I mean, if you look into a situation like we had recently with his visit out here, where we were talking to single mothers who had young children, yes, their hopes were for their child. But he would like their hopes to be for them as well or for themselves. And I think that's important.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Entrepreneurial feel. What about Vice President on that?

DAVID ELLINGTON: Well, the first time I met the Vice President was here in the valley and actually, I was part of a group called Tech-Net and we had a meeting with him up in Sacramento. And that's the first time I realized that he got the industry, he got the technology. He embraced it. It wasn't foreign to him. He uses it on a regular basis. I think -- so he understands the entrepreneurial spirit because that's been demonstrated by the policies that he's helped to support. Whether it is H1B visas, the immigration issue, whether it is -- he's against Internet taxation and a host of things we find really important in our industry and we found them to support that 150%. But also though, you know, I have heard about and I understand Floyd's point about the Governor and his positions on education and whatnot. But I have a problem with that in juxtaposed to what's actually happened in the state of Texas as was earlier mention in that piece where Vice President Gore mentioned that the reality is that Texas is dead last in ranked in the country in terms of its education for kids as well as health care. I mean, so, I'm more concerned with, and that also affects entrepreneurs, it affects my ability to hire and train and have really qualified employees and making sure that they are safe and that they know that they have health care and that their kids are going to be educated and that they themselves can continue education and I have seen proposals by specifically Vice President Gore that have been much more supportive of that than from Governor Bush or anything he's actually executed on.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Mr. Kvamme?

FLOYD KVAMME: Well, I obviously think David has got the data wrong there. He's not dead last, he's alive first in education particularly for youngsters of color. And I think that's very, very important -- closing that gap. And he cares about that. He spent a lot of time on education in Texas and has done very, very well. I think the other point relative to the medical thing that a lot of people miss, the Vice President wants to talk about spending levels. The governor wants to talk about results. Those of us who go out to shop aren't proud of how much we spend, we are proudest of what results we get. I think the Governor has shown himself to be a very efficient spender of the people of Texas's money and I hope he would do the same for Americans.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: What about getting the Internet and getting the high-tech issues?

FLOYD KVAMME: Well, I am very, very impressed there. Brown University just issued a study showing that Texas's citizen centered e-tech program, e-government program is the number one in the country. And the Vice President talks a lot about. But in his reinventing government, he hardly used the Internet.

DAVID ELLINGTON: But that's not accurate. I mean, for example, his whole e-rate strategy has been one of the most phenomenal natural ways to fund. In general terms, the e-rate would set aside -- it is another program to allow for certain amount of funding of schools to help support the Internet and access to the Internet for schools across the country. That was attacked by the Republicans in Congress, and it was undermined in the -- Governor Bush at the time has not supported it. The point is in, terms of people of color, you know, there is one whole piece of - that I'm concerned about - and it's also a general philosophy because are in the technology industry; we're not in a kind of a vacuum - we're affected by all the issues as well. Ofcourse, both - it needs to be said, think both candidates do pretty well on the tech issues in a variety of ways and on the big things that we deal with. But, beyond that, it's a philosophical approach to government, and I just have a bigger issue with Governor Bush's approach, which says to me Gore's for states' rights; he's much more for -- and here we have a Vice President who has actually reduced government more than in any -- modern history terms of actually reducing 300,000 jobs in the federal government, in the work force. He has tried to be attacked on that issue, when it's really kind of - it's fallacial to actually try to suggest that Vice President gore is about big government. That's exactly the opposite. If anything, they've reduced the size of government and increased the economy. How can you do both and still be for big government? I don't understand.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: The economy as a whole, making it continue to grow, who would be -- why do you think that Governor Bush would be best on that?

FLOYD KVAMME: Well, there's no question about that. And again, I have to respond to what David has said because I'm afraid, David, you are again wrong. The facts are that tax freedom day for the average American has moved beyond April --it is into early May now and has been on a steady course upward through this last administration. We are paying a higher percentage of the GDP for our government services, than at any time in history. And the 300,000 jobs, David, that was the military that was -- principally offset that.

DAVID ELLINGTON: That's a significant part of...

FLOYD KVAMME: That's a very significant part.

DAVID ELLINGTON: There is also reduction, period. But the point is, in the overall reduction in federal work force and that's the goal. And why was that? Because again, Vice President Gore supports a stronger military, and he's actually allocated more money for the military in his budget, and he's also -- to help pay folks. One of the things -- Floyd and I know each other. We met a few weeks ago and went on kind of a, what would you call it -

FLOYD KVAMME: A fascinating tour.

DAVID ELLINGTON: A fascinating tour. We actually went around and saw all five branches of the military, and one of the things that we observed is that how they are trying to figure of under the ways to upgrade the military. And they wanted some high-tech leaders to make impressions and try to give them our impressions, whatever. The point is that Vice President Gore has proposed actually increasing technology usage, but then also, trying to pay more to our existing servicemen because folks like us are competing with the services to keep them in.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Respond to that and I want to come back to the economy.

FLOYD KVAMME: But at the end of the day from a technology point of view, Vice President Gore has been here something like 70 time, Governor Bush something like 17 times and five times as many as our high-tech leaders, CEO's, support Governor Bush than Vice President Gore.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Why, what's at stake here, and why do they support Governor Bush?

FLOYD KVAMME: Because of his view for limited government, limited regulation. You see, regulation costs in a growth industry. You don't see: There is no growth industry that's a regulated industry; it doesn't exist. So, we are a growth industry. That's where our jobs come from, and regulations also hurt people who want to start a company. Small businesses that get over regulated can't be started. And that's why we think that's so critically important -- the whole nature of running everything through government. David talked about targeted tax cuts. When you target, there is -- somebody has to set the targets. If that's government as opposed to across the board, you have a problem.

DAVID ELLINGTON: Yeah, but of course we're talking about, the point that's been driven home to all of us, you know, we're talking about 1% of the folks receiving the largest chunk in the benefit of that tax cut. We all pay taxes.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: What's at stake for the high-tech economy?

DAVID ELLINGTON: What's at stake for us, for example, here in the Bay area, it is very expensive to live. We need this kind of a -- we need support and relief from middle class folks, because they are going through such a tough experience right now because things have just gotten so expensive: Housing, education, food, basic requirements. And, the suggestion that across the board is going to -- again, it reminds me of this thing called trickle down economics -- I think we've all heard from that same party that proved that it didn't work and ended up causing us more deficits and really, undermine the growth of the economy.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Now, you both ...

DAVID ELLINGTON: We've had eight years of great economy, how you can fight with that?

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: You've both had experience internationally too -- the global economy, who would be better?

FLOYD KVAMME: There is no question that Governor Bush would be better in a global economy. The controls that we have on our high-tech exports have a huge problem. This country's deficit has gone in 1992 from $40 billion to $400 billion this year because there are controls on all exporters. That's not necessary. We need to provide jobs for American workers.

DAVID ELLINGTON: There is a variety of reasons why.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: There isn't enough time.

DAVID ELLINGTON: This current administration, of course there is GATT. We are a part of international agreements. Also the fact is there are certain national security issues involved when you are talking about some of the products trying to -- encryption technology and a host of other things that also supported bipartisanly by the House and Senate on both side of the aisle supporting it. That's kind of -- it is not an issue for us in this campaign in that sense, I don't think.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Okay, David Ellington, Floyd Kvamme, thanks for being with us.

JIM LEHRER: Still to come on the NewsHour tonight, motivating people to vote in Florida, and living in space.

FOCUS - GET OUT THE VOTE

JIM LEHRER: Tom Bearden has the get-out-the-vote story.

( Person speaking Spanish )

TOM BEARDEN: For the past three weekends, dozens of Hispanic union members have met in this parking lot in Orlando, Florida, to get their marching orders for the day.

SPOKESMAN: Adios.

TOM BEARDEN: Then they break into groups of five, pile into cars and drive to their assigned precincts to deliver voter information about economic issues. They're trying to encourage people to vote in next Tuesday's election. Nidia Grajales is a Teamster, and a volunteer. Although small in size, she is big on energy. She practically runs from door to door. Originally from Colombia, she became a citizen just last year, and she will cast her first vote for a presidential candidate on Tuesday. She believes it's very important for Hispanics and union members to get to the polls.

NIDIA GRAJALES: And I count as a person; I count as an American citizen, and I count as a worker. And... we all together -- one, we can make them hear us.

TOMBEARDEN: Union members accounted for about 8 percent of the vote in Florida four years ago, but union leaders are trying to boost that to 11 percent this year.

NIDIA GRAJALES: -- give you some information - Okay. Thank you very much.

TOM BEARDEN: Although the pamphlet doesn't urge people to vote for one candidate over another because of election regulations, union members are expected to vote in large numbers for Al Gore. East of Tampa, in Brandon, Florida, church members received voting guides from the Christian Coalition. They contained information on the voting records of local, state, and national candidates on various social issues. They also don't directly endorse any one candidate.

REV. KEN ALFORD: I'm urging you to vote - not based on a man, not based on a party, and don't vote just based on the economy. Can I share something with you? Economic prosperity cannot last long in a morally corrupt society.

PEOPLE SINGING: Mighty warrior, test for battle...

TOM BEARDEN: The Christian Coalition is distributing three million of the guides in Florida. About 11 percent of the state's voters identify themselves as being evangelical.

PEOPLE SINGING: Lead us into battle to crush the enemy...

TOM BEARDEN: And the coalition's Terry Kemple says most of them are very likely to vote for George Bush.

TERRY KEMPLE: I think that the turnout will be high. I think the people are concerned; people are interested. They're really concerned about the moral condition in our country, and where our country is going. And I believe that people will go to the polls to vote for their moral convictions.

SPOKESPERSON: Lord above all else, we pray...

TOM BEARDEN: Both labor unions and the Christian Coalition are highly motivated in the final days of the campaign. That's because all indications are the election will likely be won by the party that can get most of its core supporters to actually vote. Both camps are spending more than $60 million on mobilizing the base vote in battleground states. It's one of the few things on which both sides agree.

MITCH CEASAR: The race is a dead heat. Every poll has someone ahead by a point or two, well within the margin of error, obviously. This is a base vote constituency situation. Whoever turns out their folks at the polls wins; it's the simplest equation we've ever had to deal with.

LEW OLIVER: The media focuses entirely on the undecided voters. But if you look at a lot of these polls, on the order of 90 to 93 or 94 percent of the population has already made its decision, and really you're talking about talking about 5 or 6 percent. And the fact of the matter is that a 10 percent difference in turnout between Republicans and Democrats with the advantage going to Republicans is more significant and more useful to the Republican ticket than converting every one of the undecideds.

LEW OLIVER: It's one of the most important elections in a long time, and we want to make sure everybody goes out to vote.

TOM BEARDEN: Lew Oliver has been going door-to-door to personally to make sure Republicans turn out. As chairman of the Orange County Republican Party, he and 90 volunteers walked precincts last Saturday. Unlike the union volunteers, Oliver has sophisticated voting lists to target likely Republican voters.

LEW ONE: We've got one 43-year-old, Republican female, and a 60- year-old Republican female -- solid voting record across the board. These are good voters.

TOM BEARDEN: Oliver will use the same technique on election day to call registered Republicans. Poll watchers will keep track of who has voted, and at 2:00 PM automated phone messages will be sent to Republicans who haven't shown up. In Broward County, just north of Miami, Democrats will be using the same strategy.

MITCH CEASAR: We worry about telling our message, getting our people to the polls, and if we do a good enough job in south Florida, we'll win Florida. And if we...

WOMAN: That's what we need.

MITCH CEASAR: ...And if we win Florida, Gore is the next President of the United States.

TOM BEARDEN: But county Democratic chairman Mitch Ceasar admits he may have a slightly tougher job.

MITCH CEASAR: The Republicans turn out to a greater percentage. There are more Democrats, but Republicans are a little more disciplined, perhaps, than Democrats again. But we think we're going to hopefully do a very good job all across the state of Florida. The race is so close, that we need to do that to produce a win for the Democrats.

TOM BEARDEN: More disciplined or better organized?

MITCH CEASAR: I think they're more disciplined on an individual basis. I think what helps Republicans is of course they have a lot more money. They always outspend us in any election two or three times. Our strength-- what levels the playing field for us-- is that we're on the right side of the issues with the majority of voters.

TOM BEARDEN: Party officials are counting on specific issues to motivate different factions. Abortion, for example, energizes voters in both candidates' camps.

SPOKESPERSON: Everybody in this room who will cast their vote on November 7 for Al Gore - (cheers)

TOM BEARDEN: Many gay and lesbian Democrats are concerned about equal rights and the future makeup of the Supreme Court. The Human Rights Campaign Fund, a national gay and lesbian advocacy group, has spent nearly $150,000 to get gay voters to the polls in Florida. They make up more than 5 percent of the state electorate.

KENDRICK MEEK: We want to make sure many women and minorities definitely show up to vote ...

TOM BEARDEN: State Senator Kendrick Meek has launched a campaign to encourage African-Americans and other minorities to vote early. He's traveled throughout the state talking to workers during their lunch breaks. And although he thinks his constituents may not seem as motivated as they were eight years ago, when African-Americans cast 10 percent of the votes, Meek is confident enthusiasm will grow as election day nears.

KENDRICK MEEK: Supreme Court Justices will be appointed. This is an affirmative action state. The issues are equal pay for equal work - so you know - this whole issue of tax cuts and your money and states' rights and all of those issues that people are - sound good - we still have some of the basic governmental responsibilities that we're supposed to provide to all Americans, rich or poor, that we have not yet met.

TOM BEARDEN: Republican minority voters also have their hot- button issues. Cuban Americans leaders say the Elian Gonzalez case has motivated their constituents. They make up about 8 percent of the electorate in Florida.

( Speaking Spanish )

TOM BEARDEN: Cuban activist Maria de la Milera:

MARIA DE LA MILERA: We are hoping to turn out 75 to 80 percent of our constituency. The Cuba issue is an issue very close to our hearts, and that will motivate any of us to do anything that we can for the candidate that really has... has expressed an interest on that issue. And George W. Bush has done that several times.

ROBIN: My name is Robin...

TOM BEARDEN: Some observers think Republicans, in general, have extra motivation to vote simply because the Democrats have held the White House for the last eight years.

SPOKESMAN: We really appreciate your coming out today.

TOM BEARDEN: In Orlando, Republican county Chairman Oliver says he's stunned by the enthusiasm. Four years ago, he says 100 people volunteered to help the Bob Dole campaign in Orange County. This year, over 1,000 people have volunteered for the Bush campaign.

LEW OLIVER: The psychology of human voting is that when people are angry, upset and dissatisfied, that's a more powerful motivator to go out to the polls and vote than somebody who's generally satisfied with the status quo and thinks, "all right, well, this is okay." And when I talk to Bush voters and Republicans, uniformly their view is "this administration and everything associated with it has got to go. And we've got to do something about it."

SPOKESPERSON: And we're just calling everyone to remind them to vote...

TOM BEARDEN: In fact, some experts are predicting the overall turnout may be one of the lowest in American history. Clearly, both parties have their work cut out for them.

FOCUS - LIVING ALOFT

JIM LEHRER: Finally tonight, day one of life on the space station, and to Ray Suarez.

SPOKESMAN: A milestone in space history set to get underway.

RAY SUAREZ: The historic moment came early this morning as a capsule containing three astronauts arrived at the international space station.

SPOKESMAN: We have a initial contact of the Soyuz capsule with the Expedition One crew to the international space station.

RAY SUAREZ: As the astronauts opened the hatch to the station, mission control was enthused about what is hoped will be the first permanent human presence in space.

SPOKESMAN: First crew went on board the station, and the command was given to the crew: Now make it come alive.

RAY SUAREZ: The first team included two Russian cosmonauts, Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei Krikalev. The skipper is American astronaut Bill Shepherd. After the crew settled in, Shepherd thanked earlier space he thanked the people who made the mission possible.

BILL SHEPHERD: There are a lot of people behind us to keep the space station going and we're just starting a long journey.

SPOKESMAN: Ignition and liftoff.

RAY SUAREZ: The crew blasted off in a Soyuz rocket on Tuesday from Kazakhstan. They will spend four months on the station, 240 miles above the Earth and circling the planet 16 times a day. The crew is the first of many that will help complete the space station, expected to be fully finished by 2006. The project-- jointly undertaken by 16 countries including the U.S.-- is now expected to cost more than $40 billion. The bulk of that is to be paid by the U.S. Shuttles, using enormous robotic arms, will deliver materials to help complete the station. When finished, the station will be the length of nearly two football fields. In fact, it will be so large that experts say that like a star, it will be visible from the Earth. In chambers like these, crews will conduct mostly scientific research, such as looking at the effect of weightlessness in space. The international space station follows the Russian space station, Mir. Mir began operating 15 years ago, but has been vacant since June. The United States had its own station, Skylab; that was first launched in 1973, but the last crew left Skylab in 1976. It eventually fell to earth in 1979. Aboard the new space station this morning, the crew began its work by checking operational systems. And despite previous objections by NASA, they gave the station a temporary name-- "Alpha."

CREW MEMBER: We do have one request.

SPOKESMAN: What's that request?

CREW MEMBER: The first expedition on space station request permission to take the radio call sign "Alpha."

SPOKESMAN: Temporarily taken as "Alpha." Go ahead. Have a good day. (laughter)

RAY SUAREZ: While three astronauts will make up the first crews on the station, NASA eventually crews of seven people.

RAY SUAREZ: Joining me now, NASA astronaut Dr. David Wolf. He spent four months aboard the space station, Mir, and helped design and develop the international space station; Howard McCurdy, a professor at American University and author of several books on space, including "Space and the American Imagination"; and Alex Roland, Professor of History at Duke University. He served as a NASA historian from 1973 to 1981.

Well, Dr. Wolf, now that Alpha is somewhat assembled, aloft, and staffed, what's it for? What's the mission?

DR. DAVID WOLF: The international space station has a group of missions. They center on critical scientific research enabling technologies for our future quality of life - exploration, helping us move into the solar system, learn how to build spacecraft to help us do that, understand the human physiology problems that we must get past. There is also the environmental aspect where we have a good platform for globally looking at the earth over long periods of time to help us ration ally develop counter measures to our impact on the earth environment, and perhaps most important is the inspiration to the young people. There is nothing that is more powerful to our best young people to help them develop their talents and skills as scientists, engineers, whatever they choose to be than the thrill they get from space.

RAY SUAREZ: Well, you are a veteran of long-term space flight. What's the quality of life up there in the partially assembled space station?

DR. DAVID WOLF: Life in space is not an easy life. But we're they're to do scientific research and accomplish the types of goals. So we put up with some... some inconvenience. They have a lot to do. It is like moving into a new house. There's boxes everywhere; they need to make sure the bathroom's working, the galley and food warmers are working, do they have a reasonable place to sleep, and they have a lot of unloading to do. So it's not unlike opening a new laboratory or a new home.

RAY SUAREZ: And is Day 105 very different from Day 75 or Day 55? Does this start to wear on you after a while?

DR. DAVID WOLF: Each mission has its own character. I can say my 128th day was even better than my 127th, and so on. I enjoyed space in long-term - long duration space flight; you get better at it continuously, more and more comfortable, and it's fun to move to space and think, well, some day I'll move home, and look at it as a place to work, a laboratory to work in - in a permanent sense.

RAY SUAREZ: Howard McCurdy, as we noted, there have been long-term missions before - Skylab and Mir. Is this turning a big corner?

HOWARD McCURDY: Well, I can tell you what the people who conceived of this objective almost 20 years ago thought they were doing - people like Jim Begs, who was a NASA administrator - Philip Culvertson and John Hodge, who headed the space station task force that drew up the initial conceptual plan. They thought there were would be a day from which - from every point forward that humans would always be living and working in space. And they attached that historical significance to it, and this is the day.

People 200 years from now may look back and say, this is the day on which humans began to live and work in space on a permanent basis. The facilities that were mentioned before -- Skylab and the Russian Mir Space Station -- were generally viewed as pre-cursers to this. They were workshops, preparing for what would be not only a permanent space station but a permanently occupied human presence in space.

RAY SUAREZ: Hasn't this particular craft had something of a star-crossed history, sort of shrinking over time and lowering its ambitions?

HOWARD McCURDY: It was announced by President Ronald Reagan in 1984 -- he challenged NASA to complete it within a decade. NASA said that they thought they could build the base space station for about $8 billion in 1984 dollars. In 1993, which is about the length of time that it took us to go to the Moon from President Kennedy's decision, we had not produced any piece of space station hardware and had, in fact, expended the entire $8 billion on station redesign. Some of that was NASA's fault, a lot of us was due to circumstances beyond their control - the nature of budgetary politics in this city. And in addition to Congress becoming deeply involved in the actual design of the space station, something that would normally be an engineer's task and certainly during the Apollo program was an engineer's task. It has been a long and tortured history. In fact, I remember as a child a March 22, 1952 issue of "Colliers" Magazine, which had inside it a picture of a space station. And I started thinking at that point, well, this is something maybe we can do in the future.

RAY SUAREZ: Did it look like the one that actually -

HOWARD McCURDY: No, actually it was not as large; it's 250 feet wide, and this one is much larger, but it was round and it rotated, and subsequent to that, scientists and engineers have learned the real advantage of a space station is micro gravity. Everything that we know about biology and much of what we know about physics on the earth is based upon a life that we live at one G, one gravity. And this for the first time in human history is going to give us a long-term laboratory for studying what it's like for biochemistry and for physics under conditions other than one gravity. We may discover things we can't even imagine right now.

RAY SUAREZ: Alex Roland, do you share Howard McCurdy's enthusiasm about the international space station?

ALEX ROLAND: No, I'm afraid I don't. I remember the claims that were made for the space station and that it would be the beginning of permanent inhabitation of space -- and it reminded me of the claims that were made when we went to the Moon; that we would have Moon colonies and permanent stations there. And of course, we haven't. And the reason was when we went to the Moon, we found that there was nothing there worth sending people back for. And I'm afraid that's what we're going to find with this space station as well; that it's not worth the candle of putting people up there. It is enormously expensive to put people there with any space activity that you can identify. It is much cheaper, it's much more efficient and of course it's much safer to send machines to do it. And whenever you put people on a space - whether it's the shuttle or a space station - you increase the cost of the activity, and you also change the nature of the activity. You are no longer doing research. You are no longer setting up communications. You are no longer looking at the weather. You are no longer doing science. What you are doing primarily is trying to get the astronauts and the cosmonauts back alive. One NASA official during the Apollo program estimated that whenever people were put on a spacecraft, it increased the cost by ten times and that's the problem with the space station. Anything that they want to do on the space station, we can do more efficiently, more effectively and much safer without the people on board.

RAY SUAREZ: So when you read about things like, doing advanced material science, trying to make things in zero G that you can't make on earth, are these things that can be done by remote control? Or do you need a human being there to do them?

ALEX ROLAND: It is not clear that you need humans for this. In an age when we are automating our factories here on earth, it seems strange that we have to send people up into space to conduct fundamental fairly straightforward experiences and also a lot of the claims made early on from what we were going to do on the space station, have now been withdrawn. There were claims we were going to have manufacturing there. You don't hear much about that any more; that we were going to send tourists there. We were going to have citizens in space. And now, about the only reason for the space station is to have a platform for the people. And that is more expensive than it is worth.

RAY SUAREZ: David Wolf, what do you make of that?

DR. DAVID WOLF: I can tell you that one of the great strengths of this space station is, in fact, having the human involved to make observations to make the discoveries, and, in fact, having the earth-based scientists seamlessly through data links involved also. So effectively, we have a research laboratory extension in space which has the special condition of zero gravity that the earth-based researchers can use. Gravity affects everything, including our bodies, the materials we make, semiconductor fabrication, essentially everything, and it's a new element to consider it a variable in our research, one that will be very important in the future. As far as cost goes, to put that in perspective, this country will spend 10 times more on tobacco this year than on the whole shuttle and space station program combined.

RAY SUAREZ: Howard McCurdy, isn't that the essence of the debates that we had over space flight for the last 20 years, manned versus non-manned?

HOWARD McCURDY: It is, and I think to a certain degree it's a misdirected debate. The people who conceived of the space station saw the space station as being a combined facility, one that relied heavily upon robotics and at the same time had a human presence. Think of it this way: a hundred years ago we did all of our work and all of our living on the surface of the Earth, and today large numbers of people spend a considerable amount of time in the air - for me, too much time. But we live in the atmosphere now, and that's going to extend into space in the next century. It will be seamless. We won't spend as much time in space as we spend on the earth, but nonetheless, human presence will extend there for commercial purpose, for scientific purposes and for national security. It is inevitable if we commit ourselves to being a technological civilization that we'll need to use space in this way both to manage the earth and its environment, and also to learn things and manufacture things in space.

RAY SUAREZ: Alex Roland, how do you respond?

ALEX ROLAND: I don't doubt that in some far distant future we are going to populate the heavens and have people in space regularly. But we're not going to do with it the technology we have now. We're not going to do it with the shuttle and we're not going to do it with this space station. And what NASA should be spending its money on is doing the research that will open up space instead of sending astronauts up to do basically what they have been doing for the last 30 or 40 years. They have been conducting scientific experiments in orbit on the space station that have been up there. There isn't very much to show for it. Throughout its history NASA has spent two-thirds of its funding on manned space flights, one-third on automated spacecraft. All the really important returns from our space activity have come from those unmanned spacecraft, the scientific exploration, the communication satellites, the weather satellites to say nothing of all of the military satellites that played such an important part in the Cold War. We need to reduce the cost of getting into space and then it might be practical to send people up.

RAY SUAREZ: And just before we go, Dr. Wolf, can I ask you about the language barrier briefly before we wrap it up? Is it easy to get along with Russian crewmen?

DR. DAVID WOLF: Absolutely. They are wonderful crewmen -- very talented partners in space. We're lucky to have all 16 countries involved.

RAY SUAREZ: How is your Russian today?

DR. DAVID WOLF: (Speaking Russian) -- Not bad.

RAY SUAREZ: Dr. Wolf, professors, thank you all.

RECAP

JIM LEHRER: And again, the other major stories of this Thursday, a car bomb killed two people in Jerusalem. It came hours after Israel and the Palestinians agreed on a new truce. And Governor Bush and Vice President Gore crisscrossed the battleground states with five days left before the presidential election. We'll see you online and again here tomorrow evening with Shields and Gigot, among others. I'm Jim Lehrer. Thank you and good night.