Gore, Lieberman bow in the sun

By Mark Davis/CNN.com Writer

ATLANTA (CNN) -- Asking Americans for their "help, votes and enthusiasm," Vice President Al Gore and his running mate, Sen. Joseph Lieberman, brought their campaign to Atlanta Thursday afternoon, hoping to pick up momentum in a presidential race that's just gaining steam.

Gore and Lieberman Thursday in Atlanta

The visit, at Atlanta's Centennial Olympic Park, was brief but boisterous as the two promoted welfare reform, higher academic standards and continued economic growth.

More than 1,000 people crowded in and around an amphitheater no larger than a tennis court to see Gore, the presumed Democratic nominee for president. He is set to receive the nomination next week at the Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles.

The crowd at the Atlanta event also came to see Lieberman, 58, whom Gore selected Monday as his running mate. He's the first Orthodox Jew ever to run on a national ticket for the vice presidency.

Flanked by four Southern governors who attended the hour-and-a-half rally, Lieberman praised Gore for deciding to add a Jewish American to the ticket.

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"When I look at Al Gore ... and think about the courage that went into making this decision, I see a glimpse of how good this nation can be," said Lieberman.

The nation's current good fortunes are a credit to the Clinton administration's eight years, said Gore. He pledged to continue that prosperity if elected.

"I want to tell you what the core of this whole struggle is all about: It's the economy," said Gore, his voice rising in the moist August air. "Instead of a triple-dip recession, we've seen a tripling of the stock market in the last eight years."

The vice president, clearly trying to loosen his stumping style -- he's been ridiculed in the past for having all the animation of a creosote post -- then raised his voice even more:

Striking at GOP stronghold

Texas Gov. George W. Bush, the Republican nominee for president, is favored throughout the region, so Gore's stop in Atlanta could force Bush's camp to spend time and money in the South.

McCain, right, campaigns with Bush, left, and his wife Laura in Salinas, California, Thursday

Bush and his running mate, Dick Cheney, were campaigning separately Thursday -- Bush in California; Cheney in Kentucky.

The Democrats' brief stay in Atlanta -- the duo was scheduled to go to Philadelphia later Thursday -- also gave Gore and Lieberman a chance to explain their similarities and differences.

Lieberman has said he favors measures requiring parental consent for a minor's abortion, with children given the alternative option of seeking court approval. Gore takes a harder line, and has said he could support some sort of legislation requiring only that a parent be notified before a minor's abortion.

"If there is a formulation that allows, below a certain age, a set of safety valves that actually work, I'd be willing to consider it and look at them," Gore said. "But I haven't seen it."

"We support a woman's right to choose," Lieberman added. "The other ticket does not."

The candidates also support Social Security in its present form, a campaign platform that clearly appealed to Thursday's audience.

"The other side," said Gore, "wants to privatize parts of Social Security!"

Boooooo! the crowd responded.

Betty Kilpatrick of Decatur, Georgia, joined the protest. The 54-year-old recently retired from her job at a Veterans Administration hospital.

"They (Gore and Lieberman) are more for the American people," said Kilpatrick, her platter-sized, black straw hat held on her head by a faded red scarf. "I'll be voting for both of them come this November."

So will Adam Hasty, 18 and a newly registered Democrat. He came from Forest Park, Georgia, 20 miles south of Atlanta, to attend his first political rally.

"Gore is more for the working person," said Hasty, wearing a maroon baseball cap turned backward and squinting in the sun. "It's about jobs, you know, and the working guy."

His mother, Glenda Hasty, agreed. She and her husband, Fred Hasty, headed a nine-car contingent of supporters who came from South Atlanta to cheer the candidates.

"I bought my house during a Republican administration, and you know what the interest rate was? Twelve percent," said Hasty, 46, a kindergarten worker. "You want to know what it is now, after we refinanced twice while a Democrat has been in the White House? Seven percent. That's all you need to say."

"I think they're going to win," said Drewnell Thomas of Atlanta, 54, a social worker. "They are what this country needs."

Bush has made the same claim about his candidacy, and spent Thursday in California, where he was joined by Arizona Sen. John McCain, the man he beat in the primaries to represent the GOP in this year's election.

"I support Governor Bush, and I am grateful to him and I am proud of him," McCain said at the John Steinbeck museum in Salinas, their first stop together.

Bush, who's been touring the California coast, recited a popular Republican line. "We don't trust government," he said. "We trust people."