Okay, everyone can stop saying the "lesser of two evils" phrase, now. We’ve got a new Commander in Chief. And he’s been given a superbly healthy America.

He will have to improve upon a near-fully employed country with significant reductions in crime and drug use. He is also entrusted with a country that’s enjoying an obscenely copious budget surplus. At this point, there is no recession in sight. That’s what all the Caesars said, too.

How will Mr. President insure that America will stay soaring? How will he prevent our country’s plummet from its current precarious altitude? Well, here are a list of major issues with the promises and quotes from him matched against those of the also-ran. Will he stay true to his word? Have we voted uninformed? Were we wrong? You decide.

GEORGE W. BUSH

Bush has a solidly anti-abortion record in Texas, pushing aggressively for restrictions on the practice and for a more streamlined adoption process. But he has also sent out subtle signals, including saying that he will not use abortion as a litmus test for selecting Supreme Court justices, and considering Tom Ridge, the pro-choice governor of Pennsylvania, as his running mate. (He chose Dick Cheney, solidly anti, in the end).

Bush:
• Opposes abortion except in cases of rape or incest, or to save the life of the mother.

• Supports laws under which parents are notified if minors undergo abortions.

• Supports a ban on "partial-birth" (late-term) abortions.

• Opposes the use of taxpayer money to pay for abortions.

• Wants to make adoption easier, and to promote abstinence programs in schools.

• Will not try to change the constitution to outlaw abortions. (The Economist, "Issues 2000" special, 9/30/00)

"Strong civil rights enforcement will be a cornerstone of my administration. I will confront another form of bias — the soft bigotry of low expectations in education. Raise the bar of standards. Give schools the flexibility to meet them. Insist on results. Blow the whistle on failure. Provide parents with options to increase their influence. A central part of my agenda is changing Title One to close the achievement gap. I have proposed a New Prosperity Initiative. We must provide a Family Health Credit that covers 90 percent of the cost of a basic health policy for low-income families. We’ll allow low-income families to use up to a year’s worth of Section 8 rental payments to make a down payment on their own home — then use five years of those payments to help with the mortgage. I will lift the regulations that hamper private and faith-based programs." (Speech to NAACP, part of "Renewing America’s Purpose," 7/10/00)

Bush’s proposed missile defense system appears to be nearly identical to the missile shield proposed by his father in his 1991 State of the Union address. His father’s proposal was for a system to defend against an accidental Russian launch or a small volley of missiles fired by some other country. It’s known at the Pentagon as GPALS, for "global protection against limited strikes." (Washington Post, 6/4/00)

• Strengthen accountability and restore local control. Require annual testing in grades 3-8.

• Help children learn and promote reading. Provide $5 billion to ensure every child can read by the third grade.

• Empower parents with information and options. Require school-by-school report cards and give parents real options — like tutoring or the ability to transfer to another school — when their children are trapped in failing schools.

• Improve teacher quality. Provide $2.4 billion to train and recruit quality teachers.

• Support school safety and promote character development. Enact a zero-tolerance policy on violence and classroom disruption. And keep guns out of schools by creating "Safe School Task Forces."

• Promote savings for education. Increase limits on "Education Savings Accounts" from $500 to $5,000.

• Increase access to higher education. More college merit scholarships and Pell Grants. (Blueprint for the Middle Class, 9/17/00)

Bush:
• Believes environmental standards must be based on the best science, market-driven technologies can provide solutions, and government should encourage innovation and going beyond compliance.

• Recognizes that global warming should be taken seriously but will require any decisions to be based on the best science; opposes Kyoto Protocol. (GeorgeWBush.com: ‘Issues: Policy Points Overview,’ 4/2/00)

• Empower parents to protect their children. Protect children from harmful material on the Internet.

• Cut the marriage penalty. Provide a new deduction for couples that pay higher taxes merely because they are married.

• Support after-school programs. Provide funding to after-school programs and let community and faith-based groups compete for federal support to run these programs.

• Keep families in crisis together. Provide $1 billion for programs to help protect children.

• Promote adoption. Expand and make permanent the Adoption Tax Credit, by increasing the $5,000 tax credit for adoption expenses to $7,500.

• Promote strong fathers. Provide support through mentoring, faith-based programs and community efforts.

• Promote child safety in school and at home. Establish Project Sentry and Project ChildSafe. (Blueprint for the Middle Class, 9/17/00)

"I would take the use of force very seriously. I would be guarded in my approach. I don’t think we can be all things to all people in the world. I think we’ve got to be very careful when we commit our troops. The vice president believes in nation-building. I would be very careful about using our troops as nation builders." (Presidential debate, Boston, MA, 10/3/00)

"I have set forth policies that capture my vision of government reform. They are guided by three principles: government should be citizen-centered, results-oriented, and, wherever possible, market-based. Under my proposal, over the next five years, a majority of the service contracts offered throughout the federal government will be performance-based. Government should be market-based — we should not be afraid of competition, innovation, and choice. What matters in the end is not just making promises, but making good on promises." (Speech: "Getting Results," in "Renewing America’s Purpose," 6/9/00)

Bush follows the standard gun-owner’s line: he wants tougher penalties against gun-toting criminals, but no more regulations for worthy citizens with a pistol by the bed. As president, he would:

• Bring in no new gun controls, except possibly tougher penalties for criminals using guns.

• Opposes mandatory safety locks (but supports voluntary ones).

• Supports concealed-weapon laws.

• Favors instant background checks (rather than three-day waiting periods) in shops and at gun shows.

• Restrict lawsuits against gun makers, which he has deterred in Texas. (The Economist, "Issues 2000" special, 9/30/00)

[Bush’s Social Security proposal] largely skirted specifics, preferring to talk about broad principles. Asked about his lack of detail, Bush called his speech "pretty darn detailed to be talking about a framework to get something done."

But the lack of specifics on matters like what percentage of payroll tax would go to accounts, and what age group would see the change, opened Bush to charges that he was masking some of the hard choices ahead and trying to sidestep questions about how he could afford the transition. The cost of transition could be as much as $1 trillion. (New York Times, 5/16/00)

Bush would like to cut taxes by $1.3 trillion over the next ten years. In particular, he would:

• Introduce a new 10% lowest income-tax bracket for a couple’s first $12,000 in taxable income.

• Double the child tax credit from $500 to $1,000.

• Replace the current structure of five tax brackets with four (10%, 15%, 25%, and 33%).

• Reduce the marriage penalty by allowing married couples to deduct 10% of up to $30,000 of the income of the lower-earning spouse.

• Eliminate the estate tax.

• Permanently extend the corporate research tax credit. (The Economist, "Issues 2000 Special Briefing," 9/30/00)

"I proposed two sweeping welfare reform packages, to:

• Place time limits on welfare benefits.

Require able-bodied welfare recipients. to get a job, attend school, or train for work

• Require participating mothers to identify the fathers of their children so they could contribute to their support.

• Emphasize personal responsibility by requiring welfare recipients to sign an independence contract pledging to stay drug-free and keep their kids immunized and in school." ("A Charge to Keep," 12/9/99)

AL GORE

"[The current era of prosperity] started for me, in the last eight years, when I had the honor of casting the tie-breaking vote to end the old economic plan and put into place a new economic plan that has helped us to make some progress — 22 million new jobs and the greatest prosperity ever. And my attitude is, ‘You ain’t seen nothing yet!’" (Presidential debate, Boston, MA, 10/3/00)

• Hire more community police: build on the success of the 100,000 police program by fighting to put 50,000 more community police officers in neighborhoods across the country.

• Provide new anti-crime tools: give law enforcement access to new computerized crime mapping software to help them target crime hotspots.

• Enact a get-clean-to-get-out, stay-clean-to-stay-out policy: fight for drug policies to help cut down on crimes by repeat offenders.

• Toughen laws against serious, violent crimes: such as a federal law that would empower local communities to bring special legal action to break up violent teen gangs; and stiffer penalties for those who commit violent crimes in front of children.

• Protect the rights of victims, invests in crime prevention: Gore supports a Victims’ Rights Amendment to the Constitution. (Press Release, 5/2/00)

To achieve the reconfiguration of America’s armed forces that will best prepare us to win on the information-age battlefield, Al Gore believes we must set our sights on four key challenges:

• Recruiting, training, and retaining a professional all-volunteer force of the highest caliber.

• Taking full advantage of America’s technological edge by arming our troops with the most advanced weaponry and deploying the most sophisticated intelligence and information systems.

• Developing and implementing new military strategy, updating operational concepts, modernizing organizations, and innovating systems — in short, transforming the armed forces to meet future challenges.

• Continuing to streamline and innovate in the Defense Department, producing more efficient management and releasing resources for critical defense needs. (AlGore2000.com Press Release, "Strengthening," 5/27/00)

• Continue Clinton administration program to reduce class sizes by hiring 100,000 new teachers.

• $50 billion for states to offer free or subsidized preschool to every four-year-old and some three-year-olds.

• Give raises of as much as $5,000 to qualifying teachers in poor and rural areas, and an extra $5,000 in pay to "master teachers" who meet higher standards.

• Recruit more teachers by offering scholarships to 60,000 college students each year who agree to teach in high-poverty schools, and bonuses to mid-career professionals who become teachers. (Washington Post, 4/2/00)

• Create Parental Responsibility Accounts to increase the amount of child support that is "passed through" directly to support children [instead of to government.] [Amounts over] $50 of child support to families on welfare would go into a Parental Responsibility Account that would be available to children once they leave welfare.

• Help employ "dead-broke dads," crack down on "deadbeat dads." Gore would create performance bonuses to states that move "dead-broke dads" into jobs. Gore would also crack down on "deadbeat dads," including urging the nation’s credit card companies to deny credit to any parent who owes a substantial amount of child support.

• Strengthen marriage and prevent domestic violence. Gore would require that any fatherhood program receiving federal money collaborate with a local or state domestic violence organization and provides domestic violence prevention classes, assessment, and counseling. (Press Release, "Next Generation of Welfare Reform," 6/2/00)

Homeownership allows a family to be more independent and self-reliant. Gore wants 7 out of 10 families to own a home — the highest level of homeownership in our history. There are three main ideas that Gore will implement:

• Keep mortgage rates low.

• Allow savings for first-time home purchases through retirement savings accounts.

• Continue commitment to the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit and Community Reinvestment Acts. (Economic plan, "Prosperity for American Families," 9/6/00)

• Continuing The Classic Security Agenda: Gore pledged to build upon our key alliances; to continue helping Russia make a transition to a market-based democracy; and follow a policy toward China that is based on results, not rhetoric.

• Building A New Security Agenda: Gore recognizes that "threats that were once local can have consequences that are regional and global." America must address these global challenges with "reinvigorated international and regional institutions," and by "confronting threats before they spiral out of control."

• Resisting New-Isolationism: Gore warned of the equally dangerous threat of retreating within our borders and ignoring our leadership position in the world. Gore said, we must engage Russia and China and assist them in their transformations while being clear about our concerns. (Press Release on speech in Boston, 4/30/00)

• Wants to "continue to knock down the barriers to free and fair trade" (make countries open their doors to American products), BUT supports linking trade agreements to labor and environmental standards.

• Wants to obtain "fast-track" negotiating authority that includes power to negotiate labor and environmental standards, BUT supports making the WTO more open and accountable. (The Economist, "Issues 2000," 9/30/00)

Q: Now that we have a shortage of workers, do you think we should open our doors to more immigrants?
A: Yes, I think that we should allow more immigrants to come in. We are a nation of immigrants and with pride. It is what has made us a great nation. (Democrat debate in Los Angeles, 3/1/00)

"A couple of times the governor has said that I am for a bigger government. Governor, I’m not. For the last eight years, I have had the challenge of running the streamlining program called Reinventing Government. The federal government has been reduced in size by more than 300,000 people, and it’s now the smallest in size since John Kennedy’s administration. During the last five years, Texas’ government has gone up in size.

Now, my plan for the future, I see a time when we have a smaller, smarter government, where you don’t have to wait in line… We can do that." (St. Louis debate, 10/17/00)

• Introduce mandatory photo licenses for handgun purchases.

• Limit gun sales to one per person per month.

• Ban "junk guns" (cheap handguns often used in violent crimes).

• Increase penalties for knowingly selling a had clearly won the popular votegun to someone ineligible to purchase one.

• Oppose efforts to provide special legal protection for gun manufacturers, or to loosen existing limits on concealed weapons. (The Economist, "Issues 2000" special, 9/30/00)

• Cover 12 million uninsured people at a 10-year cost of $157 billion.

• Extend health insurance to the uninsured by expanding the State-Children’s Insuran ce Program (S-CHIP) to include both more children and also their parents.

• Attempt changing the Medicare rules to let Americans buy into the program with the help of a 25% tax credit, 10 years earlier than they can now.

• Provide a subsidized prescription drug benefit to all enrolled in Medicare, administered through the existing Medicare system. Estimated costs: $253 billion over ten years.

• Support a patients’ bill of rights that extends broad rights such as guaranteed access to specialists and the ability to sue negligent health plans. (The Economist, "Issues 2000," 9/30/00)

Gore wants to maintain the existing Social Security system (and indeed raise benefits), by subsidizing it from general taxation. He would:

• Pay down the national debt as soon as possible, and transfer the equivalent of the interest saved to the Social Security trust fund.

• Support providing increased Social had clearly won the popular voteSecurity benefits to widows and women who take time off to bring up children.

• Oppose raising retirement age to 70.

• Introduce, in addition to Social Security, individual accounts called "Retirement Savings Plus", in which savings would be matched (at different rates according to income) by the federal government. (The Economist, "Issues 2000," 9/30/00)

• Pay off federal debt in public hands by 2012.

• Set aside $300 billion of the surplus as a reserve in case rosy projections do not materialize.

• Introduce tax credits for retirement accounts targeted at low- and middle-income Americans.

• Reduce the "marriage tax penalty" by increasing the standard deduction for married couples.

• Offer tax credits for health insurance, make the child-care credit refundable, provide tax relief for stay-at-home parents, and introduce tax credits for long-term care.

• Make up to $10,000 in college tuition costs tax deductible; create tax-advantaged accounts to save for education and training; create a new refundable After-School Tax Credit. (The Economist, "Issues 2000 Special Briefing," 9/30/00)