Markets: Michigan, Pennsylvania, California, Florida and 16 other states
Time: 30 seconds
Audio: [NARRATOR:] Remember when Al Gore said his mother-in-law's prescription cost more than his dog's? His own aides said the story was made up. Now Al Gore is bending the truth again. The press calls Gore's Social Security attacks "nonsense." Governor Bush sets aside $2.4 trillion to strengthen Social Security and pay all benefits. [GORE:] There has never been a time when I have said something in this campaign that I know to be untrue. There has never been a time when I have said something untrue. [NARRATOR:] Really?
Analysis: In perhaps his harshest ad of the campaign, Bush is trying to discredit Gore's criticism of his Social Security privatization plan by mocking one of the vice president's exaggerations. Gore did not "make up" the drug story but clearly misstated the facts, drawing the prices not from the family's bills but from a House Democratic study, whose figures he misconstrued. The only "press" cited as calling Gore's Social Security attacks nonsense is the Wall Street Journal's conservative editorial page; many newspapers have echoed Gore's criticism that Bush's Social Security plan threatens the budget surplus. Gore looks defensive in the clip from a January debate against Bill Bradley. "Obviously, George Bush lied to the American people when he said he would run a positive campaign," said Gore spokesman Doug Hattaway. But the sarcastic tagline ("Really?") softens the attack.
