TRAIL MIX / Occasional morsels from Campaign 2000

Broadway Bush?

Pulling a page from Joe Namath’s playbook, George W. Bush has taken the bold step of guaranteeing a win in today’s South Carolina primary.

“You can write it down on your pad of paper: Bush wins,” the Republican presidential contender said Friday in Charleston.

Yet while Namath, the flamboyant New York Jets quarterback, led his team to win the 1969 Super Bowl game as he boasted they would, Bush has a lesser record of predictions. After promising a win in the Feb. 1 New Hampshire primary, he ended up losing by 18 percentage points.

Gore straddles picket fence

Leave it to Al Gore, self-proclaimed inventor of the Internet, to virtually cross a picket line. Torn between two core groups of Democrats--union members and black voters--the vice president tried to satisfy both by phoning in his speech Friday to a summit on African development at a hotel under picket.

At Washington’s Grand Hyatt, over the clatter of 1,400 people eating avocado salad and salmon, Gore’s piped-in voice said:

“I was unable to come personally to the hotel because the hotel workers’ union Local 25 is picketing, and in solidarity with these workers, I will not cross that picket line,” Gore told the audience of African Americans and leaders from African nations. “At the same time, I did not want to miss the chance to share some words with you about the importance of our protecting the world today.”

By the numbers

40--Percentage of people who chose Republican Alan Keyes when asked in a Gallup Poll: “Regardless of which candidate you happen to support, who do you think did the best job in the debate Tuesday night?” Bush was picked by 34%, McCain by 19%.

Quote File

“If we can get out our vote, particularly here on the coast, all over the state of New Hampshire, we win.”

--John McCain in South Carolina on Friday.

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Compiled by Massie Ritsch from Times staff and wire reports