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Election 2000: Women Bounce Gore 8 Points After Democratic Convention; Bush Leading Among Men

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BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Continuing our look now at election 2000, that presidential race. With our Monday political roundup, CNN senior analyst Bill Schneider now with a list of the latest political winners and losers for this week.

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WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST (voice-over): Gore got bounced, we got a horse race. Al Gore got an 8-point bounce out of last week's Democratic convention, a little bigger than usual. So where does the race stand right now? Gore 47, Bush 46. Wow! You can't get much closer than that.

How did Gore do it? Women. Almost all of Gore's gains last week came among women voters. You know how Gore likes to call himself a "fightin' man"? Well, women seemed to go for all that fighting. Gore leads Bush by nearly 20 points among women.

And Bush's compassionate conservative routine is working with men. Bush is leading among men by nearly 20 points. A landslide for Gore among women, a landslide for Bush among men: It's Venus versus Mars.

Gore's biggest gains were on issues of deep concern to women: health care, Medicare, prescription drugs and Social Security. Lines like this one really got across to women:

VICE PRES. AL GORE (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It's just wrong for seniors to have to choose between food and medicine while the big drug companies run up record profits.

SCHNEIDER (on camera): It's classic, American populism, the people versus the special interests.

(voice-over): The Democratic convention pulled off a political miracle: It got Bill Clinton off the stage. Clinton speaks, he leaves the stage, and for the rest of the convention he's forgotten. How's this for a miracle: Voters gave Al Gore's speech higher marks than Bill Clinton's speech.

Actually, Bill Clinton is not entirely forgotten -- not as long as there's an independent counsel around. In a most surprising twist last week, we found out that independent counsel Robert Ray has convened a new grand jury to consider criminal indictments in the Monica Lewinsky matter. A lot of people think Clinton is so charismatic that if he were eligible to run for a third term, he could easily get reelected, whereas Gore is having to struggling.

(voice-over): Well, surprise! When we asked voters whom they would vote for if Clinton could run again, George Bush or Bill Clinton, the answer was, enough is enough: Bush would win by a decisive margin. See? Charisma isn't everything.

Bill Schneider, CNN, Los Angeles.

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