Gore heading to L.A. today as nomination nears
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Vice President Al Gore and wife Tipper leave Detroit for Los Angeles on Wednesday
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ROMULUS, Michigan (CNN) -- Al Gore, who tonight will be nominated for president of the United States at the Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles, is flying West with his wife Tipper. They began their day meeting with teachers and prinicipals for breakfast at a restaurant in the Detroit suburb of Romulus.
Gore has vowed to make upgrading schools his top priority as president.
Upon Gore's arrival in California in midafternoon, he'll be joined at a rally at the Burbank Airport by his vice presidential running mate, Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut.
Lieberman, who addresses the convention tonight, arrived in Los Angeles on Tuesday. He was to take a break from speech preparation to talk to various Democratic Party constituencies -- groups of Hispanic delegates, Asian delegates and gay and lesbian delegates.
Gore-Lieberman rally in Burbank
After the airport rally, the Gore-Lieberman team planned to attend a party with the Tennessee and Connecticut delegations at Warner Brothers Studios, where Hollywood has over the years made many movies and television shows. (Warner Brothers and CNN are owned by parent company Time-Warner).
Lieberman met Tuesday with about 300 members of the Congressional Black Caucus, the Democratic National Committee's Black Caucus and others, and told them he would stand firm in support of affirmative action and civil rights.
Rep. Maxine Waters, D-California, who had been the most vocal in expressing doubts about Lieberman, said afterward that she would campaign for him.
A short time afterward, Lieberman swept through the convention hall, where he was greeted by throngs of delegates who rose to their feet, gave him high-fives and called out, "Joe! Joe! Joe!"
He attended a fund-raiser Tuesday night at the home of producer David Salzman that was sponsored by the New Democrat Network, a political action committee that the Connecticut senator helped found in 1996 to advance the ideas of centrist, pro-business Democrats like himself.
'I'm not going to let the other side wreck it'
Gore intends to spend part of today working on his own speech, to be delivered at the convention finale on Thursday night. The candidate was heading to California from Michigan, where Tuesday he accepted the leadership of the Democratic Party from President Clinton, and vowed to keep the economy rolling.
"President Bill Clinton worked hard to get this economy right ... and I'm not going to let the other side wreck it," Gore told a rally of thousands of people in the town of Monroe.
In a prelude to what is sure to be a convention theme, Gore added, "America's done well these eight years but I say to you today, you ain't seen nothing yet."
Gore's name will be placed in nomination for president at the convention by his 27-year-old daughter, Karenna Gore Schiff; actor Tommy Lee Jones, who was his roommate at Harvard; and Lois DeBerry, a longtime friend who now serves in the Tennessee House of Representatives.
Both Gore and Lieberman are to leave Los Angeles on Thursday night and fly to Wisconsin for the start Friday of a four-day riverboat campaign trip down the Mississippi River.
While Democrats have the political spotlight this week, their Republican opponent in the November 7 presidential election is lying low. Texas Gov. George W. Bush suspended active campaigning on Sunday.
As for Clinton, he headed back to the White House after the Michigan appearance and had nothing on his immediate schedule except a weekend with his family in Lake Placid, New York.
CNN Correspondent Frank Buckley, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
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Wednesday, August 16, 2000
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