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Gore gets boost

from McCain,

Bradley pullout

WASHINGTON: Vice President Al Gore stands to benefit most from the withdrawal from the 2000 White House race of Democratic rival Bill Bradley and Maverick Republican John McCain, analysts said on Thursday.

Gore is now in a head-to-head showdown with Texas Governor George W. Bush to succeed Bill Clinton as president in the November 7 elections. Bradley and McCain, Bush's erstwhile challenger, pulled out of the race two days after disappointing performances in the flurry of coast-to-coast primaries on Super Tuesday.

The vice president got an immediate boost from Bradley, who pledged his support for Gore and said that "now it is time for unity." "This country needs Democratic leadership, and I will work to ensure a Democratic White House and Congress."

Arizona Senator McCain declined to endorse Bush, offering him no more than his good wishes.

McCain's Democratic and Republican supporters likely to return to their parties' folds, closing ranks respectively behind Gore and Bush, according to the analysts.

But it is the unaffiliated voters, those independents McCain rallied behind his reformist banner, who are "the key to the outcome of this fall's election," said Eric Davis, a political scientist at Middlebury College in Vermont.

"Unfortunately for Bush, a good portion of the independents who voted for McCain will go to Gore," according to Allen Lichtman, a political historian at American University in Washington.

The vice-president, Clinton's handpicked successor, wrapped up the nomination after a race in which he triumphed in every single state over former senator Bradley.

In contrast, Bush, son of former president George Bush, fought a costly and bruising see-saw battle with McCain in which both men leveled tough charges Gore is likely to mine for material as the November vote nears.ÑAFP