Let's welcome the candidates, Governor Bush and Vice President Gore. Good evening, from Wake Chapel at Wake Forest University at Winston-Salem, North...

Vice President Gore?

Should the people of the world look at the United States, Governor, and say, should they fear us, should they welcome our involvement, should they see...

A humble nation.

Does that give us -- does our wealth, our good economy, our power, bring with it special obligations to the rest of the world?

Let's go through some of the specifics now. New question. Vice President Gore, the governor mentioned the Middle East. Here we're talking at this stage...

Governor?

So you don't believe, Vice President Gore, that we should take sides and resolve this right now? A lot of people pushing hey, the United States should...

You agree with that, Governor?

People watching here tonight are very interested in Middle East policy, and they are so interested they want to base their vote on differences between...

That's hard to tell. I think that, you know, I would hope to be able to convince people I could handle the Iraqi situation better.

I would like to, of course, and I presume this administration would as well. We don't know -- there are no inspectors now in Iraq, the coalition that...

I do.

Did he state your position correctly, you're not calling for eliminating the sanctions, are you?

Let's go on to Milosevic and Yugoslavia, and it falls under the area of our military power. Governor, new question. Should the fall of Milosevic be...

But you think it would not have happened -- do you think that Milosevic would not have fallen if the United States and NATO had not intervened militarily?...

Well, I've been kind of a hard-liner on this issue for more than eight years. When I was in the senate before I became vice president I was pushing...

If I think it's in our nation's strategic interest I'll commit troops. I thought it was in our strategic interests to keep Milosevic in check because...

Can you run through the list again?

I thought that was a mistake.

I supported that.

I supported that.

Yes, I voted for it, supported it.

Of course, and that again -- no, I think that that was ill-considered. I did support it at the time. It was in the previous administration, in the Bush-Quayle...

Oh, yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Make a couple comments.

Started off as a humanitarian mission and it changed into a nation-building mission, and that's where the mission went wrong. The mission was changed....

Yes.

Yes.

Yes. Some of them I've got a conflict of interest on, if you know what I mean.

I think the administration did the right thing in that case. I do. It was a horrible situation, no one liked to see it on our TV screens, but it's a...

I'd like to come back to the question of nation building, but let me address the question directly, first. Fine. We did, actually, send troops into...

Well, I understand, and Africa is important. And we've got to do a lot of work in Africa to promote democracy and trade, and there are some -- Vice...

I don't think we agree on that. I would certainly also be judicious in evaluating any potential use of American troops overseas. I think we have to...

First let me just say one comment about what the vice president said. I think one of the lessons in between World War I and World War II is we let our...

I don't think so. I think what we need to do is convince people who live in the lands they live in to build the nations. Maybe I'm missing something...

In the non-military area of influencing events around the world, the financial and economic are, the World Bank President Wilfinson said recently, Governor,...

Sure.

Do you think we're meeting our obligations properly?

Let me comment on that. I'm not so sure the role of the United States is to go around the world and say this is the way it's got to be. We can help....

Far be it from me to suggest otherwise. (LAUGHTER)

Yes, I would. The only thing an executive order can accomplish is to ban it in federal law enforcement agencies, but I would also support a law in the...

And that could be a federal law?

And you would agree?

You have a different view of that.

On hate crimes laws?

What -- if you become president, Governor, are there other areas, racial problem areas, that you would deal with as president involving discrimination?...

Vice President Gore, what would be on your racial discrimination elimination list as president?

Hold on one second. What is the misunderstanding? Let's clear this up.

Well, you don't realize we have a hate crimes statute? We do. MR. GORE: I'm talking about the one that was proposed to deal --

No -- well, what...

In this case when you murder somebody it's hate, Jim. The crime is hate. And they got the ultimate punishment. I'm not exactly sure how you enhance...

Sure.

And you would support that bill.

Would you support a national hate crimes law?

New subject, new question. Another vice presidential debate follow-up. Governor, both Senator Lieberman and Secretary Cheney said they were sympathetically...

Vice President Gore?

Is that right?

Do you believe in general terms that gays and lesbians should have the same rights as other Americans?

Well, there's a law pending called the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. I strongly support it. What it says is that gays and lesbians can't be fired...

The question --

Well, I have no idea. I mean, he can throw out all kinds -- I don't know the particulars of this law. I will tell you I'm the kind of person, I don't...

Well, it would be if they're given special protective status. That doesn't mean we shouldn't fully enforce laws and fully protect people and fully honor...

Jim, I hope that we can come back to the subject of education because the governor made an extensive statement on it and I have a very different view...

Well, it starts with enforcing law. When you say loud and clear to somebody if you're going to carry a gun illegally, we're going to arrest you. If...

Well, I'm not for registration. I am for licensing by states of new handgun purchases.

A photo license I.D. like a driver's license for new handguns and, you know, the Los Angeles --

Correct.

The state. The state. I think states should do that for new handguns, because too many criminals are getting guns. There was a recent investigation...

Well, I'm not for photo licensing. Let me say something about Columbine. Listen, we've got gun laws. He says we ought to have gun-free schools. Everybody...

Yeah, no question about that, but there also needs to be strong enforcement of the law. Some kid who feels like -- doesn't matter where the gun comes...

Well, I've got a plan to do something about that. It's to make health care affordable and available this way. First, there's some who should be buying...

Some of the healthy folks, healthy young kids say I'll never get sick, therefore I don't need health care right now. For those what I think we need...

It's one of my top priorities, Jim, to give every single child in the United States affordable health care within the next four years. I would like...

First of all, let me say he's not for a government-run health care system? I thought that's exactly what he and Mrs. Clinton and them fought for in...

Well, I don't know about all these percentages that he throws out, but I do know that -- I speculate that the reason why he didn't answer your question...

If he's trying to allege that I'm a hard-hearted person and I don't care about children, he's absolutely wrong. We've spent $4.7 billion a year in the...

Yes, yes. But it's not a statement about his heart. I don't claim to know his heart. I think he's a good person. I make no allegations about that. I...

First of all, that's simply not true what he just said, of course. And secondly, I repeat to you --

That we spent -- the top 1% receive 223 as opposed to 445 billion in new spending. The top -- let's talk about my tax plan. The top 1% will pay one-third...

I do. I think that in this 21st century we will soon see the consequences of what's called global warming. There was a study just a few weeks ago suggesting...

Well, let me start with Texas. We are a big industrial state. We reduced our industrial waste by 11%. We cleaned up more brown fields than any other...

A brown field is an abandoned industrial site that just sits idle in some of our urban centers. And people are willing to invest capital in the brown...

I'm really strongly committed to clean water and clean air, and cleaning up the new kinds of challenges like global warming. He is right that I'm not...

I think it's a fundamental difference. Let me give you an example.

Okay, sure.

Well, I don't believe in command and control out of Washington, D.C. I believe Washington ought to set standards, but again I think we ought to be collaborative...

Out in the west, yeah. And so -- on the logging issue. That's not the way I would have done it. Perhaps some of that land needs to be set aside. But...

Sure, absolutely, so long as they're based upon science and they're reasonable. So long as people have input.

I think it's an issue that we need to take very seriously. But I don't think we know the solution to global warming yet. And I don't think we've got...

99 to nothing.

Yeah, I agree. I just -- I think there has been -- some of the scientists, I believe, Mr. Vice President, haven't they been changing their opinion a...

I've been trying so hard not to.

Twice.

That's an interruption, by the way.

I'm sorry. I apologize, Mr. Vice President.

Of course they care about them. Oh, you mean the rules.

What the heck. I -- of course there's a lot -- look, global warming needs to be taken very seriously, and I take it seriously. But science, there's...

Well, we all make mistakes. I've been known to mangle a syllable or two myself, you know, if you know what I mean. I think credibility is important....

The Earned Income Tax Credit, sorry.

A lot of initials from a guy who's not from Washington, isn't it? Anyway, he co-sponsored McCain-Feingold, and yet he didn't. And so I think this is...

I got some of the details wrong last week in some of the examples that I used, Jim, and I'm sorry about that. And I'm going to try to do better. One...

That's going to be up to the people, isn't it?

Depends on what he says in the future in the campaign.

I hope they're not awful things. I think they may be using the man's own words.

I don't believe I've used those words.

Maybe they have.

Wait a minute. (LAUGHTER)

I don't use language like that and I don't think that we should.

I understand. The -- I haven't seen that, in my commercials?

Your --

That's the kind of exaggeration I was just talking about. (LAUGHTER)

Gentlemen, it's time to go to the closing statements. And Vice President Gore, you have two minutes.

Governor Bush, two minutes.

And we will return next Tuesday night, October 17th, from Washington University in St. Louis for the third and final debate. Thank you, Vice President...