ABSTRACT: Intervening in the debate on the presidential elections to be held in the United States on 3 November 1992, Marco Pannella states that "the most interesting character is Al Gore, Bill Clinton's running mate"...."Gore represents an element of solidity" for his active commitment in favour of civil rights.

(L'Europeo N. 45 of 6 November 1992)

"First of all, it will be important to judge how many people will enroll in the electoral lists and will vote, granted that citizens are really recovering an interest for politics". Marco Pannella judges the presidential elections in the U.S. and the position of the three candidates chiefly on the basis of their attitude toward the question of civil rights. In fact, precisely Pannella started to introduce, as of the sixties, the traditional battles of the American liberals into Italian politics. "The most interesting character is Al Gore, Bill Clinton's running mate. Bright, while not compelling, Bill Clinton stands between the non-committal attitude of Ross Perot and the decline of Bush. However, while Bush and Perot pay for the weakness of their candidates for the vice presidency, Clinton is strengthened in his position by Gore, whose qualities are on the contrary generally underestimated. Clinton is too blonde, too respectable; Gore represents an element of solidity. Clinton is too "soft" on the question

of civil rights. Too soft. With the only, commendable exception of women's problems. He takes for granted the vote of the ethnic and social minorities, and we cannot tell to what extent this is a matter of electoral tactics, or the attitude he will really hold if he becomes president. Therefore, the closeness to everyday problems shown by his running mate Gore is important. In any case, I think it will be difficult to recreate the social coalition that made the fortune of Rooseveltism: the long republican power has produced a new division of the social forces, so much that even the more advanced Bostonian component has not always supported the democrats.