The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Good evening. I'm Elizabeth Farnsworth. Jim Lehrer is on vacation. On the NewsHour tonight, hope amid the earthquake ruins: An update from a U.S. Red Cross official on rescue efforts in Turkey. A big week in politics: Terence Smith on the press, candidate Bush, and the cocaine question; analysis by Paul Gigot and Tom Oliphant, and a report on Gore and Bradley in Iowa. And finally, a look at the video art of Bill Viola. It all follows our summary of the news this Friday.

NEWS SUMMARY

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Rescuers pulled at least three more survivors from earthquake ruins in northwestern Turkey today, and international teams searched round-the-clock for victims still trapped beneath the rubble. Rescuers said the chances of finding more survivors from Tuesday's quake were growing slim. The prime minister warned conditions were ripe for an epidemic. The official death toll surged to more than 10,000, and thousands of bodies awaited burial. Medical officials said sweltering heat, broken sewer and water pipes, and unburied corpses would spread infectious diseases. We'll have more on the story right after the News Summary. Earthquakes also struck today in the United States and Central America. The National Earthquake Information Center in Colorado said one measuring 5.3 on the Richter Scale rattled a rural area of Montana early this morning, about 120 miles Southwest of Helena. There were no reports of injuries or damage. Another quake hit Costa Rica, parts of Panama and Nicaragua around 4 AM. The epicenter was 55 miles South of Costa Rica's capital, San Jose. It registered an estimated 6.7 on the Richter Scale. Some minor damage was reported, but no injuries. Russia launched more air raids on Dagestan today and struck two villages in neighboring Chechnya. For two weeks, Russian jets and helicopters, aided by troops and artillery, have been trying to force Dagestani and Chechen fighters out of mountain villages in Dagestan. The guerrillas want to form an independent Islamic state there. The situation is Russia's worst internal conflict since the 1994/96 war in Chechnya. The Kosovo Liberation Army said today it has met a NATO deadline for turning over 60 percent of its weapons. KLA leaders further said they were not behind ongoing assaults on Serbs and gypsies. The guerrilla organization is to complete disarmament by September 19th, under an accord signed with NATO in June. NATO did not confirm today's claim by the KLA. And that's it for the News Summary tonight. Now it's on to an update from Turkey; Candidate Bush's drug question; Gigot and Oliphant; Gore and Bradley in Iowa; and video artist Bill Viola.

UPDATE DEADLY FORCE

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: We begin our coverage of the rescue efforts in Turkey with an ITN report by Julian Manyon.

JULIAN MANYON: In the industrial city of Izmit, the sight of another body dragged from the rubble sets off hysterical grief; 3,300 corpses have so far been recovered here, but for these people the loss of their loved one is all that matters, and it's too much too bear. Amid the mounting despair the miracles are still happening. This morning a three-year-old girl was pulled naked from the ruins. She had survived for more than three days without water when her Hungarian rescuers found her. The girl drank greedily. She was severely dehydrated but otherwise uninjured. Too young to understand the full horror of what had happened, she seemed to believe that she was recovering from illness. "I've been ill," she says. And the nurses did their best to soothe her. Foreign rescue teams are now hard at work in Izmit, where many large apartment blocks collapsed like houses of cards. An American team is using sniffer dogs and electronic listening devices. Down the road the French make holes in the rubble to insert their microphones. Here, there is no sign of life. Southwest of Izmit the destruction stretches along the beautiful Anatolian coast. The earthquake caused carnage in peaceful towns and villages where many people from Istanbul normally spend their summers. At what used to be a resort complex an Israeli rescue team is now battling to save lives. So far, they have rescued two people and found a number of bodies. In the resort town of Yalova, the football stadium has been turned into an emergency field hospital where helicopters swoop in and out. But here, as elsewhere, the number of survivors needing medical attention is dwindling. This man was injured trying to help the rescue operation. Those beneath the rubble are gradually losing the struggle for life. Yalova was a quiet place for comfortable retirement. Now, it's scarred by terrible swathes of destruction. The fear will not be easily forgotten. In Yalova, they're sleeping outdoors now in tented camps. In the last two days there have been faint aftershocks; people are praying that there are no more quakes.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: For more on the situation in Turkey we go to Istanbul to Frank Donaghue, chief executive officer for the Southeastern Pennsylvania chapter of the American Red Cross. He arrived in Turkey Wednesday to assess the damage and advise the Red Cross on what to do.

Mr. Donaghue, where have you been today and what did you see?

FRANK DONAGHUE: Today was a pretty incredible day. I arrived in Izmit, which is the epicenter of the earthquake, and arrived there to a pretty big tremor, which, of course, creates all kinds of panic, buildings that are about to topple down, do, in fact, topple down, and people continue to get hurt. The situation here is dire, and then I moved on to Golcuk, which us not far from Izmit, but the situation there is incomprehensible. Literally they expect 10,000 people are caught in the buildings there, and the suffering, people laying in the streets, sleeping in the streets, haven't been in their homes. The sanitary conditions, the food is at a scarcity, as is water. The temperature's 100 degrees, and people are both afraid and deeply devastated by the loss of so many people.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Describe the hospitals in both cities.

FRANK DONAGHUE: In Izmit, where I visited most of the time, the hospital there. It is a very small hospital. It would be comparable to maybe two McDonalds joined together. It, in fact, had been hit and struck by the earthquake as well, and so the operating room was missing. They are actually doing surgery out on the street under a tent where everybody that passes by can all watch it. But the doctors there, I talked to them, they're truly stretched to the limit. These folks have been working since last Tuesday around the clock. They told me in that very small hospital -- we would consider it a small clinic even -- that they had cared for 1500 critical patients. The large hospital in Izmit, Elizabeth, is even a more tragic story. There, there were 260 patients before the facility virtually collapsed and was destroyed; 90 patients died and 15 physicians were killed that night. The disaster, the tragedy, is just mind boggling. The suffering is incredible.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Mr. Donaghue, there's been articles here -- there have been articles here about lack of coordination in the relief effort. What are you finding?

FRANK DONAGHUE: You know, I've been asked that question a lot today, and I don't think anyone, any organization, any country could respond to the fact that over ten to fifteen thousand buildings have collapsed. You need literally thousands of rescue workers to be on every one of those buildings and to look for the survivors. The situation is dire. I said to a doctor yesterday actually in that hospital that I mentioned outside of Izmit, the medical school, what did she think of the response of the government, and her answer to me was this -- she said, "Mr. Donaghue, those people are just like you and me; they've lost their wife, they've lost their children. And they're responding as best they possibly can in a very, very difficult situation." I met with the governor in Izmit yesterday. And they're desperately trying to pull the pieces together with the military in place and helping the American military, as well as relief organizations like the American Red Cross sending more and more workers. I believe it's coming together. I can see a change in just the last 24 hours alone.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: And so what are the key needs now?

FRANK DONAGHUE: Certainly ready-to-eat food. People need food; they need water; we need sanitary conditions; and we need temporary housing for these folks. Literally -- when I tell you, Elizabeth, thousands of people are sleeping on the streets, I'm not exaggerating. In the hotel that I happen to be in, a small hotel here in Istanbul, last night about 20 people were sleeping in the lobby who were guests of the hotel, local people who were afraid to go upstairs because of the tremors. And the parks, the medial strip of highways, the grass knolls around exit ramps and highways, all of them are full of people, have no place to go, and so temporary housing is certainly a critical need.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: And Mr. Donaghue, describe the efforts that you're seeing by local people to take care of their own needs.

FRANK DONAGHUE: Well, let me just tell you one story today, and it's a small story, but I think it tells well. This community of 15 million people is responding in a most orderly way. I mean, there's no looting; there's no violence; people are aware of this incredible situation and they're dealing with the fact it can take you four hours to go five miles. But I had to grab a taxicab today to get to Izmit, and the man driving my cab pulled over at a bakery and he said, "Wait a minute, sir" -- got out of the car -- went into the bakery and said, "I want all the bread you have." He literally filled the trunk completely and the backseat up to the roof, paid for it out of his own money, and when we got to Izmit, he handed out the bread. So I think that shows the generosity and the kindness and the care of the folks here in Turkey toward their brothers and sisters who have been so desperately hurt by this disaster.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Do people still have hope that they'll find people alive, or is it getting to be too late for that?

FRANK DONAGHUE: Well, actually tonight there was another woman found, a 25-year-old woman was found in Golcuk. Today one of the most moving things -- right after that tremor -- and it was a very, very stressful morning -- I was standing doing an interview similar to this, and a few yards from me was a four-year-old girl who had been brought into the hospital an hour earlier, and as I was talking, she literally sat up in bed and began to talk to her mother, ask for juice, and within a half an hour this little child was really enjoying all the attention she was getting. So I don't think hope is lost. But clearly, with literally thousands, perhaps thirty-five thousand people still missing, and the time is ticking, the heat is incredible, the toll is going to rise dramatically.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: And, Mr. Donaghue, what's the danger of epidemic?

FRANK DONAGHUE: Serious. There are no sanitary conditions in place yet. The water supply is scarce. I've seen people drinking off of water coming out of the street. It is a great concern. I've talked to a lot of the medical people here, and they're doing everything they can to control that, and I think certainly with both the military and non- government organizations responding, as the Red Cross is and others, we're going to see that getting under control as quickly as possible.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: So what would you say to people watching this show right now who want to know how they can help?

FRANK DONAGHUE: The most important thing is to help rebuild and help Turkey recover. The best way to do that is through financial contributions to organizations that are going to purchase the goods that are needed right here in Turkey. At the American Red Cross we have a policy; we don't send things in from America and send things in from far away. We buy things right here in the country affected, not only helping the people but also helping the economy, which is helping the people for the long-term. And so we ask people to contribute directly to the Red Cross by calling our 1-800-HELP-NOW number. I promise them that that money will get directly to help the people in Turkey in two ways: by helping them directly and by helping the economy.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Well, Frank Donaghue, good luck in the days ahead and thank you very much.

FRANK DONAGHUE: Thanks so much, Elizabeth.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: And finally on the earthquake tonight, a rescue story from the town of Golcuk. Kwame Holman narrates.

KWAME HOLMAN: Survivors still were being pulled from the mountains of rubble today, giving rescuers hope more may be found --though time is running out.

SPOKESMAN: (speaking through interpreter) (French) We are certain that there isn't one

but two survivors. So it's much more important now to go down very quickly.

(DRILLING IN BACKGROUND)

KWAME HOLMAN: This French team struggled for seven hours to locate two people trapped for the last three days. They were found on what was the second floor of a seven-story apartment building. The lower floors were flattened by the quake, which struck early Tuesday morning.

The French team used sophisticated sonar detection equipment to transmit sound signals deep into the rubble. When they got a response, team members went down into the depths of the

collapsed structure. Crawling through narrow spaces, they located a woman and passed her water. Both survivors were hauled out by rope and greeted with applause and cheers.

(APPLAUSE IN BACKGROUND)

KWAME HOLMAN: The rescue team continued their search for someone they suspected was a child. An estimated thirty-five thousand people remain missing throughout Turkey.

FOCUS QUESTION AND ANSWERS

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Still to come on the NewsHour tonight, the cocaine question and George W. Bush, Gigot and Oliphant, Bradley and Gore in Iowa, and video artist Joe Viola.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Media Correspondent Terence Smith begins our coverage of the Bush story.

TERENCE SMITH: It is the question the media will not stop asking.

CORRESPONDENT: Another day when topic A among reporters is the topic Mr. Bush would like least to discuss: The question of whether the Republican frontrunner ever used illegal drugs.

TERENCE SMITH: Since George W. Bush entered the Presidential race in June, he has been

Quizzed repeatedly about possible Illegal drug use, especially cocaine. He quickly developed a stock response.

GEORGE W. BUSH: What I'm going to tell people is that 20-30 years ago I made mistakes.

GEORGE W. BUSH: I've made mistakes, 20 or 30 years ago. But I've learned from my mistakes.

TERENCE SMITH: There is no evidence that Bush has ever dabbled in drugs, but the Republican

front-runner has directly addressed other personal issues. He has acknowledged years of drinking and said that he gave up alcohol at age 40. He has also volunteered that he has been faithful to his wife, Laura, during their 22 years of marriage.

GEORGE W. BUSH: She is the best decision I ever made in my life. She is the mother of our twins. I love her a lot.

TERENCE SMITH: But it's not just the media who are pressing personal issues. Senate

Democratic Leader Tom Daschle complained to reporters earlier this month that Bush is receiving lenient treatment in comparison to previous Presidential candidates. "The media in general seems to be respecting far more his lack of willingness to discuss his past than you have been with others. Basically, he said 'I've made mistakes' and the media seems to accept that."

TERENCE SMITH: The subject reemerged last weekend, just prior to the Iowa straw poll, when

Bush was questioned on CNN by Syndicated Columnist Rowland Evans.

ROWLAND EVANS: The big question for Governor George W. Bush of Texas: Governor, there are and have been rumors, lots of them, of your possible past use of hard drugs. Sir, is it not now in your interest to tell us flatly if these rumors are or are not true?

GEORGE W. BUSH: You know, really, I -- when I first got going in this campaign, I started hearing about these ridiculous rumors. I made my mind up at that point in time not to chase every single rumor that had been floated about me. The game of trying to force me to prove a negative and to chase down unsubstantiated, ugly rumors has got to end. And so therefore, I'm going to end it.

TERENCE SMITH: But instead of quelling the issue, Bush's comments re-ignited it on last Sunday's talk shows..

RUSSERT: Why doesn't he simply just give a straight answer to drug use?

BLITZER: Should he answer, though, that question whether or not he ever used cocaine?

SPOKESMAN: Do you think he should he answer that question?

TERENCE SMITH: Fellow Republican candidate Gary Bauer defended the media on the grounds that cocaine use is illegal.

GARY BAUER: I don't see how any of us can say that it's inappropriate for you and your profession to ask us whether we have ever committed a felony. I mean, cocaine use in most places is a felony.

TERENCE SMITH: As the week wore on, Bush had no luck kicking the media's drug dependence. At an Austin press conference Wednesday, he blew up at reporters.

GEORGE W. BUSH: You know what happens. Somebody floats a rumor and that causes

you to ask a question. And that's the game in American politics, I refuse to play it. That is a game, and you just fell for the trap and I refuse to play. -- You need to ask other people

who's planting the rumors.

CARL LEUBSDORF: This may peak for a while but it's always possible that someone will come forward with some new information.

TERENCE SMITH: Carl Leubsdorf is the Washington Bureau chief of the Dallas Morning News.

CARL LEUBSDORF: Part of the problem here is that he helped create the trap -- because as

soon as he became selective in answering questions about his private life, talking openly about drinking too much but refusing to answer drug questions, he opened himself up to questions: Why was he being selective? Why -- was he trying to hide something? Why was he refusing to answer certain questions when he answered others?

TERENCE SMITH: And do journalists believe that the questions should be asked in the first

place?

CARL LEUBSDORF: Printing rumors is not responsible but asking relevant questions or asking questions and printing the answers and saying 'well, he answered this one, and he didn't answer

that on. He's inconsistent.' That's perfectly all right with me.

TERENCE SMITH: But media critics, such as Professor Larry Sabato of the University of

Virginia, say the press is going too far too fast.

PROFESSOR LARRY SABATO: The important point here is that no news organization has presented a single piece of proof or evidence that Bush has ever used cocaine. Now, if they have that proof or evidence, they ought to print or air it. Otherwise, they ought to stop asking

the question.

TERENCE SMITH: Later in the day Wednesday, Leubsdorf's paper reframed the question, asking if the Texas governor could respond to a query routinely posed by the FBI during background investigations for a federal security clearance. Surprisingly, the candidate broke his self-imposed silence and volunteered a response: "As I understand it, the current form asks the question, did somebody use drugs within the last seven years?" he told the Dallas Morning News -- "and I will be glad to answer that. And the answer is no." That response prompted further probing of Bush yesterday in Roanoke, Virginia. This time, he took the issue one step further:

GEORGE W. BUSH: Not only could I have passed the standards applied in today's White

House, I could have passed the background check of standards applied on the most stringent conditions when my dad was President of the United States, a 15-year period.

TERENCE SMITH: The Bush campaign later clarified that the governor meant that he had been

drug-free since 1974, when he was 28 years old. Possibly sensing that he had opened the

door too wide to this line of inquiry, the Texas Governor once again tried to shut it down during a second campaign stop yesterday in Ohio.

DAVID BLOOM: You, sir, have said that these are legitimate questions based upon the duration of that background check, so given that, can you tell us whether or not you've used illegal drugs since your 18th birthday and if so, what drugs?

GEORGE W. BUSH: I've told the American people all I'm going to tell them -- is that I made mistakes -- years ago. And I've learned from those mistakes.

TERENCE SMITH: That series of responses provoked a full-fledged media feeding frenzy on

television last night.

SCHIEFFER: There were more questions today everywhere he went.

WILLIAMS: The question that will not go away: is there illegal drug use in his past?

TERENCE SMITH: Drug use was still a topic on the campaign trail in Akron, Ohio, today

when Bush offered some advice for baby boomer parents discussing their past with their children.

GEORGE W. BUSH: I think the baby boomer parents ought to say I've learned from mistakes I may or may not have made. And I'd like to share some wisdom with you, and that is: Don't use drugs.

TERENCE SMITH: But the larger questions: Do the voters care -- do they consider past drug use disqualifying for a future President -- and what are the political consequences for the Republican front-runner? Those remain to be answered.

FOCUS POLITICAL WRAP

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: And, Margaret Warner takes it from there.

MARGARET WARNER: To assess the political fallout of the Bush story, and other political developments of the week, we turn to Gigot and Oliphant: "Wall Street Journal" Columnist Paul Gigot, and "Boston Globe" Columnist Tom Oliphant. Mark Shields is on vacation.

So, Paul, let's first take the issue presented in Terry's piece. Was this a legitimate question to ask George Bush?

PAUL GIGOT: I think it is. Campaigns nowadays, presidential campaigns, are kind of hazing exercises where we raise obstacles. The press raises questions, sort of an obstacle course, to test a candidate's past, his history, and tests his ability to deal with these kinds of questions. It's legitimate to ask candidates whether or not they've committed crimes in the past. And this is something that's come up in the past over marijuana. Cocaine is obviously relevant. And frankly George W. Bush should know that this the kind of thing is coming. It's going to hit all the candidates.

TOM OLIPHANT: As an old fogy, could I offer a pointless dissent? The way I was brought up in this business, you should never ask a question without some factual basis for it because if you do, you are doing the moral equivalent of floating a rumor, which I was also taught a long time ago one should never do. I think the terrible thing that's happened to our business is that we have figured out ways to do this routinely today to the everlasting damage of our credibility and effectiveness.

MARGARET WARNER: So in other words, to get rumors in play.

TOM OLIPHANT: Exactly.

MARGARET WARNER: So, do you think he had to answer it, Paul?

PAUL GIGOT: No. I think he could have stayed with his original position. I think it might have been hard to stay with that, but he could have which is, I won't talk about it. The problem he had is that he was willing to talk about his past in ways that helped him. He had a very good thing going, which is kind of the redemptive baby boomer theme. I was in my 20's, a derelict. I got my act together. A lot of baby boomers identify with that. No question about it. The question is, then why not throw cocaine or drug use in with the booze, in with whatever else was going on and just get it behind him? As a political matter, I don't understand why he didn't say, get this back when he had a 40-point lead in Texas or just won the Texas governor's race. Instead, by saying I will not talk about it, he invites the press to talk -- to ask about it. He invites the tabloids to throw money around to find people who might talk about it. I'm at a loss to understand what the strategy here has been. And then when he changed his story this week because they hadn't understood or hadn't thought about the FBI clearancequestions, which is that nominees that President's make have to answer the drug question. I was asked that once as a White House fellow, I had to answer the question bluntly, have you ever used cocaine? And Presidents that sit at the top of that administration are going to have to answer that question, too. And that just opened it up again and it made him look evasive and not candid.

MARGARET WARNER: Do you think he has mishandled it?

TOM OLIPHANT: Oh, this one will be studied. This is textbook mishandling. And one of the mistakes going in -- I think I can answer Paul's question -- is the graveyards are full of failed candidacies where the poor guy said going into a race, X is not going to be a problem for me because I handled it in my governor's race. This is not that league.

MARGARET WARNER: The old "I ran for Congress from New York" line.

TOM OLIPHANT: Second thing, to vigorously, vehemently articulate what appeared to be a deeply held principle, which is what Governor Bush did on Wednesday, and then walk away from it three hours later under pressure, may end up being the more revealing lesson from this episode.

MARGARET WARNER: Do you think the drug issue itself is serious, is potentially damaging? I mean, we have no idea what the answer to the question would be if he ever answered it, the full question, but does it have legs, or is it just something that the press is fixated on?

PAUL GIGOT: I think it would hurt with some voters but I don't think it would be disqualifying. I think if he had laid something on the table, who knows what it is, last year, he'd still be the front-runner now, given some of his other assets. The bigger problem I think he has is appearing to be Clintonian if he is evasive or if he's parsing words. When I was asked last week, I asked a lot of Bush voters why are you supporting Governor Bush? And they said basically we think he can win and he is a man of integrity, he's a man of character. He is running as the character candidate. The big advantage the Republicans have is restoring moral values. That helps him. He is going to have to answer personal questions when you're running on the politics of biography.

TOM OLIPHANT: I think there is another problem too. We know going into this weekend that the option of going further than he has is alive now, and we also know it's alive because he hasn't held to the lines in the sand he's drawn before. But there is one other consideration that's uppermost in the minds of Governor Bush's advisors and that is the difficulty that comes with, say acknowledging something about his past and then defending an extremely harsh policy position about how first-time users of tiny amounts of cocaine should be handles, i.e., with jail. And the problem of articulating a position that your own life perhaps belies is something that is holding them up this weekend.

MARGARET WARNER: But it is possible, isn't it, Paul, that actually this will end up inoculating him on the issue. I mean, most voters are not paying attention right now.

PAUL GIGOT: That's true and if nothing else comes forward, it probably does go away. The problem is now with the press sort of hungry for this and looking at it -- what if an eyewitness comes forward, even if he's lying, even if he's not telling the truth, he is -- it is probably going to get play of some kind because people are going to wonder and the press is going to play it up. And the Democrats have an interest here. Let's be candid. The Democrats have a real interest in making the Republican candidate appear to be as Clintonian aspossible because the big Republican advantage is restoring moral values. It's the only one they may have -- 41 points in the battleground survey -- Republicans over Democrats. If they can chop George W. Bush or somebody else down to Bill Clinton's moral size, they can neutralize the playing field.

MARGARET WARNER: Speaking of who is spreading it, Bush seemed to be suggesting yesterday that some of his Republican rivals have been spreading it. Have they spreading we don't what it is, but --

TOM OLIPHANT: Exactly. Here I think one needs to be extremely careful. To my personal knowledge, absolutely not. It is a top -- what has happened in the last two days is, of course, a topic on everybody's minds in public and in private. But I have no knowledge whatsoever of any other rival of Bush's contributing anything in the way of rumor or innuendo to this story.

PAUL GIGOT: Never said anything to me. I might have lousy sources, but

TOM OLIPHANT: My number's in the book but nobody has called.

MARGARET WARNER: Before -- it's hard to remember that a week ago we were all in Iowa for the Ames straw poll. Did the straw poll results affect the Republican race in any significant way do you think?

PAUL GIGOT: I think it did a little bit. It made, I think, Governor Bush the probationary front-runner, is how I would put it. It said no question -- we like what we see -- but we want to see more. Seven of ten of the voters said I think we want to have a race here. We want him to fill out his agenda, his core set of principles. And we don't want to write off the field yet. So I think it set up a couple of his opponents as legitimate contenders in case something goes wrong or they don't like what they see about Governor Bush but Governor Bush is still the front-runner.

TOM OLIPHANT: You know, I thought on his way out of the race Lamar Alexander had the best analytical comment in which he said that he felt that in Ames and afterwards two conflicting forces: One, to nominate this guy -- just get it over with. And secondly, to have a contest. And I think the impulse to have a contest narrowly won. It has been interesting to see in the days since Ames that in a couple of cases, and I would say Forbes and McCain and Bauer, you have seen a very vigorous post-Ames activity. In a couple of other cases though, notably Elizabeth Dole taking advantage of this little window of opportunity has not been her strong suit.

MARGARET WARNER: You think she hasn't because coming out of Ames she was the biggest surprise that she came in third and brought in all these new voters.

PAUL GIGOT: Well, her advisors say that this is before Labor Day and the deep slumber of August, nobody is paying attention, but she does have to do something because right now she's all gender, no agenda. And that means she's running and ran successfully in Ames as somebody who is new to the process -- I'm a woman. Make a statement. But there's not a lot there. And she has to fill out what she wants to do as President. Her advisors say that will come. It hasn't arrived yet.

TOM OLIPHANT: I'm struck at this point. We call it for shorthand the establishment Republican, I don't know why, but we do. The rhetoric, apart from gender of Mrs. Dole and Governor Bush, is remarkably similar in that it's mush, and it is McCain who is the more sharply focused of these establishmentarians. I don't understand in the case of Governor Bush and Mrs. Dole what the problem is completing the sentence, I am the X candidate or Y candidate in terms of agenda and not just personality.

PAUL GIGOT: I think because they are the character candidates. They are running on biography. They are running on their famous names right now and they are running on their association.

MARGARET WARNER: All right. We need to look at couple other famous names so don't go away.

FOCUS WOOING IOWA

MARGARET WARNER: We want to look now at the Democratic race. We'll begin with a report by Elizabeth Brackett of WTTW in Chicago. She followed the candidates in Iowa earlier this week.

ELIZABETH BRACKETT: Iowa Democrats haven't had a straw poll in years. But the two Democratic presidential contenders have spent many hours in this state, gearing up for their first head- to-head contest, the Iowa caucuses next January.

BILL BRADLEY: I need your help in the caucuses. I need your help reaching out to your friends. Fund-raisers people say, is there anything we can do other than raise money, and I say, yes, call a few other people and have them raise money.

SPOKESMAN: The Honorable Albert Gore.

ELIZABETH BRACKETT: Their campaign styles differ, a difference heightened by Vice President Gore's incumbency: Former Senator Bill Bradley, sometimes alone in a crowd, Gore always surrounded; Bradley more inclined to sit in small groups and answer questions.

SPOKESMAN: I ask you about the NAFTA and GATT.

SPOKESMAN: Yeah, good.

ELIZABETH BRACKETT: The one-to-one conversations shorter with Gore. Bradley travels the state in a two-car caravan. The Vice President comes and goes with all the trappings of the White House. Bradley spends a lot of time introducing himself, usually with references to his days as a star basketball player with the New York Knicks.

BILL BRADLEY: I did make my living running around drafty arenas in short pants for about ten years.

ELIZABETH BRACKETT: But he soon moves to issues, as he did at this A.F.L./C.I.O. Convention in Waterloo on Wednesday. He stressed his own union background with the N.B.A. Players Union, said he would lift the constraints on union organizing, ban striker replacements, as well as compulsory overtime.

BILL BRADLEY: I am running so that more and more people will get to a higher economic ground in this country. I believe we need more economic growth, more fairly shared. That's why we have to increase the minimum wage. There's no question about that in this country. No question that needs to happen. That's why we need to make sure that every American is covered by a health insurance policy in this country with an economy as good as ours. (Applause)

ELIZABETH BRACKETT: Speaking to the same convention yesterday, Gore too supported a higher minimum wage and a ban on striker replacements. And the Vice President relies on the administrations record to garner support.

VICE PRESIDENT GORE: As part of this administration, I want you to know that I'm proud that President Clinton has vetoed every anti-labor bill that has come to his office in the White House, and if they pass another one, he'll veto 'em again. And if they pass another one, he'll veto 'em again. And with your help, if they try it after 2000, I'll veto it and keep them from doing that.

ELIZABETH BRACKETT: Gore never mentions Bradley, aiming his fire at Republicans instead, particularly at the $800 billion tax proposal from the Republican Congress.

VICE PRESIDENT GORE: Under the risky Republican tax scheme, the wealthiest 1 percent in America would get four times as much money as the bottom 60 percent put together. I'm not making that up. Of course, you know, it sounds like a Republican tax proposal because it is a Republican tax proposal. Now the worst of it is it would automatically put us right back into deficits again. And that would raise interest rtes again. So under the Republican plan, you would pay more on car payments. Under the Republican plan, you would pay more on home mortgage payments, under the Republican plan you would pay more on consumer interested, credit card interest, and every kind of interest rates.

ELIZABETH BRACKETT: The A.F.L.-C.I.O. won't endorse a candidate until October, but Gore has pulled in two big unions in Iowa, A.F.S.C.M.E. and the U.A.W.

BILL BRADLEY: I thought it was very interesting, after the U.A.W. endorsement, Steve Yokich issued a very strong letter, essentially saying that this was not an endorsement, that the U.A.W. Endorses nationally, and so this was not valid. So I think that was instructive.

ELIZABETH BRACKETT: The jab did not bother the Vice President.

VICE PRESIDENT GORE: I'm not talking about any other candidates, and I'm not going to say anything negative about him at all. I'm focused on my own campaign.

ELIZABETH BRACKETT: The farm crisis is at the top of both candidates' agendas here. Drought is not the problem. Predictions are for the third best corn crop in history. But for the first time, the price of four major commodities-- corn, soybeans, beef and pork-- is below the cost of production. The Vice President chose one of Iowa's 13,000 farms that have been family-owned for more than 100 years to stress his understanding of the crisis.

VICE PRESIDENT GORE: Farming may be a smaller part of the overall employment in our country than it was when this family first owned this farm 107 years ago, but there are still 22 million jobs in America that are directly and indirectly tied to the farm, and we need to save those jobs and those farms, and I promise you I'll do everything to accomplish that result.

ELIZABETH BRACKETT: Corn and soybean farmers sue and Keith McKinney think Gore gets it when it comes to farm issues. The Vice President and his wife overnighted with the McKinneys in April.

KEITH McKINNEY: I came away with the idea that he really did understand. He understood that what we were doing wasn't working. We needed to have a better safety net for the commodities that we try to sell worldwide.

BILL BRADLEY: I didn't know much about Iowa agriculture until last January, when I started talking to people and learn what I could.

ELIZABETH BRACKETT: Meeting with a small group of hog farmers, Bradley asks as many questions as he answers.

BILL BRADLEY: The question is what's the best thing to help a family farm hog producer?

MAN IN GROUP: I think addressing the captive supply issue from an antitrust standpoint.

ELIZABETH BRACKETT: The Bradley camp hopes to turn those who meet the former Senator into supporters on caucus night. There's only one way to do that, says Press Secretary Eric Hauser.

ERIC HAUSER: The first three things you have to do in Iowa are organize, organize and organize. And I think we've gotten a good start on those three things.

ELIZABETH BRACKETT: And Bradley's organizational efforts seem to be producing results. A surprisingly large mid-August crowd turned out to hear Bradley speak in Dubuque on Wednesday. Campaign finance reform, strict gun control measures, and as always, race relations make up the core of his pitch.

BILL BRADLEY: For me, racial unity is always at the center of what I try to do. It's important for who we are. But it's increasingly important for who we could become.

ELIZABETH BRACKETT: Dubuque City Councilwoman Ann Michalski says Bradley's organizing efforts are right on track.

ANN MICHALSKI: I know that Senator Bradley, when he was a basketball player, was a great man to see the pace of the game and understand the pace of the game. I think that he's really understood the pace of the caucus campaign and the caucus calendar in Iowa, and he's working well in that rhythm.

ELIZABETH BRACKETT: But Gore has already picked up many more endorsements from Iowa's political establishment, and is further down the road in turning his contacts into supporters.

VICE PRESIDENT GORE: I'm so grateful to the Farmers for Gore who are formed here today, and who, as I said, will be having other events across this state.

ELIZABETH BRACKETT: But both candidates would agree there are a lot more meetings to attend and hands to shake before the opening round of the presidential campaign begins with next year's Iowa caucuses.

FOCUS POLITICAL WRAP

MARGARET WARNER: Now back to Paul Gigot and Tom Oliphant. So how do you see the Democratic race shaping up?

PAUL GIGOT: I think the dynamics so far is Al Gore's relative weakness. I mean for a sitting Vice President, for somebody who has the institutional network and support of the Democratic Party, particularly the unions, particularly public employee unions, a lot of the activists, he's not blowing away Bill Bradley. It looks like he has a real contest on his hands. And Bradley is getting the benefit of whatever discomfort anybody had with, for whatever reason, ideological-- and there has been something of an impeachment backlash among Democrats too. You know, they supported Bill Clinton during it but they were not all thrilled about it and Bradley is their chance, frankly, for some of them, to wash their hands of it.

MARGARET WARNER: Do you think Gore looks unusually weak?

TOM OLIPHANT: Not recently. In the last couple of weeks I think it's become clear that former Senator Bradley has taken this idea of being the vessel for whatever doubts or dislikes you have about he has taken that about as far as he can. And I think he's hit a bump, maybe even hit a wall. The dynamic in Iowa has been in Gore's direction for two or three weeks now, particularly because of the way he jumped on the farm crisis early and very heavy. I think there's some signs of it in New Hampshire as well. Gore on the road is quite different than I think he's seen here or in Los Angeles or Cape Cod or New York City. I think his message these days is very much middle class and working family, a kind of "I'm on your side" pitch that is a little different than what maybe people were hearing nationally. Bradley, you know, has made the decision, he is going to announce formally in the middle of September. Then we're going to hear from him. I think his big push, it looks from some of the things he said this week, it's going to be health care and poverty. We'll see if that ignites something but I think right now this thing has gone about as far as it can go as the current dynamic is working.

MARGARET WARNER: Do you think he has to get more specific? I mean, he has, like George W. Bush said, "I have my own timetable and I'm going to stick to it."

PAUL GIGOT: He is running on the politics of biography too: I'm not part of this crowd, I'm a Rhodes Scholar, former Rhodes Scholar, independent thinker, and so on. It looks when he's showing a little leg on ideology and ideas -- it looks like he thinks there is an opening on the left. He has moved to the left of Al Gore on registration of handguns. He's moved on health care. He's talked about his doubts about the welfare reform bill. He seems to think he can rally people with that. I don't know if he can but that's where he seems to be moving.

TOM OLIPHANT: You know, I was thinking history, the last time the more liberal candidate was nominated for President by the Democratic Party was 1972 -- George McGovern. The moderate or the more moderate has tended to win in all the intervening elections. Gore has strengths that I don't think Bradley is attacking yet but he has this ability to fascinate people in a second.

MARGARET WARNER: Bill Bradley does.

TOM OLIPHANT: In Cedar Rapids just a week ago, he got a story in the local paper, a nice one simply by going to the Y and working out on the Stairmaster with a reporter present. You just -- I mean

PAUL GIGOT: You can't buy that.

TOM OLIPHANT: If you say it's biography, that's right, there it is.

MARGARET WARNER: Someone was telling me one reason he has been able to raise all this money and that is one reason the press is taking him so seriously -- because he has done so well -- is that being a former star athlete really still has stroke with a lot of men, big givers.

PAUL GIGOT: Oh, I don't think there is any question about that. I mean, there are a lot of people my age group who remember he had a wonderful jump shot and the Knicks won a couple of titles. And, you know, I mean, for those of us who couldn't do that quite as well, people say, wow. And it's a little bit like meeting any famous person. The celebrification of American politics is a very powerful force. Look at Jesse Ventura.

TOM OLIPHANT: And, yes, insurgency -- insurgency needs a cause and it doesn't have one yet.

PAUL GIGOT: I agree.

MARGARET WARNER: All right. Thank you both. Have a great weekend.

FINALLY MOVING ART

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Now to the story of an artist who has turned a video camera into a paintbrush. Spencer Michels in San Francisco reports.

SPENCER MICHELS: In 12 minutes, a man is consumed by flames. On the other side of the large screen in this dark room, the same man is doused to extinction with water. The medium is video art, a genre that encompasses almost any image that a video camera can record. This 1996 work, called "The Crossing" by video artist Bill Viola, is on display at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, part of a 25-year survey of viola's art. It has already drawn crowds in Los Angeles, New York, Amsterdam and Frankfurt. Experiencing video art is not like looking at paintings on a well-lit museum wall. In here, it's dark and noisy and full of surprises.

SPOKESMAN: And you're just visiting here?

SPOKESMAN: Yes.

SPENCER MICHELS: 48- year-old Viola, a pioneer in the video art movement, has become one of its most well- known practitioners.

SPOKESMAN: Good luck with your work.

SPENCER MICHELS: Turning video into serious art began in the early 70's, when Viola was first experimenting with it. For him, video art was a natural evolution.

BILL VIOLA: I think we're in an age where artists really have an incredible range of materials at their command now. They can use almost anything from household items-- Jackson Pollock used house paint-- to, you know, advanced computer systems, to good old oil paint and acrylic paint. So I've always thought of this medium as a really exciting medium for creating personal visions.

SPENCER MICHELS: But for Viola, the medium is not the message. It's just a means to an end.

BILL VIOLA: When you go to see Rembrandt, you don't go to see oil paint on canvas, you go to have a real human experience with the people that's he's depicted in his work. Go to frame 20,000.

SPENCER MICHELS: Viola began working with video while in art school, and like all video artists, he had to master the technical side of his art: Electronics, optics, lighting, display. But that, he says, is not the essence of what he's doing.

BILL VIOLA: And at one point, almost by magic, you realize all of that work that you put in, that conscious work with the medium, just sort of falls away, and the medium itself just disappears. It's like when you learn to play the piano. You're struggling with notes, and then one day, further down the road, you realize you have your eyes closed, you're not thinking about the notes, and you're just playing music.

SPENCER MICHELS: The music Viola is playing deals with a man's place in the world: What it means to be alive. In "The Crossing," he is showing transcendence, transformation of man to a higher state, a common theme in Eastern and Western religions.

BILL VIOLA: Now some people might see that as a negative kind of image, the end of the line, the end of the road, the finite aspect of our existence. But I see that in a very positive way, in the sense that when that man leaves, he's not struggling. He's opening his arms, he's surrendering, in a way, and allowing himself to be consumed and therefore to be transformed.

SPENCER MICHELS: In the darkened chambers of the museum, it is often difficult to fathom Viola's meaning. This work, "Reasons for Knocking at an Empty House," is ominous and disturbing. (Crash)

BILL VIOLA: When you come into my pieces, it's not an intellectual experience, it's a physical experience. It's coming at your body. There's light, there's sound, the lights in some pieces are going on and off. There's loud roaring sound happening. It's not about this part of your body. It's about this, and your whole being. And it's not until after you have that experience that you could possibly even begin to sort of think about what it means, which I think is correct. (Whispering)

SPENCER MICHELS: In "The Stopping Mind," Viola has four screens of violently moving video, with a whispering voice that can only be heard above the din when you stand in the middle of the room.

VIDEO: (Whispering): ...The oblivion of nothing, the oblivion of nothing.

BILL VIOLA: This piece is about the place of the self in the world, and we are literally at the center of our world. It's only the result of you standing in a position. -- (Crash) -- and looking as far as you can see that creates that circle of your experience. (Crash)

SPENCER MICHELS: Despite the difficulty viewers may have at first understanding Viola's works, he doesn't want his video art to be incomprehensible. He has problems with avant garde art, which he says is separate from the community and the larger culture, and needs constant explanation.

BILL VIOLA: If you go back to the Renaissance, you'll find something very different. The artists, what the artists were saying, did not need any explanation for the public. It was absolutely integrated with the whole cultural system.

SPENCER MICHELS: In this exhibit, the viewer isn't told the stories until after he or she finishes seeing all the works. That's because Viola doesn't want to impose a rigid message via wall labels.

BILL VIOLA: What that does, is it, in fact, cuts off the person at that point, with a single answer to some imaginary problem, where any artist knows from their practice that it's not about answers, it's about questions. You are just as qualified as any expert to make a judgment and have a feeling or a response to any work of art.

SPENCER MICHELS: Still, some viewers have had trouble with Viola's works, and would like more explanation.

VIEWER: It made me anxious. I felt I got about 10 percent of it, because of the darkness, and no label. I didn't know what I was seeing. The sound was overwhelming, the visual images were shocking.

SPENCER MICHELS: Her friend, an artist, was more appreciative.

ARTIST: I think it's terrific. It's challenging. It's very, very meaningful, very layered, very, very evocative.

SPENCER MICHELS: Do you get it? Do you understand it?

ARTIST: Yeah. Well, to a degree, certainly.

SPENCER MICHELS: Viola likes the layered concept, as well. In the "Sleep of Reason," he videoed some friends asleep, and then surrounded them with wild images of dogs, a storm, fires.

SPENCER MICHELS: So you think nightmare?

BILL VIOLA: Yeah, that would be one interpretation of it. (Droning) What's always going on underneath is this other layer and layers of very deeply seated and connected kinds of images and thoughts and visions that we're mostly unaware of, in fact.

SPENCER MICHELS: Sleep and the unconscious are recurring themes for Viola. This room features of water-filled drums with submerged TV images of people sleeping. Water is another constant for Viola.

BILL VIOLA: There's a drop of water that comes out of this little valve here, and it's picked up by this camera with a special close-up lens on it, and every drop of water has optical properties, and therefore contains in it an image of the world around it. And so what we're seeing up on the screen back there is an image of these people and anybody who stands here in front of this drop of water.

SPENCER MICHELS: Yeah, it's great.

BILL VIOLA: See, here's my hand here. See?

SPENCER MICHELS: And here's my necktie.

BILL VIOLA: So it really picks up a lot.

SPENCER MICHELS: And in "Heaven and Earth," two opposing TV monitors show the artist's mother on her deathbed, contrasted with yet optically merged with his son, who was born after his grandmother died.

BILL VIOLA: So you can look into this shot of a one- week-old child just opening his eyes for the first time, and you can see reflected within it an image of the death face of his grandmother, who he actually never met in real life. It's like the famous Michelangelo "Two Fingers" -- God and man not actually touching in the Sistine Chapel. It's that kind of an idea-- heaven and earth never quite meet.

SPENCER MICHELS: While the difficulty in deciphering Viola's work is disturbing to some museum-goers, for others, experiencing art a then figuring it out is a source of surprise and excitement. Bill Viola's video art survey moves to the Chicago Art Institute in October.

RECAP

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Again, the major story of this Friday: Rescuers pulled at least three more survivors from earthquake ruins in Northwestern Turkey. International teams said the chances of finding more survivors from Tuesday's quake were growing slim. The official death toll surged to more than 10,000, and thousands of bodies awaited burial. We'll be with you online, and again here Monday evening. Have a nice weekend. I'm Elizabeth Farnsworth. Thank you and good night.