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Vice President Gore's silence on the high tech issue is peculiar. Political analysts have concluded that this silence is deliberate. He does not want to be associated with this issue.
We can hardly blame him. This is clear evidence that there is no solution to y2k. If there were, Mr. Gore would be talking about it, cajoling Congress into voting for the money to pay for it. He says nothing because there is nothing politically acceptable for him to say.
This is from the WASHINGTON POST (May 28).
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When it's time to talk technology, Vice President Gore never seems to be at a loss for words. Wiring schools to the Internet. Celebrating the virtues of electronic mail. Using computers to streamline government.
But when it comes to the Year 2000 computer glitch, arguably the nation's most pressing technological problem, Gore has been strikingly silent. There have been no public speeches, no "town hall" meetings, no photo ops with programmers.
For Gore, that may be because the Year 2000 glitch isn't just a technological worry, it's also a political one that could be potentially damaging to him, political analysts say. . . .
"It's very much a factor in his positioning for the 2000 race," suggested Andrew L. Shapiro, a fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University. "Al doesn't want it to be Al's mess."
Gore spokesman Lawrence Haas said the vice president receives regular briefings on the government's progress in fixing Year 2000 computer problems, has personally directed the Cabinet to make the fixes a high priority and has spoken about the potential crisis to the President's Management Council, a group of senior political appointees.
"He is not avoiding the issue," Haas said.
Asked to point out speeches in which Gore has talked about the so-called millennium bug, Haas could not identify one. . . .
On the Year 2000 computer front, Haas said, "We have the right people in place, we have the right process in place and we do not expect major problems."
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