March 3, 2000. Copyright 2000. Graphic News. All rights reserved.

AL GORE PROFILE

LONDON, March 3, Graphic News: AL GORE is reckoned to be one of the best-qualified candidates ever to run for U.S. President. He has seven years experience as a boom-time vice-president and is considered intelligent, widely informed and safe. His courtship of the unions, ethnic minorities and gays Ð his campaign manager is a black feminist Òtoo busy to have a sexual orientationÓ Ð ensures him core Democratic Party support. Gore is hot on defence, the environment (he wrote a best-seller, Earth in the Balance), new technology, education and health, pledging $300bn from the federal budget surplus to shore up Medicare. Fans call him a pragmatist, critics say he lacks scruples.

The son of a senator, Albert Gore Jr. grew up in the political throng of Washington before heading for Harvard. Then came the army Ð with a stint in Vietnam Ð followed by journalism, law school and finally a seat in Congress. All before his 29th birthday. Along the way, he had married the girl he met at his high school prom, and become a father. Family values are the prospective first coupleÕs Big Thing, with the cookie-baking Tipper penning a book called ÒRaising PG Kids in an X-rated SocietyÓ and co-founding a parental group to monitor pop song lyrics. A psychology master, Mrs. Gore is also President ClintonÕs adviser on mental health. The too-good-to-be-true image has its downside Ð even with electors seeking a scandal-free presidency. Many voters find Gore preppie, wooden and dull, which is why he hired feminist Naomi Wolf to give him a makeover. She ditched his navy suits and replaced them with khaki trousers and cowboy hats. Even now, his relaxed look is too well-rehearsed for some. In fact, Gore often appears in danger of falling for his superman image. He has erroneously claimed to have invented the internet, rescued a polluted river, and that he and Tipper were the inspiration for Love Story.

Meanwhile, there are question marks over the extent of his youthful dope-smoking, and his role in the 1996 campaign-finance scandals. His biggest challenge is taking credit for the present administrationÕs successes while appearing fresh enough to avoid the cynicism over President ClintonÕs follies. In late 1999, he switched his campaign HQ to his family home state of Tennessee, perhaps to distance himself from the capital and woo the grassroots. He is brighter than the glamorous Bush, younger and more even-tempered than swash-buckling McCain, and dearer to the Democrat faithful than champion-of-the-people Bradley. If America chooses to play safe in November, Nashville will soon have to give Gore back.
/ENDS
Source: Lis Ribbans