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

BILL BRADLEY PROFILE

LONDON, March 3, Graphic News: ON PAPER, Bill Bradley, former Olympic gold medallist, Ivy Leaguer, basketball Hall of Famer, long-serving senator and best-selling author, might look the dream candidate. But it is a dream that is unlikely to last until November. Indeed, BradleyÕs wake-up call could come as soon as Super Tuesday on March 7, when 12 states hold primaries. Confronted with sliding poll ratings, the 6ft 5in former New York Knicks star likes to recall games in which victory was clinched in the final seconds. But in this match, the Bradley team is facing opponents on two sides: Vice-president Al Gore, in the battle for the Democratic Party nomination; and John McCain, the Republican wildcard who appears to be bewitching the independent voters on whom he was counting. Born to only moderately well-off Republican parents in small-town Missouri, the state-school educated Bradley, who quit the Senate in 1996 after representing New Jersey for 18 years, likes to cast himself as the outsider. He runs his own campaign, relying on his small entourage for support rather than advice, and pledges to rescue America from Òpolitics-as-usualÓ by putting honesty and decency to the fore.

During his sporting career, Bradley eschewed all commercial endorsements. He said it would spoil the pure pleasure he took in the game and risk turning him into a white standard-bearer at a time when black players were beginning to dominate the game. Today, his crusades are the elimination of child poverty, sweeping reform of the health, education and income tax systems (including closure of corporate loopholes), and the mandatory registration of all handguns, new and old. On abortion, he is resolutely pro-choice, attacking Gore over the consistency of his voting record on the issue.

But the messenger does the message no favours. The rather reserved Bradley knows he is a poor orator and admits to stage fright.  Many consider his style worthy and dull, making the famously wooden Gore look expansive by comparison. In his 1998 book, Values of the Game, Bradley wrote of what basketball had taught him about life. For a man unaccustomed to failure, accepting that taking part is as important as winning, may be the hardest lesson of all.
/ENDS
Source: Lis Ribbans