Copyright 2000 The Kansas City Star Co.
THE KANSAS
CITY STAR
June 25, 2000, Sunday METROPOLITAN EDITION
SECTION: NATIONAL; Pg. A3
LENGTH: 954 words
HEADLINE:
Gore test is to project image of winner, not wooden wonk Which persona voters
perceive could swing election
BYLINE: DAVID GOLDSTEIN;
The Kansas City Star
BODY:
WASHINGTON - Whenever
Vice President Al Gore gives a speech,
holds a town meeting or visits a
classroom, he's not only trying to
contrast himself with Texas Gov. George
W. Bush, but also with a much
more formidable public image:
His own.
The presidential campaign is not just Gore vs. Bush. It has also
become Gore vs. Gore - and which Gore wins could determine the
election.
Will it be the vice president only his family and close
supporters seem to
know - the folksy, funny and thoughtful son of
small-town Tennessee whose
life has been molded by more than just a
single-minded devotion to politics?
Or will it be his political doppelganger - a colorless and
charisma-challenged Washington elitist who seems to have been born in
a
blue suit?
"He is running against the cartoon character, and like most
character portraits, there's enough truth in it so you both have to
overcome it and transcend it," said Mike McCurry, President
Clinton's
former press secretary. "Their challenge is to project
that other side."
As Gore embarked this month on his "progress and prosperity"
tour to
trumpet the economic success of the past eight years, his
supporters were
convinced that voters still didn't know him well,
despite nearly eight years
as vice president and 16 as a senator and
a congressman.
So between
now and the Democratic National Convention in August,
Gore's campaign
intends to offer pieces of his biography through
speeches, events and ads.
It hopes to project a more rounded image
beyond the late-night television
jibes at Gore's wooden manner and
leaden speech.
It may not be easy.
Frank Bernieri, a social psychologist at the University of Toledo
in
Ohio who studies how impressions form, said that once people make
an
assessment of someone, they interpret almost everything that
person does in
that light.
"For someone like Gore, who's been in the public eye for
years,
I doubt anybody suspects that they may be wrong or mistaken about
him," he said.
Some of the most wounding impressions may have been
self-inflicted.
It wasn't that long ago that Gore was lampooning
himself - in a
self-deprecating way - for his reported wooden personality.
But he
may have succeeded only in embedding the image more deeply.
A
poll last month by the Pew Research Center for People and the
Press found
that voters thought Bush had a better sense of humor, was
more personally
inspiring, had more charisma and had led a more
interesting life than Gore.
Although they thought that Gore was more mature, down-to-earth
and
caring, his campaign wants to get the message out that he's not a
remote,
two-dimensional windup pol.
"What's important, especially for someone
like Gore, is to
humanize himself, to create a feeling that he is an
understandable
human being with frailties and strengths, someone you might
find
eager to have live next door," said Robert Dallek, a historian and
biographer of President Lyndon B. Johnson. "It's not strictly
biography.
That's why candidates need to show flashes of humor.
Reagan was brilliant on
this."
But beyond the glimpses that voters may have of his life -
senator's son, tree-hugger, techno-geek - many Democrats are
convinced
that voters will change their minds about Gore when they
get to know him
better.
"They want people to know Al Gore the way they know Al Gore,"
said Jenny Backus, a spokeswoman for the Democratic National
Committee.
Friends note that Gore volunteered for Vietnam when many in his
generation were looking for ways to avoid it and his own connections
could have spared him. Gore served in Vietnam as a military
journalist.
He wasn't a supporter of the war but enlisted in 1969 to
protect his father,
friends said. The late Sen. Albert Gore was a
leading dove and was facing a
difficult re-election campaign.
Aides say that voters also might not
know that the vice president
remains married to the woman he began dating
just after high school,
and that he worked as an investigative reporter in
Nashville, Tenn.,
where he uncovered political corruption. Or that he
attended divinity
school before choosing politics as a career.
His
life also has been shaped by the death of his older sister
from lung cancer
in her 40s, a near-fatal accident involving his son
11 years ago, and his
wife's subsequent treatment for depression.
Tipper Gore is a mental health
advocate.
Gore has begun to give speeches that attempt to connect
political
issues to his own life, such as the importance of fatherhood and
the
need for better mental health insurance
coverage and more money for
cancer research.
But
the Gore on the campaign trail is generally not the Gore of
popular legend.
He has a tendency to read speeches as if seeing the
words for the first
time. And his town meetings can last four hours
or more, causing some voters
to trickle away, numbed by his
encyclopedic knowledge of everything from
Medicare rules to missile
throw weights.
But he is relaxed. He jokes
and asks questions. Voters get a
glimpse of the affable and reflective baby
boomer at odds with his
public persona.
"That's the rub," said
Bernieri, the social psychologist.
"Most people are likable once you
interact with them personally. If
Gore could shake everybody's hands in the
country, he would."
To reach David Goldstein, Washington correspondent,
call (202)
383-6105.
@ART CAPTION:Between now and the Democratic
National Convention in
August, Vice President Al Gore's campaign hopes to
project a more
rounded image of the presidential candidate.
@ART:Photo
@ART CREDIT:The Associated Press
LOAD-DATE: June
26, 2000 
