The gnats weren’t nearly as annoying as the swarm Gore left behind in Washington: the Bradley Buzz. The Gore camp is already burdened by Clinton-scandal fatigue and the war in Kosovo; their attitude hovers between “oh please” and “let’s panic” in response to Bill Bradley, the veep’s only challenger for the Democratic nomination. Gore is now facing a lengthy ground war with a shrewd Senate veteran who fled Washington two years ago to rejuvenate himself on the road–and to make Silicon Valley contacts he’s now mining for cash.
Never one to underestimate his own destiny, Bradley last week chose New York’s Cooper Union for his first major campaign speech, on the burdens of race in America. At the same school, 139 years ago, another towering fellow reared in the Midwest began his campaign with a speech on slavery: Abraham Lincoln. As a Princeton All-American, Rhodes scholar and NBA Hall of Famer, Bradley has reason to think he has a special destiny–and the new NEWSWEEK Poll gives him at least some cause for hope. Though Bradley trails Gore 47 percent to 23 percent in the Democratic race, the number is ominous for the vice president: he’s below 50 percent.
How will Gore respond? Here, based on interviews with a score of FOAs (Friends of Al’s) are some clues to the new game plan:
Emote: As improbable as it sounds, Gore’s handlers think their man can take Bradley in a game of emotional one-on-one. Bradley behind a podium can make the veep seem like early James Brown. At Cooper Union, Bradley spoke in a mournful monotone. He hadn’t written a single applause line–and so he didn’t get any. Gore can be stone-cold stiff in public settings, too, but he can occasionally crank it up. He did so, advisers recall fondly, in a speech at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta last year. He was scheduled to start last weekend: at a memorial service in Littleton, Colo., and at the NAACP’s Detroit convention.
Family matters: The son of a senator, Gore was born on the political stage, and so were his four children. They expect to play prominent roles–and will–and the first grandchild is due in June. Bradley, a deeply private man when it comes to family life (the result of his years as a basketball star), is loath to parade his wife and daughter in the campaign.
Deploy left: Bradley is hardly a flaming liberal. He voted for the Reagan budget cuts in 1981. His 1986 reform plan trimmed income-tax rates for the wealthy. He shied away from supporting Hillary Rodham Clinton’s health-care plan in 1994. Still, as the only challenger, Bradley stands to inherit any grass-roots disaffection with the administration. And in the Democratic Party, grass-roots activists are liberals. Last week Bradley was endorsed by Sen. Paul Wellstone, a “progressive” who managed Jesse Jackson’s Iowa campaign in 1988.
Gore’s “big idea” for 2000 will center on education, aides say. It’s a way to compete for liberal votes (and win the crucial support of the teachers unions) without seeming to stray too far left. He has and will talk about those who are “not participating” in the Long Boom of the ’90s. But much of the work of speaking to–and about–the “left out” will be done by allies such as Rep. John Lewis of Atlanta and HUD Secretary Andrew Cuomo. Married to a daughter of Robert Kennedy, Cuomo has been to rural poverty areas once visited by RFK. In a speech this week, NEWSWEEK has learned, he will talk about a “new liberalism” for a “new Democratic Party”–and tout Gore’s ability to lead it.
Be patient: The media gnats are about to descend on Bradley, the Goreans know. He has yet to broach specific proposals in a campaign he says will be aimed at ending racism and poverty, and providing universal health care. “It’s all way too ethereal,” says Gore ally David Axelrod. “He has to get down to details, and when he does he starts losing votes.” His crusade to clean up campaign finance can make Gore sweat, but Bradley will have to answer for his own avid fund-raising over the years. He hasn’t released his 1998 tax return, which–given honoraria and Wall Street consulting fees–isn’t likely to burnish his populist credentials. It’s a long way from here to Iowa and New Hampshire. “Bradley peaked too soon,” one top Gore aide said laughingly. But he didn’t sound like he was enjoying his own joke.
