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Sunday Morning News

Democratic National Convention: Author Bill Turque Discusses Candidate Gore

Aired August 13, 2000 - 9:15 a.m. ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: Al Gore, son of a senator, partner of a president, he knows what it is like to stand in the shadows of larger- than-life men. But is he ready to be president?

Well, his campaign staff says this week, American voters will get to know the real Al Gore. But he is a complicated man, according to our next guest, a man molded by ambitious parents, a cautious candidate who can surprise with bold moves.

Bill Turque, "Newsweek" magazine correspondent and author of "Inventing Al Gore," joins us this morning.

I hope we gave you some coffee. It is awfully early for a Sunday.

BILL TURQUE, AUTHOR, "INVENTING AL GORE": Thank you, nice to see you, Carol.

LIN: Good to see you too.

I want to start with a quote from your book here, "a man who, at critical moments, has proclaimed independence and then retreated from it, stood on principle and then deferred it to political ambition." Do you find this still to be true about Al Gore?

TURQUE: Well, with Gore, it's always a combination of calculation and conviction. He has retreated at times. He wrote a book called "Earth in the Balance" in which he said he was fed up with finger-to-the-wind politics, but as vice president, he's had to compromise, particularly as Bill Clinton's vice president.

So that was a retreat. But on the other hand, he's also capable of considerable boldness, like his vice presidential selection this week, I think, was an example. He was one of the very few Democrats to vote for the Persian Gulf War resolution. So there are times when, you know, he can step up, and he can act out of principle. But it's always kind of an elusive mix with him.

LIN: Let's talk a little bit about his background and where that elusive mix comes from. Folks here are talking about how he needs to separate himself from President Clinton. At one point he needed to separate himself from his own father's legacy, a very powerful senator. What are the lessons from that experience that might help him here?

TURQUE: Well, these are -- were two larger-than-life figures in his career, of course. I don't necessarily think that there's -- there are exact analogies. I think now what he has to do is reintroduce himself to the American people, who he's kind of a stranger to even after 25 years in politics, he's kind of a caricature also, just sort of the stiff guy standing behind Bill Clinton.

So Bill Clinton's not his father, and the task here is sort of different. But he just has to really explain who he is, and tell people a little about his life story, because for as long as he's been in public office, people really still don't know who he is.

LIN: And maybe that has something to do a little bit with his personality type. In this morning's "New York Times" editorial, they write that "The most fundamental task of elective politics is connecting with people and making them like him," and yet that seems to elude Al Gore. Does he have the ability in this talk show era of intimacy to connect with the voters in the same way that Bill Clinton has been able to?

TURQUE: Well, I don't think anyone's going to connect the way Bill Clinton did. Bill Clinton is sort of a once-in-a-generation politician in that way. And Gore, we'll see, he's had his problems. His last two convention speeches in 1992 and '96, as a vice presidential candidate, were not terribly successful.

He took a lot of criticism in 1996 for eulogizing his sister, who died from lung cancer, as a way of promoting the administration's attempts to regulate tobacco, when it turned out he had been taking campaign contributions from the tobacco industry for seven years after her death.

And I think the aura of hypocrisy from that speech still kind of hangs over him. And so he's got to clear that bar. So he's going to have to work hard to give a memorable speech this week, I think.

LIN: You have spent time with Al Gore. What is it that we're not seeing of the man? Is he funny? Can he cut loose? Can he just go (inaudible) with people?

TURQUE: Well, look, he's not Jerry Seinfeld in private, and, you know, I mean, but there is a little bit of a gap between what you see in public and the private Gore. But basically, I think a lot of that's been overdone at this point. What you see is what you get. He's a serious guy. He's serious about policy, he's a career politician who's never going to be completely comfortable with the theatrics of politics.

But we've -- you know, we've elected people like that before, and George Bush, the governor's father, was not exactly a great political performer. He was elected president. So I don't necessarily think people are looking for someone who's going to entertain them, but they're looking for someone who they think has the character and the experience to lead the country.

And that's what he's got to sell the American people on.

LIN: That's right, and he's got to hope in these strong economic times that people really will focus on the issues and not the personalities.

Thank you very much, Bill Turque, for joining us this morning.

TURQUE: Thank you, Carol.

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