Politics

Al and Jay Yuck It Up

February 11, 2000 / 9:54 AM EST / AP

Still laboring to loosen up his image, Vice President Al Gore appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, and as usual on these late-night talk shows, the joke was on him.

Leno's opening monologue included this jibe: "Earlier today, computer hackers actually shut down Al Gore for two hours."

Gore managed a few good lines of his own Thursday night.

When Leno offered an apology for all the Gore jokes he's done over the years, Gore shrugged it off. "We have kind of a family ritual. We just sit around the dinner table every night around 11:30 and make jokes about you," Gore replied.

Asked which Republican he would rather face in a general election, Gov. George W. Bush or Sen. John McCain, Gore didn't miss a beat: "Whichever one loses."

Otherwise, he bristled when Leno showed the audience what his staff came up with when sent to hunt for a "sexy" photo of Gore. It was an old head-and-shoulders shot of a bare-chested Gore looking lustily into the lens.

Leno: "What reason would the vice president have to stand around naked with his head cocked like that?"

Gore: "We were at the beach. Give me a break."

Of his campaign style, Gore said, "I'm not really kind of a natural backslapper."

The real laughs came when Leno staged a current-events game show just before Gore's brief turn on stage.

Four contestants in their twenties were shown a photo of Gore.

"Isn't he the prince? I can't remember ... Charles something," guessed Kristina Meisner.

Down the line, Angela Ramos had better luck. "Is it Gore?"

It was his title that stumped her. "Governor? Of the United States?"
As if such poor name recognition weren't a dismal enough sign for the man hoping to succeed President Clinton, Gore found himself tangling still with Mr. Clinton's affair with Lewinsky, the former White House intern.

Leno asked Gore how he feels "every time you put your arm around your friend Bill Clinton." Gore replied that Mr. Clinton was a friend who "made a mistake."