Politics

Al Gore Has A New Fall Lineup

August 27, 1999 / 1:15 PM EDT / AP

Al Gore and his retooled presidential campaign team are putting the finishing touches on a fall strategy designed to sharpen his muddled message and reassure jittery Democrats with raw displays of political force.

Advisers say the next two months are critical to the vice president, who stumbled out of the gate, struggled with over-coaching from his staff and now faces a stronger than expected challenge for the 2000 Democratic nomination.

"What we're trying to do now is show that Al has broad-based support and that he's ready for a general (election) campaign," campaign chairman Tony Coelho said.

To put it more simply, Gore and his advisers are trying to show that they've finally got their act together.

In the campaign's opening months, the Gore team underestimated Democratic rival Bill Bradley, bickered with the vice president's White House staff and couldn't get Gore's abortion record straight. The vice president became the butt of jokes, claiming he created the Internet and taking a canoe ride on an artificially raised river in New Hampshire.

Even President Clinton said he had concerns about the campaign.

The Gore team spent the summer polling voters and rounding them up into focus groups to devise better language and tactics to get his message across. They also laid out plans for a flurry of endorsements in September and October to highlight Gore's advantage in the battle for the party's core voters: blacks, Hispanics, labor and elected officials.

Coelho, hired in May to bring discipline to the effort, made several staff changes and drew clear lines of authority all of which pass through his office. Gore, who had been micromanaging the campaign, gave Coelho the keys to his faltering political machine.

The former California lawmaker likes to tell the story about one of the first trips he took with Gore. Minutes before a speech, Coelho noticed an aide scribbling a long list of VIPs that Gore would acknowledge in his remarks.

Recognizing a recipe for another dull speech, Coelho ripped the paper out of the startled aide's hands and tore it into shreds. He pulled the vice president aside and told him to forget about the notes.

"Just tell the people thank you," Coelho told Gore. "Then tell them a few stories. And tell them what you believe."

He uses the anecdote to illustrate what he thinks has been Gore's biggest problem: over-coaching. Too many aides giving him too many instructions, putting too much clutter between the vice president and his audience.

"I don't think Al Gore needs crutches to communicate. And I think the crutches have hurt him," Coelho said.

He has ordered staff to put Gore in cozier settings with fewer people. No note cards. Fewer lecterns.

A summer's worth of polling has helped the campaign narrow its focus from a laundry list of Gore proposals to a select few that impact voters' lives. He will fous less on 10-point plans this fall, and try harder to humanize one point at a time, aides say.