Bradley's Risky Youth Gambit

It's great that Bill Bradley wants to get out the youth vote, but unless his campaign effort is intended to lay the groundwork for a run in 2008 or so, he's barking up the wrong tree.

The former senator from New Jersey stages lots of events at schools, which guarantees an audience, even if it doesn't guarantee votes. At other venues, attendance at Bradley events is often thin.

Last month, Bradley enjoyed solid leads in New Hampshire; now he's trailing Vice President Al Gore in a new CBS News poll. In Iowa, where organization is critical, Bradley's position is considerably worse.

Maybe this less-than-rosy scenario contributed to the tears welling in his eyes at Wednesday morning's campaign event at the Wonder Years Learning Center, a preschool/kindergarten in Salem, New Hampshire.

Bradley had just heard the admittedly discouraging tale of two New Hampshire women who found themselves on the wrong side of the health-care system. They told of sick children who go untreated even though the parents are working multiple jobs.

With moist eyes, Bradley took the podium, saying, "Sometimes it's important when reality enters a political campaign. I think we've heard that reality today."

But many of the people who heard him won't be voting for another 12 years.

In Iowa, where his best efforts have left him in Gore's highly organized dust, Bradley at least attracted youngsters of voting age. He's been hitting colleges and high schools. Historically, young Iowans find something jollier to do on caucus night than spend hours wrangling politics. But Bradley is happy for any support he can get.

"You can still make this happen," he told students Tuesday. "If you support me, I'll love you. If you don't support me, I'll still love you. But if you did support me, I'd love you a little bit more."

That's quite an incentive, but it probably won't be enough in Iowa, which is less independent-minded than New Hampshire. As Bradley himself noted (this time with dry eyes): "Iowa is a state that rewards entrenched power."

Unless parents in Iowa take their voting cues from their children, Bradley stands to take a licking in the caucus. At least he is not out of the most precious commodity to be found in a presidential hopeful: hope.

"In Iowa you don't know who will turn out to vote," he said Tuesday.