How Hungry Is Dollar Bill?

The next six weeks are going to reveal much about how badly Bill Bradley wants the nomination. The course of campaign could vividly demonstrate what Bradley the national politician is willing to do to win, and what he won't do. My guess is that for the first time, the whole country will take a look and decide for themselves whether Bradley has what his college hoops coach may have called "the fire in the belly."

This question has largely been answered by his opponent, Vice President Al Gore. There isn't a whole lot he isn't willing to do to get elected.

In 1988, memos written by Gore campaign staffers to the candidate and obtained by CBSNews.com show that Gore was willing to "stretch the truth" and "exaggerate" about parts of his resume as a farmer, homebuilder and employer of women staffers.

In 1996, he demonstrated that absent a "controlling legal authority," he was willing to make fundraising calls from government offices. That he was willing to accept the hard-earned alms of Buddhist nuns. That he was willing to plot strategy with a fellow named Dick Morris. That, by his own admission, he was willing to push the envelope of the federal campaign finance laws.

In the first campaign of the 21st century, Gore has been willing change his costume and address from Pennsylvania Avenue to Music City, Tennessee. He has been willing to hire as key campaign strategists, consultants who have worked for the tobacco industry that he so eloquently vilified in his acceptance speech at the 1996 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. He has been willing to disguise the evolution of his public position on an issue central to the Democratic Party - abortion. That he is willing to come mighty close to distorting his opponent's record on several issues, certainly a relatively minor and massively common American political infraction.

Gore has also shown, indeed proven, that he is willing to work his tail off to persuade voters that he's the guy for the job. That he is willing to debate and to be grilled by reporters. In short, that he has the "fire in the belly." That is attractive to voters in Democratic primaries.

Bradley's professorial carriage and the visceral sense he exudes that he thinks politics is a tad slimy, a bit beneath him, may disguise the intensity he was famous for as a basketball star. As a senator, he was not known as a legislative fighter, a "go-to" guy to get the bill passed, despite his expertise in many issues.

From here on in, we'll learn how aggressive Bradley is willing to be in dissecting, publicizing, and criticizing the Gore record.

He started down that road in New Hampshire. Gore hit back. And there's a goody-goody spirit current in this election so that Bradley's assault on Gore's record was instantly deemed negative, politics-as-usual. At least by the pundits and spinners.

But these new tactics, by any historic measure, were not real, genuine negative tatics. Willie Horton is negative. The slogan Grover Cleveland used against James G. Blaine in 1884: "Blaine, Blaine, James G. Blaine, continental liar from the state of Maine" was negative. So was Blaine's response, which reminded voters that Cleveland had fathered in illegitimate child: "Ma, Ma, where's Pa? Gone to the White House, ha, ha, ha."

Far more important than all that, New Hampshire exit polls show voters here didn't think Bradley was up to anything unsavory or smarmy. He did best with younger voters, presumably the most idealistic voters. And the quality voters most admired about Bradley was that he was willing to stand up for his true beliefs.

So will Bradley continue, even increase, the get-tough on Gore policy? At least we'll see for sure if he's willing to heed that cheerleader chant he must have heard two million times on the basketball court, "Stand Up, Play Hard, Fight, Fight, Fight."

And the cheerleaders of today might ask the same question as the Spice Girls: "Tell me what you want, what you really, really want."

By Dick Meyer