Post-Convention Boat Ride For Gore

Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore plans a post-convention boat tour of the Mississippi River and the Great Lakes in a bid to win Midwest votes and attention after the Los Angeles meeting.

Campaign aides eager for some convention razzmatazz to boost Gore in the polls said the boat tour would target voters in the Midwest states that "will determine the election," as one strategist put it from the shores where they vacation, conduct their livelihood and worry about preserving the environment.

Gore and Bill Clinton scored a public relations coup with a bus ride following the 1992 Democratic convention in New York.

Whether Gore sets sail or paddles or power boats is still uncertain, as is whether his vice presidential choice, whoever that may be, will be along, aides said.

The Democratic National Convention is Aug. 14-17 in Los Angeles. The only certainties to the program so far, organizers have said, is that first lady and Senate candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton will speak "in a prominent time slot" on the first night, along with President Clinton, who will get the evening's top billing.

Former New Jersey Sen. Bill Bradley, who failed in his challenge to Gore for the party's presidential nomination, is expected to speak on the second night.