Together At Last, For Now

It is a campaign we've not seen before, but it is one we're likely to see a lot from now on.

As CBS News Correspondent Diana Olick reports, First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton and Vice President Al Gore are on the trail together, touting each other.

On Sunday, Mrs. Clinton and the Vice President campaigned together as candidates for the first time this year. They appeared at Wilborn Temple First Church of God in Christ, a largely black church in Albany, NY. Both spoke at the three-hour service at the church, stumping for minority votes.

"No one in America is more qualified to lead us than our vice president," said Mrs. Clinton of Gore at the service.

"I know that she will stand up for all of you and I will stand up for her because she is a leader!" said the Vice President of the First Lady.

They are an unlikely couple, both victims of a scandalous White House past, in which both had to stand behind an impeached President. Now, their partnership is as risky as it is useful.

"There's a natural rivalry between a First Lady and a Vice President," said political analyst Norm Ornstein.

Both are competing for campaign dollars as both struggle to separate themselves from the White House, Ornstein said.

"They don't want the focus on the Vice President for Bill Clinton or the spouse of Bill Clinton, so the last thing that either of these two wants is to have the picture of them together evoking Bill Clinton."

That may be why Gore and Mrs. Clinton have steered clear of each other until now. But the New York primary on March 7 is looming. Former New Jersey Senator and former New York Knick Bill Bradley is challenging Gore's lead.

"The question is, where were you for the last seven years?" said Bradley in Buffalo last week, needling Gore in their fight for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Gore needs New York's Democratic Party faithful -- and Mrs. Clinton has a lock on those. But the First Lady has had some missteps with Jewish and Hispanic voters in the Empire State, so she needs to draw on some of Gore's popularity there.

The Gore campaign said the two candidates will make plenty more joint appearances. But the fact is, the degree to which Hillary and Al use each other here on in will depend in large part on how each one is doing.

In his occasionally impassioned speech at Sunday's service, Gore accused the Republican contenders for president of being blind to racism.

"There are those who have 20/20 vision who are morally blind...Some of those individuals just left the state of South Carolina," he said to laughter from the audience.

Standing in a pulpit once used by Martin Luther King, Jr., Gore denounced the Confederate battle flag which flies over the South Carolina state capitol.

Paraphrasing folk singer Bob Dylan, the vice president said, "They looked at that flag and they turned their heads and pretended that they just didn't see."

Callng the flag "that accumulated heritage of injustice," Gore said the Republican reaction reminded him of those who say that racism is gone and that America has become color blind.

"They use their color blind the way duck hunters use their duck blinds -- they hide behind it and hope the ducks won't know what they're up to," he said.

Gore won warm reviews at the church from those who had expected his often stiff image.

"It was the first time I've seen Gore really speak with some passion," said Joseph Rhodes III, 47, of New York City.

Sunday's service was the highlight of an annual weekend gathering of New York's black and Hispanic state lawmakers.

On Monday, Gore and Bradley will debate at the Apollo Theater in New York City's Harlem neighborhood. It is their only scheduled debate in New York State before the Empire State primary.