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HenchPAC NewsWorried members of the Democratic Party establishment sighed in relief last week when Al Gore campaigned with Robert Rubin at his side and then named William Daley as his campaign chairman. That signaled that the vice president finally had decided he must place himself firmly under President Clinton's wing in order to be elected president.
More is involved than just getting close to two of Clinton's highly esteemed economic policymakers. Gore, reluctantly, has taken advice that he must cite the principal reason for electing him is to extend the Clinton administration.
The latest permutation of his troubled campaign is based on pleading with voters to save Social Security and the Clinton prosperity. That's not what Gore wanted, but it's what he had to do.
He had to change because his candidacy is in trouble. Gore's preferred attack-dog mode did not work, and the widely heralded switch to a positive tone has not turned around the polls.
Presidential campaigns are not won in June, but the vice president is going in the wrong direction. A danger signal sounded last Tuesday when pollster John Zogby had Texas Gov. George W. Bush eight points ahead. Three days later, the Los Angeles Times put the margin at 10 points. An unreleased nonpartisan poll tentatively shows 12 points. Worse yet, Gore's negative ratings keep climbing.
Those negatives would soar higher if Gore kept his original intention to destroy Bush by stressing "wedge" issues--abortion, gun control and the environment. The voters they would attract already are in Gore's camp.
To attract needed swing voters, Gore now will stress two points. First, he will ride the Clinton wave by saying prosperity is threatened by Bush tax cuts. Second, he will argue that Bush's plan to include a small amount of private investment in Social Security threatens the whole system. The second argument runs against popular opinion. The first collides with Gore's desire to be his own man.
Gore's willingness to be at the prestigious former Treasury secretary's side confirms the new tone. So determined is the push to bask in Clinton's accomplishment that Rubin is a serious prospect for vice president. Although Rubin never has run for public office and as a New Yorker attracts no electoral votes that are not already in the Democratic bag, his image as the architect of prosperity suffices.
This new strategy for Gore coincides with the third changing of his campaign guard.
The official line is that Commerce Secretary Daley is coming to Nashville purely because Tony Coelho was ailing and that no changes will be made. In truth, I was told a week ago that Daley would replace Coelho, with no mention of health problems.
It was not a duty Daley coveted. He had performed admirably at the Commerce Department and loved the job. But as a party loyalist, he could not say no to a candidate in need.
The reclusive secrecy at the Tennessee headquarters will change immediately.
Because of federal investigations into his ethical conduct, Coelho could not go on television. Daley promptly did the tour of talk shows and will be a media-friendly chairman.
It does not stop there. Campaign manager Donna Brazile, whose judgment is doubtful, has been eclipsed at Nashville by the highly professional Tad Devine. Ex-White House press aide Mark Fabiani, who was impressive as Clinton's scandal spokesman, arrived at Gore headquarters two weeks ago and immediately began lifting the curtain that hid the candidate for many months.
Even an open Gore faces problems. His natural mode is to slash and burn, and now he is trying to downgrade Bush while presenting a smiling face to the world. He does not look comfortable doing it.
Last week in Cincinnati, he drawled out every syllable as he pleaded with voters not to "go back to deficits that could ensure that progress and prosperity ends." When he is trying to be nice, Gore sounds boring.
Bill Daley can't transform the candidate. What he can do is inject a lighter spirit into a campaign headquarters that had seemed under siege. With Gore now acknowledging how much he owes to Bill Clinton, he has a game plan that might work.
HENCH adds: The game plan could only work if people both WANTED a third Clinton term AND liked Al Gore personally. Fortunately, neither are true, and Gore is going the way of the Dodo bird.
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