Citing family values, Gore announces candidacy

By Anne E. Kornblut, Globe Staff, June 17, 1999

CARTHAGE, Tenn. -- Cradled by his family and the rural town he claims as home, Vice President Al Gore officially announced his candidacy for president yesterday in a speech that seemed to say less about who he is than who he is not: Bill Clinton.

In recent days, Gore appeared to have been straining to distance himself from the president, and his affair with Monica S. Lewinsky. Six months after calling Clinton "one of our greatest presidents" on the day of his impeachment, Gore said in an interview on ABC's "20/20" that Clinton's affair "was inexcusable."

"Particularly as a father, I felt that it was terribly wrong, obviously," Gore said in the taped show, which aired last night.

Aides insisted that there was no coordinated strategy to dissociate Gore from Clinton. And in fact, Clinton's name was invoked less than three minutes into the announcement speech, as Gore praised the administration for the nation's strong economy and high employment rate. More than a few Democrats in the crowd said yesterday that they hoped Gore's public criticism of Clinton was not part of a larger campaign plan, saying it seemed transparently political and in conflict with what the vice president had said earlier.

And given the wording of his candidacy announcement, as well as the backdrop against which it was set, it would have been hard to deny that Gore was trying to come into his own -- a critical effort now that he is trailing George W. Bush, the leading Republican candidate, in the polls.

In policy, Gore essentially remains a "New Democrat," the brand of centrist politician he and Clinton defined in 1992. The vice president emphasized public school education, gun control, health care, and Social Security. He spelled out his support for abortion rights. He reiterated his call to control urban sprawl.

As Clinton once did, Gore made detailed promises, such as implementing a free nationwide preschool program, sustaining the Earned Income Tax Credit for the working poor, and expanding the Family and Medical Leave Act. Like Clinton, he spoke at length about American citizens taking responsibility for themselves.

But Gore added a new sensibility to the responsibility checklist, with such words as "values" and "goodness."

"I ask for your help to strengthen family life in America. And I make you this pledge: If you entrust me with the presidency, I will marshal its authority, its resources, and its moral leadership to fight for America's families," he said.

"With your help, I will take my own values of faith and family to the presidency, to build an America that is not only better off, but better."

As if to underscore the point, Gore was introduced not only by his wife and high school sweetheart, Tipper, but by his oldest daughter, Korenna Gore Schiff, who stepped in when her mother lost her voice. Afterward, Schiff, 25, who is eight months pregnant, lingered onstage with her husband and bantered with some in the crowd who seemed more interested in her impending motherhood than in the 51-year-old candidate shaking hands in the square.

During the speech, before he had even uttered the words "I announce," Gore was interrupted by eight AIDS protesters blowing high-pitched whistles and carrying signs that read, "Gore's greed kills." They were silenced by Gore supporters and were eventually taken away by security. From then on, Gore was left with hearty applause and cheers from the crowd, which was filled mostly with firefighters' unions, telephone company workers, and public school teachers from the region.

A Gore spokesman said there were about 5,000 people crowded along Main Street, beneath the giant Gore election banners and old-fashioned store signs.

Here in Carthage, there were no traces of the criticism Gore has faced for his elite roots and longtime residence in Washington, where he was raised during his father's time as a senator from Tennessee -- and where the Republican National Committee chairman, Jim Nicholson, yesterday staged an event at a onetime Gore residence, the former Ritz Carlton hotel, which Nicholson dubbed the "real Gore homestead."

After the speech, Gore flew to Iowa and then to New Hampshire as the first stops on his official campaign tour. In the "20/20" interview. Mrs. Gore also talked about the Lewinsky matter, describing her reaction at the time as "very surprised."

A Gore aide insisted yesterday that the vice president was simply answering reporters' questions about the affair, and said there was "no affirmative effort" to distance him from Clinton.

Jim Neal, Gore's criminal defense lawyer, said the vice president was simply repeating an opinion he made as soon as "a few days after" the Lewinsky affair was revealed.

"I don't think it's anything but what he's been saying," said Neal, who was in the crowd. "He's said before the president's behavior was indefensible. The president said it himself."

But there were some who disagreed with Gore's tactics, even among his supporters. James Cook, 31, the manager of a McDonald's in nearby Cookville, said of Gore's remarks on Clinton that it was "not fair to backstab him now."

"If he felt this way when this was going on, all along, why didn't he say something?" said Cook, who said he is a Democrat and longtime supporter of Gore. "Now that he's running for president, suddenly now he disagrees with what Clinton has done? I don't think that's right."

He added: "There's going to have to be a lot of support to get Gore elected anyway, what with Bush in there. This might not help."