BOARD THE MARK TWAIN - Spontaneity takes a lot of planning when the subject is the vice president of the United States.
The public picture looked folksy and natural yesterday, as Al Gore, Joseph I. Lieberman, and their wives boarded a slow boat down the Mississippi for a four-day campaign tour through the nation's heartland.
They waved to supporters on land while an American flag fluttered above them in the breeze. An eagle flew overhead, as Vice President Gore extolled the importance of protecting the environment. A Mark Twain impersonator offered voters a few words of simple, Midwestern wisdom, and a couple dressed in costumes of 100 years ago wandered among the crowd.
But behind the scenes, the picture was a bit less quaint. The Secret Service and the Coast Guard patrolled the winding river in speedboats. Press photographers, decked out in orange life vests, clicked their cameras from yet another boat.
Buses shuttled some staff and reporters between riverside campaign stops, because chugging downstream at 10 miles an hour, while romantic, isn't especially efficient for a presidential campaign eager to get out its message in the crucial states of Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa, and Missouri.
Still, the pictures looked good to local television stations and to the crowds who came to see the two couples, and the trip seemed to be going more or less according to the script, crafted in part by Hollywood producer Mort Engelberg.
''Thank you, La Crosse!'' Lieberman gushed at the crowd, as the paddleboat steamer pulled away from the dock. ''This is going to be our lucky city!''
A loudspeaker blared songs such as ''Take Me to the River'' and ''Proud Mary.'' A chorus of men crooned ''Chatanooga Choo-Choo'' and other old songs.
It's the summer of 1992 all over again, or at least that's what the Gore-Lieberman campaign is hoping.
After the Democratic National Convention eight years ago, Bill Clinton and Al Gore traveled by bus into the heartland of the country, stopping along the way to hold rallies and greet supporters.
The bus trip, also arranged by Engelberg, was enormously successful and became a turning point in the presidential campaign. People lined up along the highway, waiting for hours to see the Clinton-Gore motorcade pass.
The riverboat cruise yesterday didn't attract the same level of attention, although the crowd that gathered for the two couples' bon voyage rally yesterday morning numbered about 5,000, the most Gore has drawn without having Clinton there, too.
Hardly anyone lined up along the riverbank to see the boat float by, and a few did manage to raise signs in support of the Republican nominee, George W. Bush. One even wrote Bush's name in huge letters in the sand, easily visible from the boat.
Meanwhile, Gore was clearly exhausted, his voice hoarse after delivering his nomination acceptance speech, attending a Democratic National Committee party, then flying overnight from Los Angeles to La Crosse to board the boat.
That didn't stop him from plunging into the crowd, reaching three-deep into the throng to shake every proferred hand, it seemed.
Gore even stood on a metal barrier, leaning over precariously as a Secret Service agent held onto the vice president by his belt to keep him from falling.
''I'm pregnant, and my baby book will read, `Al Gore was president when you were born,''' said Denise Hedrick Mulvaney, a remark that got her a hug from the vice president.
The sleep-deprived Gore and Lieberman did succumb to punchiness by midday. As the sun beat down on the candidates, Gore suddenly declared: ''In the spirit of good health care, I want you to know that Tipper and Hadassah made sure we put on sunscreen. As Joe said the other night, John McCain, Cindy, and their family are in our prayers.''
McCain was recently diagnosed with skin cancer, a condition that can be caused by overexposure to the sun.
''But if any of you did not put sunscreen on, we have some,'' Gore continued. ''I'd like to get the staff to pass a bottle around here, to anybody in the press corps who needs it.''
And when the boat docked briefly in Lansing, Iowa, Gore asked the band if they knew ''On Wisconsin,'' apparently forgetting that he was on the Iowa side of the river.
Lieberman was more subdued, but he did look out at the riverbank during the health-care meeting and yelled, ''Hi! Are there real people out there?''
No one answered.
