LBANY, N.Y. - While Bill Bradley pondered the ramifications of Senator John McCain's loss in Saturday's South Carolina primary, Al Gore and Hillary Clinton made their first joint appearance of the campaign season yesterday, attending a worship service and making back-to-back speeches before a constituency that had not grown tired of President Clinton.
After months of putting as much daylight between themselves as possible for fear of stoking Clinton fatigue, the vice president and the first lady sat side by side in a black church, swaying and clapping throughout a three-hour service in which each gave the other high praise from the pulpit, to the satisfaction of about 1,000 congregants.
''No one in America is more qualified to lead us than our vice president,'' Clinton said during the service at the Wilborn Temple First Church of God in Christ. ''He knows what to do and how to do it.''
Gore said of Clinton: ''I know that she will stand up for all of you, and I will stand up for her.''
Their joint appearance followed months of worry among advisers to both candidates about the sight of them together, especially in New York, where Clinton is running for a US Senate seat, and whether voters would be Clinton-fatigued after the president's two terms.
But given the site, a black church, and the setting, the conclusion of the legislative weekend of the Black, Puerto Rican and Hispanic Caucus in New York, and neither campaign had much to worry about and neither candidate shied away from associating with the president.
Gore aides say the first lady can help him in New York, where voters go to the polls in the March 7 presidential primary. Clinton, like her husband, remains a popular figure among Democratic base voters, especially minorities. ''There's no risk with this constituency,'' one Gore aide said.
Clinton had already accepted the invite and some local politicians had suggested Gore, who gone in years past, also attend.
Elected leaders heaped praise on both of them, while urging minority voters not to ''give away elections'' by staying home. ''She knows what trials and tribulations are,'' New York Assemblywoman Gloria Davis said of Clinton.
Clinton touted the vice president's accomplishments, including his tie-breaking vote on a 1993 budget bill she credited with creating the good economy. ''It is critically important that we have a friend in the White House in 2001,'' she said.
Gore said he was ''proud'' to be appearing with Clinton, whom he called ''a good friend, a principled leader, a fighter for working families ... a person who has made a difference and will make an even larger difference in the years ahead.''
But, mostly, Gore used the occasion to appeal to minority voters with fiery rhetoric on his perception of the leading Republican presidential contenders' views on race.
''There are those who would have us ease up and back off ... as they try to fool us, by saying, `Well, we've come so far, we're there already.' They say, and I have heard them say with a straight face, `We've created a colorblind society.' Where is that?'' he asked, looking around the room.
''Some of these individuals just left the state of South Carolina,'' Gore said to drowning applause. He then proceeded to rip into Governor George W. Bush and Senator John McCain for refusing to call for the removal of the Confederate flag flying over the South Carolina Capitol.
''I know there is something wrong with their ability to see, because they look up at that state Capitol building in South Carolina, and they saw the dome and they saw the flag pole, and they looked and they looked and they looked some more, but they didn't see a symbol of oppression and injustice,'' he said.
He added, ''Racism is deeper than a mistake.''
The Republican primary in South Carolina was also on Bill Bradley's mind yesterday. Asked on ABC's ''This Week'' about the opportunity created by McCain's loss, Bradley said, ''I think I'm making a strong case to all Americans, independents and Democrats and even some Republicans, to bring them over to our side, and we're having some success,'' the Associated Press reported.
As the spotlight focused on McCain in recent weeks, Bradley made the case that McCain's ''presence in the race actually helps me, because what it does is it focuses on reform.''
Bradley acknowledges the need to win some of the March 7 contests. He campaigned in northeastern states last week and will debate Gore tonight at the Apollo Theater in Harlem.
