ASHVILLE - Gender, religion, and length of time in office will not determine his choice of a running mate, Vice President Al Gore said this weekend, as political analysts, reporters, and even members of Gore's campaign scrutinized both his short list and his every utterance for clues.
With just two days remaining until Gore announces his vice presidential nominee here, a sense of frenzied tension has set in. Television networks, for example, have dispatched producers to trail four of the likely candidates, Senators John F. Kerry of Massachusetts, John Edwards of North Carolina, Evan Bayh of Indiana, and Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut.
Telephones at Gore campaign headquarters have been ringing nonstop with last-minute lobbying by supporters, and queries from those left off the short list, campaign insiders said. Even a print shop is on standby, waiting to find out whose name to place on posters and placards.
Sources familiar with the process said that each of the potential running mates has provided Gore with telephone numbers where he can be reached. And each has been told to expect a resolution by tonight or early tomorrow.
Campaign officials insisted yesterday that Gore still had not made up his mind and that they were not privy to his thinking.
Mark Fabiani, deputy campaign manager for communications, said Gore has given no indication of his choice, despite a flurry of speculation in the past couple of days that the vice president is focusing on Edwards of North Carolina, who has held elective office for only a year and a half.
''Right now, it's just people doing guesswork that has nothing to do with what the vice president is doing,'' Fabiani said of all the whispers.
But Gore himself is partly responsible for fueling the speculation about Edwards, 47. In an interview with ABC News, posted on its Web site, the vice president was asked whether length of time in office would be a factor in his decision.
''I don't think Washington experience is the only experience that's relevant to leadership and to this country,'' Gore said.
He was also asked if the nation is ready for a woman vice president. ''Oh, of course,'' Gore said. Although Governor Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire has been mentioned as a running mate, campaign officials have acknowledged she is not likely to be picked, and Shaheen herself has said she would not accept.
Gore was also asked if a Jewish candidate, such as Lieberman, would face prejudice.
''I don't think those old distinctions and categories matter these days, the way they did in the past,'' Gore said. ''I think we've grown as a nation. I think we've grown beyond that kind of attitude. I think that the day is coming when that'll be completely irrelevant in all of our politics.''
While most of the media frenzy was directed at Edwards yesterday, Kerry and his wife, Teresa Heinz, returned to Washington from Ketchum, Idaho, only to be met by a network television crew and reporters. Kerry had spent the last week at their vacation home.
As he loaded up their Lexus SUV with luggage, Kerry was asked if he had been told when to expect a phone call from Gore. ''No, absolutely, I don't know more than you do,'' he said, before heading to Georgetown for the night, and then leaving for Boston today.
For his part, Gore spent the day in Washington yesterday, speaking to a convention of the National Association of Police Organizations before flying off to the Hamptons for a Democratic party fund-raiser featuring actor Robert De Niro.
Today, after celebrating the birthday of his daughter Karenna, Gore will travel to Nashville, where he is expected to meet with his senior campaign officials. On Tuesday, Gore plans to introduce his running mate at the downtown War Memorial Plaza.
Gore currently is trailing Governor George W. Bush of Texas in the polls by double digits. Many Americans tend to focus on the election during the political conventions, the debates, and when a running mate is selected.
''It's the first significant decision that people are going to see them make as a presidential candidate,'' said Joel K. Goldstein, author of ''The Modern American Vice Presidency.''
''If you do a bad job of deciding, if you put somebody out there who is shown to have all sorts of weaknesses,'' Goldstein said, ''or you pick somebody for all sorts of political reasons, it creates a negative image of the candidate.''
But whether the candidate chosen to run for vice president will be so extraordinary that it will help Gore whittle down Bush's lead is unlikely, said Bill McInturff, a pollster who worked on Senator John McCain's campaign.
At the Bush campaign, officials were nonchalant: ''Whoever it is, we're running against Al Gore,'' said Ari Fleischer, Bush's spokesman.
The day after Gore officially announces his running mate, he will embark on his ''Going the Distance Tour,'' starting with a town meeting in Tennessee.
Zuckman reported from Nashville and Milligan from Washington, Glen Johnson, Anne E. Kornblut, and Walter V. Robinson, all of the Globe Staff, contributed to this report.
