NOXVILLE, Iowa - The votes won't be in until next week, but Al Gore is acting like a man who has already won Monday's Iowa caucuses.
He's smiling. He asks respectfully for votes, but there is an air of confidence, not desperation, in his appeals for help. As much as the notoriously stiff-mannered Gore can look relaxed, he is relaxed.
Gore yesterday snagged the important endorsement of the American Federation of Government Employees, a 600,000-member union that had held back its decision at last year's meeting of the AFL-CIO.
''We want Gore! We want Gore!'' the union workers chanted as Gore, dressed casually in a long-sleeved black polo shirt and khakis, entered the room.
''The AFGE members expressed a clear choice for Al Gore,'' said Bobby L. Harnage, the national AFGE president. ''There's only one candidate to take this country forward, and that's Al Gore.''
The union endorsement is significant because union members often work hard to get out the vote for their candidate.
''I want to fight for you,'' Gore told a gathering of a few dozen union members at the VFW hall here. ''It will be a lot easier for me to be in your corner if you put me in an office that doesn't have any corners.''
Polls show Gore as many as 23 percentage points ahead of his rival for the Democratic nomination, former senator Bill Bradley.
''Gore's up. He was laughing a lot. He feels good,'' said Andrew Cuomo, secretary of Housing and Urban Development and an active Gore campaigner. ''I was an appellate attorney, and one thing I learned is ... when you have won the case, say thank you and sit down,'' Cuomo said.
The Gore campaign says it isn't taking any race or state for granted. ''We're going to fight every single day for the next six days,'' said Gore's press secretary, Chris Lehane.
Still, the Gore camp is behaving as though Iowa is fairly secure.
After a day and a half spent traversing the state, Gore headed to New Hampshire last night for a day of campaigning before returning to Iowa until the night of the caucuses.
The Gore campaign is also accusing the Bradley campaign of being ''negative'' and defensive, which Lehane said indicates Bradley is worried about not doing well in Iowa. Further, Lehane said, Bradley is trying to lower national media expectations of his showing in Iowa by suggesting that a 31 percent showing, which Senator Edward M. Kennedy drew during the 1980 Iowa caucuses, would amount to a win.
''This is a two-person race. There's a winner and a loser,'' Lehane said. ''Second place is just another name for a first-place loser.''
Gore has spent about $1 million on his TV media airtime in Iowa, compared to the $1.6 million Bradley has booked for the state.
On the stump, Gore has modified his criticism of Bradley. In sharp contrast to his earlier demeanor, when Gore seemed anxious about Bradley's fund-raising and showing in the polls, Gore now acts more like a front-runner.
While Gore points out what he sees as the deficiencies in Bradley's health care plan, the vice president is more gracious in his comments about his rival personally.
''Let me say about my opponent, Bill Bradley, that he's a good man, a decent man'' Gore told the group at the VFW hall. ''He has the right intentions. But he's a good man with a bad plan.''
Gore also peppered his speeches in Iowa with criticisms of the Republican candidates, particularly the front-runner, Texas Governor George W. Bush, indicating he is setting up a voter choice between him and Bush, instead of him and Bradley.
Bush ''wants to raid government pension plans to finance his tax plan,'' Gore told the unionists. Many Republican candidates want to go back to the policies of the ''Reagan-Bush administration'' whose ''approach ran the country into the ground,'' Gore added.
By late afternoon, Gore was working the crowd at Indian Hills Community College in Ottumwa as though he was a talk show host, wandering down the aisle and telling stories of growing up, of being a young journalist and congressman, and of being a grandparent.
''He'd be a much better president for Iowa,'' said Clayton Carmody, 77, after listening to Gore speak in Indianola. Gore ''has a farm program,'' and, unlike Bradley, does not want to get rid of Medicaid, a crucial health program for Iowa's elderly, Carmody said.
Jane Wallerstedt, 76, was unconvinced of Gore's commitment to racial harmony and said she found his attempt to connect with the crowd to be artificial.
''It seems like he's putting on some kind of show, instead of being himself,'' she said. ''I liked him better before.''
