ice President Al Gore told the nation on Thursday, ''I want you to know me for who I truly am.'' He then described a populist leader in a self-portrait that was not only rhetorical but substantive, inviting debate on specific proposals.
One thing Gore accomplished without question: America, we have separation. After years in which Republicans complained that President Clinton was co-opting their positions, and after a GOP Philadelphia convention in which Democrats said the Republicans were moving their way, Gore staked out an agenda that will assure a healthy campaign debate.
It has been many years since a major-party presidential nominee has made bashing the special interests his central campaign theme. But Gore identified problems that need to be addressed, and he put forward sound proposals that are ambitious without being unrealistic.
Republicans said Gore had given a basketful of goodies to Democratic constituencies - his own special-interest groups - and in some cases there is evidence to support that charge. His vow that free trade ''must be fair trade'' was a nod to big labor; his embrace of affirmative action was a signal to minorities; and his opposition to school vouchers aligned him with public school administrators and teachers.
But each of these positions also is beneficial to society as a whole. And what is the special interest served by better early childhood education, by increased medical research, by widened health care coverage, by restrictions on tobacco marketing, by campaign finance reform, and by tax cuts that primarily help middle-class families rather than the rich? Only one interest is served by all these - the national interest.
If the message was in many respects sound and even welcome, a question can be raised as to the messenger. How do we know the populist speaking Thursday - to the big donors in the Staples Center luxury boxes as well as to the delegates on the floor - is the true Gore?
The stories he told of his teacher father and his waitress mother dependent on 25-cent tips were genuinely affecting, but for Gore personally they can be little more than snapshots from the family scrapbook. Albert Gore Sr. was already a Washington fixture, having served in Congress for nearly a decade, when his son was born, and he moved to the Senate when Albert Jr. was 4.
Still, populism is the path Gore has chosen. ''They're for the powerful, and we're for the people,'' he said succinctly. And he clearly means to travel that path on his own. Prior to his speech, many had questioned how he would distance himself from President Clinton's moral lapses while continuing to ride the administration's policy successes, especially on the economy. Gore responded boldly, saying he expected no ''award for past performance,'' but a judgment in November based on the candidates' visions of the future.
If he sidetracked Clinton politely but quickly, Gore also gave a surprisingly small role to Bush. Apart from a couple of one-liners, Gore let his issue agenda speak to his opponent. Indeed, there was a concerted effort to make the convention focus on Gore rather than Bush. Jesse Jackson, responding to Bush's challenge, ''don't mess with Texas,'' replied that Bush shouldn't mess with America. But others were cautioned to lay off. US Representative Martin Meehan blasted Congress for letting special interest money stop good bills, but at the Gore campaign's request deleted a line pointing out that Bush would veto the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform.
Apart from Jackson, the last national candidate to run as an unabashed populist was Democratic Senator Fred Harris of Oklahoma, whose crusade proclaiming ''the issue is privilege'' lost to Jimmy Carter in 1976. Harris was in Los Angeles last week, but at the Shadow Convention, where he quoted Senator Russell Long as telling a contributor: ''For $2,500 you can have good government; for $5,000 you can have any kind of government you want.''
This is the greatest weakness in the Gore approach. He has nearly a lifelong experience dealing with special interests and has not only lived with but exploited aggressively the campaign finance system he acknowledges is so corrupt.
Still, the primary goals of the next administration must include not only keeping the economy healthy, but spreading its benefits much more equitably - the essence of populism. Gore has credentials in this regard, and now he has a message.
