ITTLE ROCK, Ark. - A street sign proclaimed a Little Rock intersection ''Gore Country,'' but the surest indication Al Gore wants to move out of the president's shadow was that he came to Bill Clinton's home state yesterday yet never mentioned him.
It was a deliberate decision, according to one top Democrat, the result of a cold political calculation: ''How many votes do you think he will help us pick up among swing voters? How many congressmen in close races are having him campaign for them? He only hurts us with swing voters.''
With less than two weeks until Election Day, with polls showing Gore and Republican George W. Bush running neck and neck, some Democrats continue to ask why Gore hasn't tapped Clinton, a master orator, to campaign on his behalf.
The tom-toms sound from as far away as California, where Governor Gray Davis wants the president to make a visit and where recent polls suggest that Gore's once firm grip on the state has slipped.
Other Democrats cite the example of 1960. They say Republican Richard M. Nixon was late in accepting campaign help from outgoing President Dwight D. Eisenhower, a hero of World War II. Nixon lost to Democrat John F. Kennedy by 118,550 votes, but some Kennedy aides later said Nixon might have won had Eisenhower been on the stump just one more week.
Despite past lessons and present circumstance, Gore declared at the Democratic National Convention in August, ''I stand here tonight as my own man.'' He has yet to waver from that stance.
The Democratic operative, who has close knowledge of the Gore campaign but spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the vice president doesn't want to highlight Clinton out of fear that lingering resentment about the president's affair with Monica Lewinsky may hurt Gore with swing voters. The decision has been supported with polls and focus groups.
''If it wasn't for Clinton, we'd be up 22 points in this race,'' the Democrat said. ''Swing voters do not want to hear from him. Just because he goes to Philadelphia and campaigns at an inner-city school doesn't mean he won't be seen in the rest of Pennsylvania, where it could hurt us.''
The official also challenged the concerns about California, saying Gore's lead hasn't changed significantly in two months. The Gore campaign also contends that Davis wants Clinton to campaign in the state not so much to help Gore, but to better the prospects of Proposition 39, a school-funding ballot question strongly supported by the governor.
Gore may be reluctant to play up his connection to Clinton, but he happily invoked two administration members during his visit to Little Rock.
He introduced both Transportation Secretary Rodney E. Slater and the director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, James Lee Witt, during a rally at River Walk, an entertainment district. Witt has strong bipartisan appeal, and Slater is a source of pride for blacks as the nation's second African-American transportation chief.
Later, in a policy speech at the Statehouse Convention Center, the vice president pledged to add not ''one position'' to the federal government should he be elected. It was part of his overall plan to continue the ''reinventing government'' efforts he spearheaded for the Clinton administration, as well as a rebuttal to Bush's recent assertion that Gore would be a big government spender.
Gore told voters a ''tale of two candidates,'' saying, ''I'm opposed to bigger government,'' while Bush has presided over a modest increase in the state bureaucracy during his five years as governor.
The vice president also cast the decision in populist terms, saying he would reform government with better use of the Internet, for example.
The vice president said: ''Empowering people means giving them the power to shape their own lives. Because he gives most of the tax breaks and all the power to powerful interests, Governor Bush would leave millions of families powerless and broke, left to the tender mercies of big, impersonal interests and institutions.''
The Bush campaign scoffed at Gore's comments as ''exactly the kind of partisan vitriol people in America are tired of.'' Karen Hughes, the governor's chief spokeswoman, added, ''Governor Bush has proven he can bring people together in a bipartisan way to get things done, and that's exactly what he intends to do in office.''
As for Gore's assertion that he would add to the federal payroll, Hughes said, ''That's a laughable assertion coming from someone who's willing to overspend even the huge surplus we have in Washington.''
