KEOKUK, Iowa -- You must remember this, Vice President Al Gore insists: That kiss was just a kiss -- a spur-of-the-moment emotional thing and not an effort to create a new image.

"You really planted one on Mrs. Gore. What were you thinking?" interviewer Matt Lauer asked Gore Monday on NBC's "Today."

"It was completely spontaneous," the vice president said of the long kiss and heavy embrace with wife Tipper on the podium of the Democratic National Convention last week.

"I think you can tell from watching it, it was completely spontaneous. I was just overcome by the emotion that I was feeling with all of the people cheering," Gore said on ABC's "Good Morning America. "It was kind of an outpouring there that just moved me to express my love for Tipper."

On CBS' "The Early Show," the presidential nominee denied the unabashed public show of affection was an attempt to cast off an image that some find "wooden."

"I didn't plan that out in advance," Gore said.

He said the public talk about the kiss has surprised him. "Somebody said, `Are you trying to send a message.' I said, `Actually, I was trying to send a message to Tipper."'

Tipper, talking to reporters on a campaign boat trip down the Mississippi River, said Monday she didn't expect the kiss.

"I was surprised. It was a nice surprise," she said.

When asked if Gore delivered the message he was trying to send, she said with a chuckle, "He did."