Tipper Gore: More Than an Opening Act : Democrats: Senator’s wife displays an infectious exuberance and doesn’t hesitate to take on the big social issues of the day.

The candidate is running uncharacteristically late, and the faithful are restless on this hot, muggy morning.

The room is sweltering; it’s much too small to accommodate the 300 or so campaign workers shoe-horned into the state Clinton-Gore headquarters, waiting for Al Gore, the Democratic vice presidential nominee.

The local pols are doing their best to keep the die-hard supporters entertained. But their pep talks are uninspiring and their jokes elicit groans and disbelief.

The crowd is on the verge of getting downright unruly when Gore bursts in, bounding onto the speaker’s platform, wearing a bright smile, arms raised, wrists rotating in double-time.

Gore’s arrival electrifies the crowd, transforming it into an adoring, cheering, clapping mob, lusting for victory on Nov. 3.

But wait. That’s not Al.

It’s Mary Elizabeth (Tipper) Gore, the senator’s wife.

No matter. She wastes little time in demonstrating that she is probably Al Gore’s best warm-up act.

“We need to change the course and the direction of this country quite desperately,” Tipper Gore says. “It’s time to end Reaganomics.”

Exuding a happy innocence and articulating a personal commitment to such social issues as homelessness and mental health, Tipper Gore’s infectious exuberance on the campaign trail has made her a strong drawing card.

And now, with the four Gore children back in school, she is hitting the trail in a big way, often traveling apart from her husband. Last month, for instance, she came to heavily Republican Leisure World in Laguna Beach, Calif., and attracted about 1,000 people--far more than organizers expected.

This month, she has campaigned in such battleground states as Pennsylvania, Ohio and North Carolina, making numerous appearances and granting a dozen or more interviews each day.

“I’m enjoying this. I really am,” she said in a recent interview.

It’s not hard to see why. At virtually every campaign event, she and Hillary Clinton seem to have their own fan clubs. Al Gore and presidential nominee Bill Clinton have a guaranteed applause line whenever they introduce “the two women who have done more in the last 12 years for children and families than the two men in the White House.”

While the Republicans have vehemently attacked Hillary Clinton, Tipper Gore has escaped unscathed--perhaps because of her leadership in a controversial movement in the 1980s that caused the music industry to voluntarily issue warning labels on record albums containing lyrics suggestive of sex, violence or drugs.

“My theory about that is, they realize the potency of her issues, which increasingly are being seen as the right things,” said Mark Gearan, a senior Clinton adviser now traveling with the senator.

Tipper Gore, 44, is a native Washingtonian and the mother of four children, who range in age from 9 to 19. Before her husband’s election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1976, she worked as a photographer for the Nashville Tennessean, where her husband was a reporter.

It was about nine years ago--shortly after their youngest child was born--that Gore heard one of her eldest daughter’s record albums and was “appalled” by the sexually suggestive lyrics.

She co-founded the Parents Music Resource Center, a nonprofit group that persuaded the record industry to voluntarily adopt warning labels. Many in the entertainment industry attacked her, including Frank Zappa--who called her a “cultural terrorist.”

This year, with the Republicans’ attempts to make “family values” a hot political issue, her crusade proved politically useful--providing the Democrats with an authoritative voice on the subject. Tipper Gore also is the author of “Raising PG Kids in an X-Rated Society,” a practical guide calling on parents to oppose suggestive materials in arts and entertainment for children.

“What I did, and I started doing it seven years ago--before (Vice President Dan) Quayle ever heard of Murphy Brown, right?--was working in communities, working hand-in-hand with the national PTA and those in the record industry to create a tool for parents to use to guide their children,” she said. “It’s a real example of family values in action, if I may be so bold.”

The GOP “family values” campaign is nothing more than “a rhetorical, diversionary tactic to not talk about the real issues,” she said.

Citing President Bush’s veto of legislation to guarantee workers in large firms up to 12 weeks off without pay in case of family emergencies, she said:

“When Clinton and Gore talk about family values, they’re talking about families that come in all shapes and sizes, needing to be supported and strengthened. If you strip away the Bush and Quayle rhetoric and look at what they have done to strengthen family values, their policies have devastated families over the last 12 years, and I include (Ronald) Reagan in there.”