Bradley Plays Down Heart Ailment

PALO ALTO — Seeking to reassure voters of his good health and ability to campaign, Democratic presidential hopeful Bill Bradley said Saturday that his recent episode of erratic heartbeat will in no way impede his White House quest.

“I’m feeling great, no problem,” Bradley said at a news conference here before flying to Orlando, Fla., where he will address the Florida Democratic Party convention today. “This is just a nuisance, quite frankly.”

The former New Jersey senator and professional basketball player abruptly canceled an environment speech and two Northern California fund-raisers Friday to seek treatment for atrial fibrillation, a disorder initially diagnosed in 1996 during a routine physical.

He began experiencing symptoms while campaigning Thursday night in Sacramento and was heading to see his doctor Friday afternoon when the irregularity simply stopped, he said. He was examined for about 90 minutes at nearby Sequoia Hospital and spent the night resting at a Bay Area hotel.

When asked if the problem will change how he runs against Vice President Al Gore for the Democratic nomination, Bradley said flatly: “No. It will have no impact whatsoever. This is just one of those things. It’s there. You live with it. It’s no problem whatsoever.”

But the very fact that he called a news conference after canceling his scheduled campaign activities on Friday and Saturday is evidence that, while his health may be fine, the erratic heartbeat raises political questions that could dog him during the fast-paced primary season.

Seeking to undercut such concerns, an upbeat Bradley told reporters that he exercises regularly on a step machine. “The campaign is invigorating for me. My energy level is more than adequate. Anybody that’s been campaigning with me for the last year would know that we run a very full schedule.”

Bradley’s brief spell on the sidelines rippled beyond his own campaign schedule. Gore, for his part, altered his own political message Saturday by softening his recently aggressive rhetoric.

Before an audience of African American supporters in Atlanta, Gore had planned to hammer Bradley for pushing an economic program for which, he intended to assert, the poorest Americans would pay a price. Then, in a speech at the party convention in Florida, he was going to tell his listeners they had but one choice--Al Gore--if they wanted an electable Democrat heading the party’s ticket next year.

Instead, he turned down the volume at both appearances and hewed to a much more modest tack, with not a negative word for his rival.

In Atlanta and then Orlando, Gore said the report that Bradley was resuming his campaign appearances was “good news . . . . He’s a good man, a great competitor. I look forward to continuing our discussion of the issues.”

While doctors do not know what brings on a bout of irregular heartbeat, Bradley hypothesized that he largely has problems when he forgets to take the medication prescribed to keep it in check.

The candidate takes eight tablets of Procan each day--four in the morning and four 12 hours later. He said that he had forgotten to take his pills Wednesday night and “that precipitated this.” His last bout with atrial fibrillation occurred a month ago in New York, when he also was tardy in taking the medication, he said.

Bradley said he suffers “no anxiety” during an attack. “Your heart just beats irregularly, on occasion a little faster. You just notice it. It’s not a big problem. I didn’t even know I had it when it was first discovered in a routine Senate exam.”

Bradley joked after the news conference that he was planning to walk to the podium, “put my hands on my chest and fall back” but that aides counseled against it.

At the news conference, the very private Bradley was peppered with questions about his condition and found himself in the unusual position of discussing such matters as the two favorite kinds of exercise equipment he hunts for on the campaign trail and of delineating the intimate workings of his body.

With an irregular heartbeat, “you’re aware you have a heart,” Bradley said. “Most of us live every day and we’re not aware that we have a heart . . . [there is] no pain.”

Bradley said he was particularly sorry to miss a campaign stop at the Berkeley marina, where he planned to outline a proposal to protect and restore coastal habitat.

Gore’s day was built around an announcement in Atlanta that a group of African American elected officials--from members of Congress to the student government presidents of two historically black colleges--had signed on as supporters, along with actor Bill Cosby and Los Angeles Laker star Shaquille O’Neal.

The announcement was aimed in part to counter displays of support for Bradley by black athletes--stemming from his days in the National Basketball Assn.--and other African Americans.

Bradley has long been focused on confronting racial issues in the United States. And Saturday the Seattle Times endorsed Bradley, saying that “at the core of our support for Bradley is deep respect and appreciation for his steadfast commitment to racial equality.”

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La Ganga reported from Palo Alto and Gerstenzang reported from Atlanta and Orlando, Fla.