Forgetting the Past, Gore Now Finds Iowa Vote to His Liking

In 1987, then-Tennessee Sen. Al Gore was seeking the White House for the first time. His campaign was faring poorly, so he came to the Democratic Party’s big Jefferson-Jackson dinner to tell Iowans what he thought of their caucuses.

“There’s something wrong” when a dinky state like Iowa has so much influence, he said, and puts such a premium on “ideological purity rather than intellectual honesty.”

His campaign was never heard from again.

Then Gore became vice president, with an eye on the big job. Now he loves the Iowa caucuses, which start the presidential picking process in January. “I believe in the Iowa caucuses!” he shouted out Saturday night, not from a mountaintop, but from the stage of the Des Moines convention center, which came close. “God bless you!”

The scene was this year’s Jefferson-Jackson dinner, which drew nearly 3,000 activists for the chance to see, together for the first time here in Iowa, Gore and his suddenly serious rival, Bill Bradley.

If there were any hard feelings toward the vice president they were well hidden. “We thought, ‘Snot-nosed, spoiled rich kid,’ ” Dawn Handrock said, recalling the reaction to Gore’s performance years ago. But now he’s changed, Handrock said. He’s older and more mature. “He’s our vice president, so we should support him.”

Gore Explains His Newfound Appreciation

Hours earlier, Gore used those very words--”growth and maturity”--to explain his newfound appreciation for the caucuses. (“Helpful of you to bring that up,” he told a reporter who brought it up at an al fresco press conference.)

This was the new easygoing Al Gore, bantering and giving as good as he got beneath a golden elm, which shed its lazy leaves on the whisper of an afternoon breeze. “Ooooh, a dart!” he exclaimed, when asked about Bradley’s charge that Gore’s vision for America is too timid. It is Bradley who has used the dart metaphor to criticize the vice president’s poisoned-quill politicking. But Gore glibly turned it around, pretending to hand the dart to a reporter. “Here,” he said, “you take it.”

And here was the part of the caucuses Iowans love. A quiet cul-de-sac on a splendid autumn day, transformed into election central when Don Wohlwend told a set-up crew, sure, you can run that extension cord from my garage and hold your press conference out front. “Glad he chose our neighborhood,” Wohlwend said, as the vice presidential road show arrived.

A campaign consists of a million details, some large (why do you want to be president?) many less so (making sure the lighting and sound systems use different circuits, to avoid frying the Wohlwend home.) None, it seems, are too small to sweat.

The Mystery of the Extra Step

Take the haggling over the handshake.

Before Saturday night’s dinner, Gore and Bradley posed for an obligatory grip-and-grin photo (after requesting they not sit together.)

For those who missed it, the Bradley camp related as how the challenger spotted Gore and approached with outstretched hand. Not so, insisted the Gore faction. Press Secretary Chris Lehane barreled into the briefing room--”the tape will speak for itself!”--wielding Fox News footage of the hand-clench. (Alas, the camera angle made it impossible to discern which candidate took the extra step.)

If all this seems like so much silliness, it suits the folks of Iowa just fine.

Inside the banquet hall, awaiting his chicken cordon bleu and a full menu of political posturing, Russ Lett had the smug satisfaction of one who laughs last. He was there in ’87 when Gore thumbed his nose at Iowa and its quirky caucuses.

“I think he learned from that experience,” said Lett. “You see where he is in 1999. He’s here in Iowa.”