National Perspective : Politics : Bradley Begins Presidential Bid With Vow of ‘Deeper Prosperity’ : Democratic hopeful favors broader pronouncements over specifics in announcement, promising ‘new leadership.’

Standing at the high school where he first tasted stardom, Bill Bradley formally launched his underdog bid for president Wednesday with a promise of “new leadership” and “deeper prosperity . . . that makes us feel rich inside as well as out.”

Stinting on details in favor of broader pronouncements, the Democratic hopeful vowed, if elected, to better define America’s foreign policy and take greater advantage of the nation’s record economic expansion.

“I’ll use the growth of the new economy and do some of the big things that need to be done,” said the former New Jersey senator, who has criticized his rival, Vice President Al Gore, for taking a bite-size approach to government. “We can reduce childhood poverty. We can increase the number of Americans with quality health care. We can mute the voice of big money in our elections. And we can put in place long-overdue gun control.”

But he never said how during a speech that devoted a third of its 35 minutes to Bradley’s biography, his parents’ life and the sights and sounds of his old hometown. At times the campaign kickoff seemed like an extended family reunion; hundreds of townspeople gathered at Crystal City High for stories of Bradley’s boyhood, related by old basketball teammates, former neighbors and even the candidate’s second-grade music teacher.

Painting a gloomy picture to match the gray sky above, Bradley faulted President Clinton--and by extension Gore--for paying too much attention to polls and too little to those left behind in the nation’s economic boom.

“What are we doing with that prosperity?” said Bradley, stooping over a lectern positioned on the front steps of his red-brick alma mater. “After 10 years of a robust economy, are the important things truly better? Our health care system? Our schools? Our civic life? Our family life? Our children’s future?”

Bradley, 56, called for “a new kind of leadership that puts the people front and center” and for creating a “deeper prosperity . . . that adds up to more than the sum of all our possessions; a prosperity that makes us feel rich inside as well as out.”

But for all the high-flown rhetoric and heartfelt reminiscence, Bradley’s task remains daunting.

No sitting vice president in modern times has sought his party’s presidential nomination and been denied. And while Gore may appear vulnerable stacked against his Republican competition, he still enjoys a great many advantages in the Democratic contest, not least the stature, visibility and fund-raising capacity that naturally attend the No. 2 job in the White House.

“The [party] establishment controls the nominating process and the vice president is the establishment’s candidate,” said political analyst Charles Cook. “That’s pretty hard to beat.”

Even so, Bradley has done surprisingly well for such a decided underdog. Capitalizing on his basketball celebrity and Wall Street ties he forged during his Senate years, Bradley kept financially competitive with Gore through the first six months of the year and was only $2 million shy in cash on hand. Bradley is running strongly in New Hampshire, the site of next winter’s first primary and, historically, fertile ground for upstart candidates.

Moreover, Clinton’s highly visible support for his vice president may not be the unalloyed benefit that Gore would like. More than a few Democrats have wearied of the scandal-scarred Clinton years and Bradley has sought to exploit that sentiment by promising a “fresh start” and campaigning as a political outsider, untainted by the ways of Washington. (Never mind that Bradley’s Senate career lasted nearly twice as long as his pro basketball years.) Quixotic as it seems, though, his uphill presidential quest fits a pattern in which Bradley has frequently gone his own way--often by taking a more risky and arduous route.

An only child, Bradley grew up comfortably in this sheltering small town, 36 miles south of St. Louis on the banks of the Mississippi River. His father was a bank president, his mother a schoolteacher.

His first glimmer of celebrity came at a relatively young age when Bradley became a basketball sensation--and an academic standout--at Crystal City High. He turned down dozens of athletic scholarships from across the country to pay full tuition at Princeton, where he studied American history and became a basketball star. Upon graduation, the three-time All-American and captain of the 1964 gold-medal U.S. Olympic team spurned pro basketball to continue his studies for two years as a Rhodes scholar at Oxford.

Afterward, friends suggested he run for political office; instead, Bradley joined the New York Knicks for a 10-year Hall of Fame career capped by two National Basketball Assn. championships.

When he quit pro basketball, Bradley shunned advice to aim low and instead sought a seat in the U.S. Senate. He won that 1978 race--in which he both exploited and detested his celebrity-jock image--and was twice reelected, the last time in 1990 by a harrowingly close margin.

On Capitol Hill, his Senate performance fell somewhat short of Bradley’s star billing. His signal accomplishment was the 1986 federal tax reform law that simplified the Internal Revenue Service code and closed some corporate loopholes. For the most part, though, Bradley’s record was notably thin on such high-profile achievements. His accomplishments seemed to wax and wane in proportion to his intellectual stimulation.

He did, however, demonstrate an abiding interest in race relations, an issue he frequently addressed during his Senate career. And when he walked away in 1996, he parted with a shot at Washington’s “broken” political system--a charge echoed in his current crusade for campaign-finance reform. People are right to be skeptical about politics, he said Wednesday. “But I have a right to try to change that skepticism.”

Bradley has promised that his would be a campaign of big ideas and bold initiatives. The specifics, however, remain elusive.

Among his more fleshed-out proposals, he has called for registration of all handguns, the way motorists are required to register their cars. He has advocated taxpayer financing of elections, with attendant spending caps, as well as same-day voter registration and other steps to promote greater political participation.

But on broader issues--most notably his sweeping calls for racial reconciliation, universal health care and more help for the poor--Bradley has yet to move beyond generalities.

“Up to now, he’s sort of enjoyed the best of all worlds,” said Cook. “Anybody who’s had any kind of beef with Gore has looked to Bradley as the alternative. But now Bradley’s going to have to start saying where he stands on issues, and that means having to make one side or the other unhappy.”

But for one day, anyway, simply being Bill Bradley seemed enough for most folks in his hometown. “I grew up hearing about Bill Bradley and waited a long time for this,” said 52-year-old Larry Kempa. “Gore is a good man, but I’m voting for Bradley. There aren’t too many boys around here who’ve gotten as far as he’s gotten, in politics or anything else.”

Hear Mark Z. Barabak’s audio analysis of Bradley’s candidacy on The Times’ Web site: https://www.latimes.com/bradley

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Profile:

William Warren Bradley Jr.

* Born: July 28, 1943, in Crystal City, Mo., the only child of late banker Warren and schoolteacher Susan Bradley.

* Education: Bachelor’s degree in American history, Princeton University, 1965. Rhodes scholar at Oxford University, 1966-67.

* Hometown: Montclair, N.J.

* Career highlights: Professional basketball player, New York Knicks, 1967-77; Air Force Reserve, 1967-78, attaining the rank of first lieutenant; U.S. Senate, Democrat from New Jersey, 1978-96; author and lecturer, 1996-present; Wrote “Values of the Game” (1998), “Time Present, Time Past: A Memoir” (1996), “The Fair Tax” (1982) and “Life on the Run” (1976).

* Family: Married Ernestine Schlant, professor of German and comparative literature, in 1974; one daughter, Theresa Anne, 22, college student; stepdaughter, Stephanie St. Onge, 40, from his wife’s first marriage.

* Quote: “There are two kinds of politicians: those who talk and promise and those who listen and do. I know which one I am.”