Word: pol
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...their top advisers thought Gore would have the guts to pick him. "It's his best choice, but he won't do it," a Bush aide told TIME a few days before the news broke. "Gore's too political." Since Bush and his men see Gore as a craven pol, they were sure he would make a choice based on cheap electoral considerations--maybe Senator Bob Graham, who might help deliver Florida. Or they saw him picking one of the party's smooth stars, like the liberal John Kerry of Massachusetts or the untested John Edwards of North Carolina--people...
That's not the kind of populism that rouses an audience on the hustings. And perhaps the reason Gore so often seems to be impersonating a tub-thumping pol is that he feels the need to disguise his cerebral nature, since American politics has often punished eggheads. When I propose to Gore that his complex habit of mind may be an asset for a President but a liability for a candidate, he seems stumped for a response, as if he agrees but can't admit it. "Well," he says finally, "I hope you're right on the first part...
...didn't pick Dick Cheney because of Wyoming's three electoral votes," Bush quipped, taking a preemptive poke at Gore. Cheney got the nod, Bush said, because the longtime pol would make an able backup and "a valuable partner" in a Bush administration. Message: This guy will be a heavy hitter, not a potted plant. It's about competence, not charisma. Even his wife, Lynn Cheney, was welcomed as an education reformer...
...while a more image-conscious pol might have pasted on a wider smile, or shaken Gore's hand with more vigor, Bradley's not that kind of guy, and he isn't about to start playing the game now. His speech meandered through a checklist of old-school Democratic mantras (funding social programs, ending discrimination) before it arrived on Gore's doorstep with a deafening thump. "I want to make it clear," he intoned, in case there was any confusion as to why he was standing there, "that I endorse Al Gore for president of the United States...
This just delights Mike Feinstein, a Green member of the city council in Santa Monica, Calif. The ponytailed pol came to office by way of spiritual soul searching overseas--he has backpacked in 29 countries. He cut his teeth protesting a commercial development in Santa Monica. "We're really maturing as a party," he says over a portobello-mushroom sandwich. "That means everything from getting bigger to knowing when to wear a suit." Indeed, the fringe party has abandoned its own fringe. Nader is running virtually unopposed. His Green opponents--Jello Biafra, formerly of the punk band Dead Kennedys...