Why Al Gore Is Such an Easy Target

How can it be that Bill Clinton, who has been linked to more scandals than a dog has fleas, continues to sail along with second-term approval ratings that rival Eisenhower’s and Reagan’s, while poor Al Gore seems to be unraveling over a few phone calls for contributions that he made from the White House? To any reasonable observer, it is plain that the allegations against the vice president are inconsequential in comparison with those that have been made for years against the president.

The ready response is that Republicans finally realize that they’ll never get the man they call “Slick Willie” and so have refocused their sights on the Democratic heir apparent. That may be true, but it doesn’t explain the phenomenon. If Gore were as hard to hit as Clinton has proved to be, the GOP torpedoes would be sailing off harmlessly into the sea.

The unfortunate fact seems to be that the good ship Al Gore is so unseaworthy that the mere shouting of “Up periscope!” by a Republican U-boat commander causes him to start taking on water.

Clearly, Gore is not made of the same stuff as Clinton.

Contrary to popular wisdom, Bill Clinton does not have the Teflon coating that protected Ronald Reagan so well. It is not that Clinton’s surface is impenetrable; it is the material that he is made of that prevents even direct hits from hurting him. When one is made of Jello, one has no need of Teflon armor. The torpedoes that would be fatal to many officeholders simply sail through the Clinton gelatin, emerging on the other side without leaving even a dent.

Al Gore is made of more substantial stuff. As has long been said of him, he is wooden. Unlike Jello, wood splinters when hit by a projectile. The hole does not close by itself, and repair is difficult.

If you are made of wood, you need a protective shield. But Gore’s defensive coating is more like a B-2 radar shield in a rainstorm.

More seriously, what is hurting Gore so much is the expectations game that is played so assiduously in Washington.

Ever since his numerous rebirths during the 1992 campaign, Clinton has enjoyed extremely low expectations in terms of personal behavior, financial manipulation, veracity and loyalty. Expectations about him in these areas are so low that almost nothing he is charged with even catches the public’s attention. If he goes a few weeks without a new charge of womanizing, that’s “BTE” (better than expected) and he comes out ahead. If he sticks with a nominee like Bill Weld for a couple of weeks rather than sending him the way of Lani Guinier, that’s BTE. If it comes out that Gore was the one making a few fund-raising phone calls from Area Code 202’s 456 exchange, people are pleasantly surprised that it wasn’t the president himself--another BTE for Bill. It’s similar to what the reaction would be to a news story that Dan Quayle spelled “electorate” with the “e” at the end: “Way to go! Good for you!” BTE.

Gore has his own area corresponding to Quayle’s on academic achievement. The current vice president has benefited as much from very low expectations in the area of public personality and speaking as his predecessor did from low estimations of his intellect. But Gore suffers from high expectations in the area of integrity. His persona has been that of an Eagle Scout, and that is how we expected him to behave. The slightest hint of even a small impropriety can do lethal damage because it is WTE--worse than expected.

But as the Republicans aim their big guns at Gore, they might temper their jubilation with the realization that sinking this wooden vessel now may not be as advantageous as it would be to leave it afloat until the fall of 2000.