[Mick]

  Ugh.  I don't care about political stripe, I was wondering how this guy ever got elected to anything, he was such a boring speaker.

Well, that's an interesting question. Way back when -- I believe it was 1982 -- I went to Tennessee to write a story on a backwoods congressional race that pitted two political dynasties against one another. Cissy Baker, the Republican, was the daughter of Senator Howard Baker; Jim Cooper, the Democrat, was the grandson of former Governor Prentice Cooper. They were both very young and neither of them had ever even run for anything before, much less held office.

Neither was much a speaker, but Cooper was especially a dud -- and after several years on a Rhodes scholarship and Harvard Law School, he didn't even sound like he came from Tennessee. That was a serious problem in a rural district where the biggest town may have been Lynchburg, where they distill Jack Daniel's. (Cissy Baker did an appearance at the distillery, which I looked forward to all week, only to discover the county was dry and there were no free samples.) There was not much in the way of media buying; everything was long days of kaffee klatsches and stump speeches, and the candidates had to form some personal connection.

The Cooper campaign decided to bring in a hired gun -- a wildly popular young congressman from a neighboring district named Al Gore. And he was a huuuuuuuge hit. He talked a blue streak joked in a pronounced accent (though I noticed when he talked to out-of-state reporters like me, it diminished quite a bit), studded with jokes and colorful hog-jowlish similes, and the crowds absolutely loved him, whereas they were merely polite to Cooper. Cooper's numbers jumped and he was elected.

But the guy who really had my attention was Gore. I was not the least bit surprised when he was elected to the Senate, or named Bill Clinton's running mate. I was absolutely stunned, though, when I heard him out on the 1992 campaign trail. What happened to the friendly, folksy guy I'd seen in Tullahoma and Mulberry and those places? Somebody Stepfordized him, I guess.

Frankly, I was wondering if it was because his father had been so popular.  Al Gore Sr. was in the House and Senate for a combined 33 years or so.

[Mick]

  Ugh.  I don't care about political stripe, I was wondering how this guy ever got elected to anything, he was such a boring speaker.

Well, that's an interesting question. Way back when -- I believe it was 1982 -- I went to Tennessee to write a story on a backwoods congressional race that pitted two political dynasties against one another. Cissy Baker, the Republican, was the daughter of Senator Howard Baker; Jim Cooper, the Democrat, was the grandson of former Governor Prentice Cooper. They were both very young and neither of them had ever even run for anything before, much less held office.

Neither was much a speaker, but Cooper was especially a dud -- and after several years on a Rhodes scholarship and Harvard Law School, he didn't even sound like he came from Tennessee. That was a serious problem in a rural district where the biggest town may have been Lynchburg, where they distill Jack Daniel's. (Cissy Baker did an appearance at the distillery, which I looked forward to all week, only to discover the county was dry and there were no free samples.) There was not much in the way of media buying; everything was long days of kaffee klatsches and stump speeches, and the candidates had to form some personal connection.

The Cooper campaign decided to bring in a hired gun -- a wildly popular young congressman from a neighboring district named Al Gore. And he was a huuuuuuuge hit. He talked a blue streak joked in a pronounced accent (though I noticed when he talked to out-of-state reporters like me, it diminished quite a bit), studded with jokes and colorful hog-jowlish similes, and the crowds absolutely loved him, whereas they were merely polite to Cooper. Cooper's numbers jumped and he was elected.

But the guy who really had my attention was Gore. I was not the least bit surprised when he was elected to the Senate, or named Bill Clinton's running mate. I was absolutely stunned, though, when I heard him out on the 1992 campaign trail. What happened to the friendly, folksy guy I'd seen in Tullahoma and Mulberry and those places? Somebody Stepfordized him, I guess.

Frankly, I was wondering if it was because his father had been so popular.  Al Gore Sr. was in the House and Senate for a combined 33 years or so.