(3 of 3)
Kerrey gave every sign he intends to challenge Gore, and the week ended with whispers that he had made up his mind and would announce before New Year's. On the verge, too, is Kerrey's near namesake in the Senate and fellow Vietnam veteran, John Kerry of Massachusetts, who demonstrated New Democrat credentials with a plan to reform public education that would reduce the power of teachers unions. "Accountability is a word that Democrats have shied away from," said the tall and rugged-faced Kerry -- who if nothing else /looks/ presidential -- to nods from the crowd. Afterwards, Kerry confided that he would make his decision about running over the holidays, after consulting with his family. "It feels good," he added, just in case there was any doubt.
The most inspired performance was by the participant least appealing to centrist New Democrats, and least likely to dip his wingtips into the Presidential pool. Richard Gephardt, the Democratic leader of the House, actually co-founded the DLC back in 1984. But he broke with the organization long ago as he veered into the embrace of traditional party constituencies, especially Big Labor. And yet the DLC has endorsed Gephardt's idea for a radical tax reform that would lower income rates to 10 percent for 3/4 of Americans and eliminate most loopholes and exemptions. His speech on the topic drew a standing ovation from the thinning DLC crowd. Once considered a sure bet to challenge Gore, Gephardt came so close to re-taking the House for the Democrats in this year's elections that he now appears likely to forego a Presidential bid and try for the Speakership in 2000.
Conspicuously absent from the conference was the challenger some Gore advisers fear most: former NBA star, and retired Senator from New Jersey, Bill Bradley. Out of office since 1996, Bradley announced on Friday he has formed a campaign committee to lay the foundations for a run. He has positioned himself as the candidate with a conscience, the one with enough distance from the process to condemn the vulgarities of modern campaigning -- and criticize Gore's role in the Clinton fundraising scandals -- without seeming too much like a hypocrite. DLC insiders say Bradley, a self-proclaimed moderate and centrist, wasn't invited to the conference because he didn't have a bold policy idea to push. "Ideas are the price of admission," said one.
For Gore, the price was waived. His status as Clinton's vice president relieves him of having to prove he is a New Democrat. Al From, the president of the DLC, says that Gore's task is to show that he can stand on his own, that he can continue "Clintonism without Clinton." Gore can probably meet that challenge, which is why the odds that he'll win the nomination are so overwhelming. Kerrey, Kerry, Gephardt and Bradley all know it. But most of them will run anyway.
-- James Carney