CONVENTION '96: A VEEP WHO LEAVES PRINTS

AL GORE IS FIRMLY PARKED AT BILL CLINTON'S RIGHT HAND. AS THE PRESIDENT'S PARTNER AND ADVISER, GORE ALSO SERVES HIMSELF

George Bush fumed about jokes that he had put his manhood in blind trust to serve as Ronald Reagan's Vice President. The young Dan Quayle never convinced the country he had the gravitas to be Veep, let alone top man. But the cerebral, private, intensely competitive Al Gore has managed the contortionist's feat of projecting an almost perfect loyalty to his boss's re-election without diminishing himself. Clinton's normally understated political director, Doug Sosnik, gushes when the topic is Gore: "There's not one part of the country where Al Gore is not well received, not one group he doesn't do well with....

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