Democratic Convention: The Women Who Made Al Gore

Pauline raised a tough, pragmatic politician, but it took a life-altering family crisis to make Al see how much he had to learn from Tipper

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    Even as her involvement with Al's political career grew, Tipper kept her primary focus on creating a zone of normality and comfort for her children and husband, shutting politics out of their lives when she could. She had grown up in a broken home, her parents having split when she was four. Tipper's mother--who lives with the Gores--suffered serious bouts of depression, and Tipper experienced an episode of what she called "situational depression" after Albert's accident. All of which made Tipper even more determined that her family stay intact and functional. It has been something of a challenge in her current situation. Al and Tipper haven't been able to get the kids to go bowling with them since the New York Times printed their scores. They avoid discussing anything personal in the car, where there are always two Secret Service agents in the front seat.

    But there are ways of preserving shreds of their old life. Tipper had a kitchenette built on the second floor of their official residence so the family could have breakfast around the table they used in their old house in Virginia. She got two personal phone lines installed after one daughter complained that her friends couldn't call without going through the White House operator. Visitors entering the foyer of the white brick Victorian mansion step around Tipper's apple-red drum set, and the Amari porcelain umbrella stand is jammed with her daughters' battered lacrosse sticks.

    Tipper was not onstage with Al in Florida the night he clinched the Democratic nomination for President because her son, the only child still at home, was nursing a lacrosse injury and had midterms to study for. Her refusal to travel much with Al in recent months is no small source of frustration to his advisers. "I don't see why she's not out there more," one of them moans. "She is at least part of the answer to all of his negatives. She can do so much to soften him up."

    Tipper says she will be more visible this fall, because "there's a story that needs to get out" and no one else can tell it. "I don't know anyone more compassionate, more sensitive. There's a gentleness to him," she says. "The fact that he intellectualizes those feelings doesn't mean that he doesn't have them." But while she is much in demand on the Democratic circuit, she has yet to become what she once called "a natural politician." Tipper's husky, breathy voice often develops a tentative quality when she stands before a microphone. And given the option, she skips the speech entirely.

    A quarter-century in this game, and Tipper hasn't even mastered the basics. At a 45-minute event arranged by the campaign at a Tampa, Fla., after-school center in June, she cooed over how well the children could read, wondered at their skills on the computer--and neglected to mention her husband even once. She blew a chance to tout his virtues to a bank of local television cameras and a nest of eager reporters in a state he badly wants to win. Instead, she said, "We're here to talk about how important this is in people's lives." At a Democratic fund raiser two weeks later in Washington, Tipper warned that the makeup of the Supreme Court will be at stake in November, but didn't say what Al might do about it. In fact, her one reference to him was as "the messenger."

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