Campaign 2000: The Oprah Primary

Who won? Gore explained his famous kiss, but Bush planted one on the host

George W. Bush just had his first good week since the convention, and there's only one explanation: Oprah. She can sell mediocre books, why not slumping candidates? In the dog days of his a__hole aside and the "subliminable" RATS ad, Bush swore he would switch to campaigning on issues. But that was a short-lived promise to silence critics worried about how quickly Gore had closed the charm gap. Last Wednesday Bush admitted he would be too busy this fall to reveal any details of his missile-defense system. He conceded earlier that he was having a hard time communicating the details of...

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