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But, as he now comprehends, those qualities were not on display in his presidential campaign. It was a frenzy of photo ops and criss-crossing messages, driven by the news cycle and the demands of interest groups. He pandered to South Florida by backing a bill to make Elian Gonzalez a permanent U.S. resident, and he quit talking about the environment when pollsters and consultants told him it could hurt him. Each week seemed to bring a new policy pronouncement, another gimmick to jump-start the campaign, which is why even his evolving wardrobe became a metaphor for a man who had no idea what he stood for. "I sometimes made the mistake of putting too much emphasis on tactics," Gore says. "As I look back on the campaign, I remember too many times when I was in a car or an airplane on the way to a series of events that were symbolic and crafted with a technical objective in mind. I should have been spending much more of that time communicating clearly and directly about the major issues."
Gore was also determined to highlight the contrast with Bush, who barely broke a sweat, taking weekends off and rarely campaigning past suppertime. The Texas Governor not only traveled with his pillow from home but was also surprised to find that other people didn't. Gore now sees what the late-night comedians didn't: Bush understood his limits and maintained his focus. "I learned from him," says Gore. "Whoever our nominee is in 2004, if it's not me, I would advise to take a page from President Bush."
But Gore rejects the central criticism that has become part of the 2000-campaign conventional wisdom: that he blew what might have been a peace-and-prosperity landslide because he refused to cling to Clinton's stained legacy. The day the Supreme Court decision came down awarding Bush the presidency, Hillary Clinton offered a poignant analysis of the choice they both had faced. Gore lost, the New York Senator-elect told friends, because he couldn't separate his personal anguish over Clinton's behavior with Monica Lewinsky from his own self-interest.
That wasn't an option, in Gore's view, what with Bush promising at every campaign stop to restore honor and dignity to the White House. Gore concedes he might have been more adept at pointing out the difference between "a single personal mistake on the part of the President and one of the greatest records of success that any Administration had ever compiled." But had the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 the other way, Gore says ruefully, some of his critics might be saying, "You threaded the needle pretty skillfully on that."
In the months after, the Gores moved back into the house that Tipper's grandparents built in 1938, where they lived during his years in Congress. Their youngest graduated from high school, and Tipper cared for her terminally ill mother. She briefly considered a Senate bid from Tennessee, and told TIME she still may run for office someday. Despite the ambivalence she has sometimes shown about her husband's career, several people close to the couple say, she's eager to see him suit up for a rematch.