Gore in Your Face

If Bill Bradley ever really believed that running for President in 1999 could be a virtuous, high-minded mission--a journey to "a world of new possibilities, guided by goodness," as he likes to say--last week should have rid him of the notion once and for all. Bradley spent the week fending off cheap shots (and effective politics) from Al Gore, his rival for the Democratic nomination, and spending big in New Hampshire to keep his poll numbers from slipping. And despite Gore's onslaught, by week's end it was Bradley's campaign--that bastion of honor--that had been forced to apologize for a shrill attack pamphlet it had distributed in New Hampshire. While Bradley's advisers in New Jersey were dealing with that little fiasco and wondering how they had managed to cede Gore the moral high ground, the candidate called them from California with more sobering news. Bradley had to cut short a campaign swing and check into a hospital for treatment of atrial fibrillation (see box). His irregular heartbeat corrected itself at the hospital, sparing him the mild electric shock called cardioversion that would have been used to return it to normal. And so the candidate held a Saturday press conference in an attempt to put questions to rest. "This is just a nuisance, quite frankly," he said. "My energy level is more than adequate. The schedule is not a problem. This will have no effect whatsoever. There's absolutely nothing to be concerned about." Then he flew to Florida to hit the trail again.

Bradley's condition is common--President Bush dealt with it while in office--and in itself does not spell the end of his quest for the White House. But if last week is an indication, Bradley's campaign isn't as healthy as he is.

It was always clear that to wrest the nomination from Gore, Bradley had to do almost everything right and Gore just about everything wrong. The primary rules are rigged against the insurgent because they give the Vice President a head start of some 500 superdelegates (elected officials and party bigwigs loyal to Gore). Bradley has perhaps 20 superdelegates, according to Gore aides. (Bradley advisers wouldn't offer a figure.) And the party has forbidden states to hold winner-take-all primaries, in which a candidate with only a narrow victory margin can rake in most of a state's delegates. That makes it harder for Bradley to win big, as he must do to offset Gore's built-in delegate advantage. In a wild spree of primaries and caucuses, 30 states will vote between March 7 and 14. "Bill has to be the dominant candidate coming out of that," says Bradley campaign chairman Doug Berman. "In a muddled picture, the Vice President's entrenched power wins."