How To Read Al's Mood

By TAMALA M. EDWARDS

You get to know most presidential candidates as they do common things--fly commercial, eat the complimentary breakfast buffet, ride in the elevator--in pursuit of an uncommon goal. But Gore is the Vice President and thus was blocked by armed guards and accessible by invitation only. When you did get to him, he could be a conundrum. Once, as I interviewed him in a hotel about his eldest daughter Karenna, Gore started by offering me a soda. I'm glad I took it--it was the only refreshing thing in that dry, unrevealing, tense half-hour, which was odd since the questions were unbarbed and the subject well known to this doting father. But one learned over time that Gore was just moody. You could game him out--specific questions got good answers, general ones got you nowhere--but sometimes he didn't want to play at all. The jaw would lock, and the eyes would veil. And just when you dismissed him as no fun, he could surprise you, coming back on the plane to offer you a slice of birthday cake or winking in acknowledgment as he handed you a cup of coffee at a Cuban diner in Miami. Secret Service wouldn't let you reach out for him, but he could reach out for you, to joke about how the suit you're wearing looks remarkably like one on Hillary Clinton that the magazine had ridiculed that week. And if you peeked up at the front of Air Force Two, you might see the most serious man in the world hamming it up, calling a photographer forward to snap a picture of the Vice President pretending to have a weighty discussion with a poor, open-mouthed dozing staff member.

--By Tamala M. Edwards