New Gore Ad Highlights Military Duty

Striving to remake his image and increase his likability, Vice President Al Gore on Monday launched a new television advertisement highlighting his service in Vietnam and his study of religion in college.

“He saw his father defeated for the Senate because of his support of civil rights and gun control. And he came home from Vietnam doubting politics could make a difference,” the advertisement says. “He studied religion at Vanderbilt, started a family and worked as a reporter exposing corruption.”

The spot, to be aired in Iowa and New Hampshire, is the second commercial Gore has run this month. The first condemned Republicans in Congress for rejecting a treaty to ban nuclear testing.

Gore heard some good news Monday from a new poll that found he has narrowed the gap with Republican front-runner George W. Bush. The vice president trailed Bush, the governor of Texas, 51% to 44%, in a poll of registered voters by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press. Gore was as much as 15 points behind Bush in recent Pew polls.

The poll also found Gore doing well against former New Jersey Sen. Bill Bradley in their race for the Democratic nomination. A Gallup poll last week showed Gore ahead of Bradley 51% to 39%, but the Pew Research center poll showed the vice president with a 60%-31% lead.

President Clinton has offered to help Gore with his struggling effort. But over the weekend Gore said he might decline the assistance.

On Monday, the president said that would not bother him. “No one can help anyone else in the campaign beyond a certain point,” Clinton told reporters. “The candidates will be the major players; everybody else, to a greater or lesser degree, is in a subordinate role.”

Gore was also challenged to a debate Sunday by Republican presidential candidate John McCain, who suggested the two should discuss the merits of the nuclear test ban treaty. Gore aides said the vice president will decline.