WASHINGTON, DC: In a move that raised eyebrows in the DC corridor, Vice President Al Gore announced last Wednesday that he is relocating his campaign headquarters from Washington to Nashville.
WASHINGTON, DC: In a move that raised eyebrows in the DC corridor,
Vice President Al Gore announced last Wednesday that he is relocating
his campaign headquarters from Washington to Nashville.
Vacating the nation’s capitol for a comparatively quiet Southern city
may do much to instill Gore with a folksier image - ’out of the Beltway
and into the heartland’ was the way the VP described the move. Too,
being away from Washington will dim the media spotlight.
But leaving DC doesn’t guarantee that the PR problems that have plagued
Gore’s campaign will disappear.
Dennis Johnson of George Washington University’s Graduate School of
Political Management suggested that the move has limited value. ’It does
not guarantee that the infighting stops, the spending hemorrhage stops
or that he will have clearer vision.’
Another consultant said the move suggests desperation, especially in
light of the momentum Bill Bradley’s presidential campaign is currently
enjoying. ’Gore needs to go into a room with a pad and think about what
he really wants to say,’ instead of relying on advice from his large
retinue of staffers and consultants, he said.
