MOST Americans, including many Republicans, will agree Al Gore has not been a bad vice-president. Or to put it another way, he has made the most of a fairly unpromising job.
Not for Mr Gore the traditional vice-presidential role of loitering behind the president's shoulder, waiting for him to fall ill, be impeached, or simply serve out his two terms so that his trusty lieutenant could step into the breach. Mr Gore has played a large role in policy matters, been a spokesman on the environment and all things hi-tech and cyber, and been the lead man in forging links with countries such as Russia.
In other words, Mr Gore has outshone his Republican predecessor, Dan Quayle, who had the populace alternately laughing at his gaffes and fearing he might ever end up in charge - the man who could not spell potato and who wondered why Latin Americans did not speak Latin. Certainly, there is much more happening upstairs in the Gore grey matter than was ever apparent in Mr Quayle's. But to the Democrats' horror, the two have started to appear startlingly similar.
Mr Gore might be a shoo-in for his party's nomination for the White House next year. But his campaign is lurching to an embarrassing start - even before it is officially open - and gaffes are piling up on top of each other with worrying regularity.
At this early stage, Mr Gore's missteps would not matter too much if it were not for the fact that every opinion poll is showing him trailing his two most likely challengers. A CNN/Gallup poll last week, for example, showed him losing to George W Bush by 56 to 41 per cent, and to Elizabeth Dole by an equally troublesome 52 points to 44.
It used to be that Mr Gore's only real image problem was his uncharismatic woodenness. But now he is getting a reputation for having his foot permanently stuck in his mouth.
