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<title>Capitol Hillbilly - By Paul Begala</title>
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<td><font color="#FFFFFF" size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b><a href="alfoct1.htm">Ask
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<td><font color="#FFFFFF" size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b><a href="hillbilloct1.htm">Capitol
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<td height="36"><font color="#FFFFFF" size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Visit
our other <br>
exciting titles: </font>
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<select name="select" size="1" onChange="window.open(this.options[this.selectedIndex].value,'_top')">
<option value="http://www.premiere.com">Premiere</option>
<option value="http://www.soundandvisionmag.com">Sound &amp; Vision</option>
<option value="http://www.caranddriver.com">Car &amp; Driver</option>
<option value="http://www.ellemag.com">Elle</option>
<option value="http://www.roadandtrack.com">Road &amp; Track</option>
<option value="http://www.travelholiday.com">Travel Holiday</option>
<option value="http://www.10bestcars.com">10 Best Cars</option>
<option value="http://www.motorsports99.com">Motorsports '99</option>
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<td width="75" valign="top" height="90"><img src="images/hillbilly.jpg" width="90" height="100"></td>
<td width="255" valign="top" height="90"><font color="#FFFFFF" size="3" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><font size="4" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Going,
Going Gore!</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b><br>
</b> <font size="2">By Paul Begala</font></font></font></td>
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<p><font color="#FFFFFF"><b>What's the real reason behind the veep's
stumbling campaign? A bunch of high-paid advisers who don't know
the meaning of commitment.</b></font></p>
<p><font color="#FFFFFF" size="-1">Vice President Al Gore once told
me he wanted people involved in his campaign who aren't merely participants
but rather are truly committed. "Do you know the difference?" he
asked with a sly smile. "In a ham-and-egg breakfast, the hen participates
-- but the hog is committed."</font></p>
<p><font color="#FFFFFF" size="-1">The problem with the Gore campaign
is that it has too many hens. Gore's flat-footed run thus far can
be traced to the fact that many of his top aides are continuing
to work as lobbyists, advisers, and public relations flacks for
a long list of corporate clients.</font></p>
<p><font color="#FFFFFF" size="-1">Gore supporters (like me) might
be tempted to overlook his many missteps as typical opening-night
jitters, to take solace in the notion that there's plenty of time
to make corrections, or to ignore them altogether. But what's really
troubling is that there's something fundamentally wrong with the
Gore campaign. It lacks passion, it lacks focus, it lacks direction,
it lacks energy. And that's because too few of the senior people
in the campaign are truly committed.</font></p>
<p><font color="#FFFFFF" size="-1">I find this situation extremely
frustrating because I know Al Gore to be passionate, focused, highly
directed, and very energetic. So it's time for supporters to tell
the vice president what he needs to know, not what he wants to hear:
He needs more hogs.</font></p>
<p><font color="#FFFFFF" size="-1">If I were running the campaign,
I'd gather the entire high command and deliver the following message:
"Ladies and gentlemen, let's play a little game. Close your eyes
and pretend that this campaign is something important, like, say,
a fight to determine who will occupy the most powerful office in
the most powerful nation in the history of humanity. Let's pretend
also that opposing us is a band of reactionary fanatics and special-
interest sleazeballs who have banded together to try to reverse
every bit of social, economic, and environmental progress this country
has made in the last six and a half years.</font><font color="#FFFFFF"><br>
</font><font color="#FFFFFF" size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">
<br>
<b><a href="hillbilloct2.htm">more &gt;&gt;</a></b> </font> </p>
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