NASHVILLE, TN - Absence makes the heart grow fonder. Except in Nashville. Here, after eight years of Gore serving in Washington and not in Tennessee, Gore's Tuesday return is not met with much enthusiasm.
It might be the expected bottleneck traffic, it might be all the tourists, it might even be their bad attitudes - most of these tourists are journalists, and far too many journalists are on a cutthroat mission for a lead story.
But there's something more to it. Tennessee has become one of the 13 so-called "battleground states" because its electoral votes are up in the air. The people of Tennessee won't approve their own, the former Sen. Al Gore, whose father was among the very first southern liberals, without a fight.
Why Gore is having trouble in his home state is uncertain. W. Gary Howard, professor of political science at the University of West Florida, says "Al Gore is more a Harvard person than a Tennessee mountain person."
This seemed to be the sentiment being echoed at the Ryman Auditorium, the celebrated home of the Grand Ole Opry, yesterday. Ruth Pate, a portly worker who takes pictures at the Ryman, offered this observation in a sweet twang: "Al Gore has never lived and paid taxes in Tennessee ... He's been a professional politician all his life. It's not even fair to say he's from Tennessee."
Some people just plain don't care or are oblivious. When Ruth went on break, Crystal Gifford took over for her. Crystal is a slender, blond, young woman, toting a book on Naomi Judd. We asked for her thoughts on the election, Gore and Nashville. She had this to say: "At the animal shelter, there were signs for Bush." Admittedly, Crystal isn't a very perceptive person. Upon leaving, she had served way more than the 10 minutes allotted to Ruth for her break.
Texas Gov. George W. Bush is having similar problems securing Florida, where his brother Jeb Bush is governor. Howland says that if Bush drops Florida, it won't be because he lost Florida. Rather it is because Florida will be making a statement about the administration of Jeb Bush. In this way, says Howland, we're "seeing sunbelt politics because Florida is becoming a more viable two-party system."
In Tennessee, however, if Gore is rejected it won't fall on anyone but Gore himself. And things aren't looking peachy for Gore, even in Nashville. Alan Ross drives a carriage that he had parked outside the Hard Rock Caf
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