The first debate between Sen. Bill Bradley and Vice President Al Gore demonstrated more agreement than conflict between the two contestants for the Democratic presidential nomination. Both are former senators, both occupy the center of the Democratic Party, although Bradley is willing to display his (hide the children) liberal views on race and poverty, and both are bright, learned and occasionally eloquent. Also in evidence were the strategies both men seek to employ.

For many national viewers, this was the first opportunity to watch Sen. Bradley debate. He seemed sincere and thoughtful; his answers to questions about race and poverty revealed the depth of his concern about these issues. He carried a sense of understated integrity about him; he didn’t simply tell the audience what he knew they wanted to hear because he had already taken the polls. His views were positions he believed in, and he was willing to argue them. Isn’t that what used to be called leadership?

Al Gore, on the other hand, is perpetually in the early stages of learning to be less wooden and more likeable. He told a joke about St. Peter and HMOs (don’t ask). He made multiple attempts to connect and harmonize with the questioners. To one young mother asking a question about health insurance he responded, “Tell me about your family. … A daughter 17 months old and a husband? Which one gives you the most trouble?” Perhaps more blatant was his interruption of the moderator’s goodbye when he said, “Can I say one more thing? I’ll be happy to stay and answer more questions after the cameras are turned off.” The fact that he didn’t wait until the cameras were actually off underlines the first item on his To Do list: Show them you are sincere even if you have to fake it.

Vice President Gore prodded the former senator in several areas, including leaving the Senate in ’96, support for school vouchers and the cost of his health care package which will attempt to cover all children and most adults. Bradley defended well, and in not attacking Gore on his questionable campaign fund solicitations in 1996 and his guilt by association with President Clinton, he allowed Gore’s integrity to hang in the air for all to see.

Sen. Bradley is not the perfect candidate, but he may be the most interesting at this point because he is offering the public what it says it wants: A serious-minded, experienced leader with a sterling character. Given the vice president’s huge lead in organization, particularly in the important southern primaries, Mr. Bradley has a long fight ahead of him. But a few more performances like the one Wednesday night and Democratic primary voters will be able to pick between what is expected of them and what they say they want.