Most of the chattering classes agree that Vice President Al Gore is going to eventually defeat challenger Bill Bradley, he must distance himself from his boss because the country has grown tired of all things Clinton. But as shown by his quest for the endorsement of the AFL-CIO, Vice President Gore also occasionally needs the president’s power and influence to help him win the nomination, a dilemma that is likely to haunt him right through the primaries.

The vice president’s strategy, somewhat desperate considering this position, is to demand that Bradley debate him, so that he can make the race about issues rather than background and personality. Recall that Clinton was desperate to do the same thing during the primaries of 1992, when character issues threatened to end his candidancy.

Bill Bradley, on the other hand, is doing just fine as the long-shot candidate, telling the story of his small town childhood in Missouri. The fact that he has spoken on just a few issues hasn’t seem to matter, yet. He wants the race to remain a contest about background and character. The former senator was raised in a small, multi-racial town in Missouri, his father a banker, his mother a schoolteacher. His father’s proudest accomplishment, as listed at billbradley.com, is that he never had to foreclose on any homeowner during the Great Depression. Bradley’s mother attempted to teach her athletic son modesty and humility, in part by telling him that he wasn’t better than the other boys, he “just had longer legs.”

Vice Gore’s wealthy and privileged childhood in Washington, D.C., his ownership of a tobacco farm, and his association with the `Big Jerk’ vs. Bradley’s middle class background, basketball stardom and friendships with Phil Jackson and Michael Jordan. Of course Bradley has resisted Gore’s debate entreaties, but won’t be able to forever.

Democrats eventually will have to consider their candidate the way Republicans did from the start in this race: Who will match up best against the opposing-party candidate? George Bush, far ahead of the other Republicans, already has made the smart move toward the center, taking on a curmudgeonly Congress and getting his picture taken in as many multi-cultural settings as he can find. Sen. Bradley could do that comfortably as well, and Vice President Gore’s comprehensive grasp of policy issues aren’t going to help him when it’s time to say, “Cheese.”

Both Democratic candidates, of course, are well and properly respected for their intellects. But so far, anyway, the vice president has not been smart enough to distance himself from the president and continues to lean on him. That is a tight corner that will grow narrower with time.