A Comic In The Family
BY KAREN TUMULTY
The first time her father ran for President, in 1988,
fourth-grader Kristin Gore methodically listed the pros and cons
on a legal pad. She wrote in the second column: "You'll have
Social Security following you around all the time."
After seven years as the daughter of the Vice President, Kristin,
23, is well aware of the difference between the retirement
program and the security agents who carry radios up their
sleeves. But she still has trouble with the intrusion that comes
with having a famous political name.
It is hard to imagine a life more removed from the family
business than the one Kristin has staked out for herself in Los
Angeles. Since May, she has been a comedy writer on the hip, edgy
Fox-network show Futurama. "I didn't want to be 'the daughter
of,'" said Al Gore's second eldest in a recent interview. So
after graduating from Harvard last year, she explains, "I just
moved out here and got an apartment and started submitting
scripts." In the early months, it was lonely; her father would
call her daily and rearrange his schedule when he was on the West
Coast so he could take long walks with her on the beach.
Kristin's writing skills, honed on the Harvard Lampoon, have come
in handy for her father. When he appeared on the Tonight Show
last February, she coached him on how to answer Jay Leno's
inevitable question about the regular pounding the Vice President
gets from late-night comedians. "Actually, we have kind of a
family ritual," he deadpanned. "We just sit around the dinner
table every night around 11:30 and make jokes about you." But
Kristin--a favorite with the campaign staff--prefers to stay in the
background, running the photocopy machine with the volunteers as
her older sister Karenna communes with the Gore campaign's high
command.
Kristin's relative obscurity will end Thursday night, when she
will make her own political debut. She is scheduled to introduce
her mother at the Democratic Convention--a prospect she finds "a
little bit nerve-racking." After that, she expects to devote much
of the fall to helping turn out the youth vote. "I'm a really
private person, and this doesn't come naturally at all," she
says. "But I feel so compelled to do whatever I can to help,
because I really believe so strongly in my father and what he
wants to do with this country." The other two Gore children,
meanwhile, have remained largely out of the spotlight and under
the fierce protection of their parents. Sarah, 21, a Harvard
senior, spent the summer studying art history in Russia. Albert
III, the only one still living at home, is 17 and entering senior
year at Washington's Sidwell Friends School.
When Al announced his running mate last week, Kristin was the
only Gore missing from the stage in Nashville. It would have been
nice to be there, she says, "but I was working. They totally
understood." For one Gore, there are still times when the cons
outweigh the pros. --By Karen Tumulty
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