Everything is a tactic…

Believe Al Gore when he says he’ll run a different campaign in 2004. Don’t believe that his campaign will eschew campaign “tactics.” Gore says he will “spend more time speaking from the heart on a few occasions each week, addressing the major challenges of the country in-depth, and spend a lot less time going to media events and making tactical moves.” This is a tactic. No politician running for president in the age of television campaigns can or will avoid the tactical maneuvers of staged media events. It is simply impossible to run a campaign otherwise. What Gore means is that he will revamp his campaign tactics to create an impression in the media of a candidate speaking “from the heart.” I am not questioning his sincerity. I am questioning the mediated reality within which he must operate.