In Year 2000 Gates, West Advise and Counsel

This morning, Bill Bradley will likely announce that he will drop his quest to be president. But it's not because Cornel R. West '74 wasn't an enthusiastic supporter.

At debates, at campaign events, at interviews--Bradley was there, his tall frame dressed in an immaculately tailored suit, holding court for whoever wanted to seek his guidance.

Bradley "provides presidential

gravitas ... the ability to tell the truth, to be courageous," West told a crowd in Bradley in Southern states, West told a reporter, "I'm in solidarity with him because he's my brother."

Bradley's campaign themes mimicked West's own academic vision, said Brad Galper, a Bradley staffer.

Words like consensus, community and vision resonate throughout West's writings and throughout Bradley's speeches. West has written extensively on the need for community-rooted solutions mixed with governmental activism to solve social problems.

Both men believe in a progressive, inclusive America, though West's Marxism and penchant for postmodernist literary criticism did not always jibe with Bradley's capitalist message.

"He and Bradley agree on some issues that are the center of the campaign...health care, elimination of child poverty, and a concentration on racial harmony," Galper said. "But they don't agree on everything."

So if they agree, what, exactly, did West do?

He "energizes the Senator before big events and debates." He helps him by "pumping him up" and serves as a "friend to rely on," Galper said.

But Bradley readily accepted West as an adviser for a more pragmatic reason: to help lure black voters away from Al Gore '69.

Though his advisers would not admit so publicly, media reporters have pegged West's high-profile role in the campaign as linked to Bradley's get-out-the-vote efforts among minorities.

Bradley aide Galper would only say, "People of all races see West as a role model and he has been an invaluable asset to the campaign."

West did not respond to more than half a dozen requests for an interview this week and last--though an assistant begged his pardon, noting that his schedule has been rather intense of late. (West has been on a nationwide book tour and is recovering from an operation.)

Staff for the vice president were less circumspect about the relationship between their candidate, and another high-profile black intellectual at Harvard, Henry Louis "Skip" Gates.

Gates's role in the campaign was--and will continue to be--behind-the-scenes. A friend of the Gore family for years, he has consulted with the vice president on economic issues and race relations.

Noting that Gates is seen as an "African American leader," Alex Zaroulis, Gore's New England communication director, said he has been "instrumental in the campaign."

Both Zaroulis and Doug Hattaway, another Gore aide, said they weren't privy to the content of the conversations between Gates and Gore.

Said Zaroulis, "He has played a very important role in the campaign--he is widely respected and revered."

The use of prominent intellectuals as unofficial campaign consultants is common, though their roles have tended to remain shrouded, according to Matthew Crenson, a professor of political science at Johns Hopkins University.

"Intellectuals always had a role in the political process, but welcoming them into campaigning is a sign of opening up a greater role for intellectuals that has not been there in the past," Crenson said. "Intellectuals are responsible for formulating the ideas that inspire millions of people to vote."

This is a role both West and Gates have publicly relished, especially given the questions the media has raised surrounding the intellectual prowess of Republican frontrunner George W. Bush.

"A candidate with money but no ideas can't win," Crenson said.