Two years in the life of Al Jr.

A nearly two-year odyssey nears its end

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- When does a campaign begin? In the case of Al Gore, it could be argued that he started grooming political supporters in childhood, when he was as familiar with ambassadors and cabinet members as some kids are with the neighborhood ice cream man. Or in 1976, when he left law school to run for the House of Representatives, the beginning of an uninterrupted political career. Or in 1988, when he ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic presidential nomination. A 1996 AllPolitics headline on the Gore-Kemp vice presidential debates -- "Preview 2000?" -- turned out to be half right, but it was more conventional wisdom than eerily accurate prophecy.

Officially, campaign 2000 began for Al Gore on the last day of 1998, weeks after the congressional campaign ended, when he filed papers with the Federal Election Commission. A week later, Gore and George W. Bush were their parties' front-runners in a CNN/TIME poll -- a year before the first primary.

By February 1999, Gore was campaigning in New Hampshire, the state with the first presidential primary in the nation, and he was the most promising target for Republican contenders. When Dan Quayle announced that he was forming an exploratory committee, he had a specific opponent in his sights: "I will win the nomination and I will beat Al Gore," he said. Steve Forbes targeted Bush in New Hampshire radio ads in March.

By the end of that month, the Gore campaign had raised $8.9 million, making him the front-runner in that race, too. But while Gore had a commanding lead in the Democratic primary, a poll of New Hampshire voters showed him well behind either Bush or Dole in hypothetical general election matchups.

Also in March, a theme arose that would continue to dog Gore for the rest of the campaign. In an interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer, Gore said, "During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet." While Gore was an early political supporter of what he called an "information superhighway," some of the networks that would become the Internet were in place before he took office, and his statement was often simplified in the retelling. "Al Gore invented the Internet" became a sort of shorthand for what detractors claim is a pattern of Gore statements that are exaggerated, misleading or simply false.

Making it official

Behind in hypothetical polls, the Gore campaign's plan for a quiet spring and summer quickly dissolved. With critics complaining of a slow start to the campaign and internal bickering between some of Gore's private consultants, campaign staff and members of the vice president's office distracting the vice president, Gore had to make a move.

On May 11, 1999, the campaign announced that former California Rep. Tony Coelho had been named general chairman. According to one senior official at the time, the committee needed to bring in "an adult" to run the campaign and free up Gore, who, sources said, was spending too much time refereeing disputes between his own aides and advisers.

Little more than a month later, Gore returned to his hometown of Carthage, Tennessee, to make his purely ceremonial "official" announcement of his candidacy on June 16, 1999.

Promising to make America's families the centerpiece of his effort to win the presidency, Gore also began the process of trying to distance himself from his boss, President Bill Clinton.

"With your help, I will take my own values of faith and family to the presidency to build an America that is not only better off but better. And that is why today I announce that I am a candidate for president of the United States," Gore said.

With his wife, Tipper, sidelined with laryngitis, Gore's eldest daughter, Karenna Gore Schiff, eight-and-a-half months pregnant at the time, introduced her father at the event.

On July 4, Gore's first grandchild, Wyatt Gore Schiff, made a politically astute entrance. But the congratulations were short-lived, as pundits wondered aloud whether Gore would fall victim to "Clinton fatigue," as the public discontent with presidential scandals was dubbed. And questions lingered over Gore's own fund-raising practices in the 1996 campaign.

Bradley gains momentum

By September, former New Jersey Sen. Bill Bradley was polling a few points ahead of Gore in New Hampshire, within the poll's margin of error -- a race that had seemed runaway a few months earlier was starting to look like a dead heat, eroding the air of inevitability that had followed Gore from the beginning. Respondents to the poll found Gore uninspiring and "too close to Clinton." Gore continued to lead Bradley and trail Bush in national polls.

Gore decided to make another move. On September 28, the vice president announced plans to move his presidential campaign headquarters from Washington to Tennessee. He also challenged Bradley to "a bunch" of debates and said he planned to recast his campaign style so that he would meet voters in small groups to talk about issues and the nation's future.

The hope was the move would distance the campaign from Washington and Clinton, whose scandal-plagued administration was having a negative pull on the campaign. But some analysts saw the change as an acknowledgement by Gore that he would have to fight with Bradley for the Democratic nomination. Gore went so far as to refer to himself as the "underdog" in the race. He opened his new headquarters on October 6, 1999.

Later in October, at a New Hampshire town meeting, Gore and Bradley faced off in person for the first time. In one of his strongest statements of the evening, Gore sought to distance himself from Clinton's conduct in the Monica Lewinsky scandal. "I understand the disappointment and anger you felt toward President Clinton. I feel it myself," Gore said. "I also feel that the American people want to move on and turn the page and focus on the future, not the past."

While both sides claimed victory in the low-key debate, the polls hardly budged. With the race still a dead heat, Gore continued his ongoing image makeover. The veep, always a target of late-night comics' monologue jokes as stiff and formal, sought appearances without suits or lecterns and spiced up his speaking style. He also aired the first TV commercials of the Democratic campaign -- but leveled his criticism at Senate Republicans, not at Bradley.

The race remained tight for the rest of the year and became increasingly heated, as each side accused the other of distorting its positions.

As 2000 began, Gore and Bradley were engaged in tense battles in New Hampshire and Iowa, where caucuses mark the beginning of the nominating process. Gore won nearly two to one in Iowa, whose caucuses tend to draw mostly the party faithful.

Going into the New Hampshire primary on February 1, polls showed a narrow Gore lead, but Bradley had pulled almost even in fund-raising and broke Gore's monopoly on high-profile Democratic endorsements. Gore won by an unexpectedly narrow margin, 51 percent to 47 percent. In Delaware, Gore won a non-binding "presidential preference primary" by a wider margin, while each candidate accused the other of mudslinging.

After New Hampshire, momentum shifted to Gore. A heated debate at Harlem's Apollo Theater did little to reverse Bradley's fortunes, and Gore won New York nearly two to one. The huge, multi-state "Super Tuesday" primaries on March 7, which Gore swept, marked the end of the Bradley campaign.

Looking toward November

Later in March, Gore split from the Clinton administration in a high-profile issue. While Clinton and Attorney General Janet Reno were supporting court decisions to return Elian Gonzalez to his father in Cuba, Gore proposed legislation that would grant both father and son permanent resident status. He also said he wanted to see the case heard in a Florida family court, which the administration opposed.

Throughout the summer, Gore continued to lag behind Bush in the polls, though the race grew tighter. To the surprise of many pundits, both sides in the campaign remained focused on issues, with relatively little negative advertising.

In early summer, consumer advocate Ralph Nader was formally nominated the Green Party's presidential candidate. Appealing to disaffected union workers upset about what they say are job losses due to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the environmentally aware, Nader has acknowledged that most of his support would come at Gore's expense. In a close race with Bush, Nadar could prove to be the spoiler for Gore.

In June, Coelho stepped down as chairman of the Gore campaign, citing health problems. William Daley -- the U.S. commerce secretary and a member of another politically active family, the Daleys of Chicago -- came on to lead the campaign.

In August, Gore announced Connecticut Sen. Joseph Lieberman as his running mate. As the first Democrat to publicly berate Clinton's behavior in the Monica Lewinsky scandal, Lieberman helps insulate the ticket from Clinton fatigue.

The Democratic convention provided the official torch-passing from Clinton to Gore, and kicked off the home stretch of the campaign. Gore outlined the themes of his campaign in a briskly paced, 51-minute acceptance speech. And he kissed Tipper, who had joined him on stage -- no decorous peck on the cheek, but a full-on smooch that made its way into nearly every network's coverage. Some observers saw it as touching, others unseemly and others fake. But everyone saw it.

Whether it was the running mate, the speech or the kiss, something boosted the Gore campaign. The traditional "bounce" in the polls the week after the convention brought him even with Bush. Contrary to the old adage that nothing changes after Labor Day, the polls remained close in September, with the lead changing from one week to the next, but remaining a near-tie.

The debates themselves became a topic of debate, as Gore argued for three debates sponsored by the bipartisan debate commission, and Bush pushed for less formal debates on CNN's Larry King Live and NBC's Meet the Press. Finally, the campaigns settled on three 90-minute presidential debates -- one standing behind lecterns, one sitting at a table and one town meeting -- and one debate between the vice presidential candidates.

Another minor flap followed a Republican National Committee ad, in which the word "RATS" -- part of "bureaucrats" -- flashes on the screen during a description of the Gore health care plan. The Gore campaign blasted the ad as an effort at subliminal advertising, while the RNC and Bush campaign called it a coincidence.

In the likeability wars, Gore and Bush each turned in an acclaimed performance on "Oprah." In late September, Bush pulled ahead of Gore once again in the polls.

In the first debate, analysts and polls gave Gore a narrow win -- but his performance took a back seat to his reactions to Bush's statements. Gore sighed aloud and rolled his eyes while Bush spoke, when he thought he would not be visible or audible. The vice presidential debate, in contrast to such events in the past, was remarkable in its civility.

Recent events overseas have found Bush and Gore on the same page; both praised the ouster of Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic, both expressed concern at the escalating violence in the Middle East and both condemned the apparent terrorist attack on the U.S.S. Cole.

By the second week in October, Bush once again enjoyed a significant lead over Gore in the CNN/USA Today/Gallup tracking poll. The second debate went well for Bush, according to viewers polled by CNN.

As the campaign enters its final weeks, the polls remain tight. Only one thing is virtually certain -- the campaign will end, one way or the other, on November 7.

-- Written by Andy Walton, CNN.com