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An Outspoken Independent Makes His Mark

Al Gore '69 can't seem to ditch the "boring" moniker. What's a guy with a fairly impressive track record, and not even a hint of an extra-marital affair to do when Senator Daniel P. Moynihan (D-NY) declared that he "can't win?"

Perhaps don a feathered boa and head to the gym to pump some iron.

If the worst crime in politics is to be boring, Jesse "The Body" Ventura is as virtuous as a Boy Scout.

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Aching from a 19-point slide in the polls after a slew of controversial comments in Playboy Magazine, Ventura refused to back down from some of his most colorful comments at several campus events yesterday--and added a few more to the media stew.

When Ventura was elected governor of Minnesota last November, he was more likely to be a punch line on "The Late Show With David Letterman" than to be considered a respected political figure.

Shortly after his election, The New York Times wondered cynically if Minnesotta residents had developed a "sense of humor."

Today, however, it is hard to deny his importance on the American political landscape, both because he has become something of a beacon for the traditionally disaffected voter, and because he is locked in a battle for control of the Reform Party with its eccentric founder, H. Ross Perot.

Ventura brags that his dominant selling point is that he is decidedly a political outsider.

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