Gore entertains hotel crowd with stand-up act.

Even the most conservative hotel operators were impressed with Vice President Al Gore when he gave what could only be described as a campaign speech for President Bill Clinton to the Hospitality Investment Conference luncheon in the Waldorf - Astoria ballroom last week.

Actually, Gore first did a stand up routine, playing off his own role as victim to the late night comics.

"Have you ever had a feeling someone on TV was talking to you," Gore asked to laughs, after explaining he and wife, Tipper, were channel surfing and came upon Tonight Show host, Jay Leno one evening.

Leno had obtained a video tape of Gore talking about having heard all the "stiff" jokes.

"He stopped the tape and looked directly at me and said, 'I'd hate to break it to you, Mr. Vice President, you haven't heard all of those yet.' And he brought out a huge bag of them."

Gore proceeded to entertain the real estate executives:

"If you use a strobe light it looks like Al Gore is moving," he began to laughs at an audience that couldn't believe this was the Vice President actually making fun of himself.

"It was so cold people who knew me thought I was frozen stiff."

"How can you tell Al Gore from a roomful of Secret Service agents? He's the stiff one.

"He's so boring his Secret Service code name is, Al Gore.

"Every time I hear a new one, I have the same reaction: Very funny Tipper."

Gore introduced the late-Commerce Secretary Ron Brown's son, Michael, as well as HUD secretary, Andrew Cuomo, both sitting in the audience.

Eventually, Gore got around to hotels noting the conference that NIGH hosts, "is the premiere gathering in the world."

"Your industry is red hot right now and the future holds a great deal more of the same," Gore said.

While the Vice President said he was not there to claim that President Bill Clinton was solely responsible for the economic upswing, he did believe the President should get "99 percent" of the credit.

"We believe President Clinton put the economy in the right direction and helped it get back on feet and move forwards ... gracefully," explained Gore, continuing on that theme.

Four years ago, he noted, there was triple digit recession and a $3 billion deficit.

"The hospitality industry was hurting, and as you know," Gore said, "when the economy sneezes, your industry catches not just a cold, but pneumonia."

He recalled that since workers couldn't go to conferences, and families canceled vacations, hotel rooms remained empty.

"That was one of the reasons Bill Clinton and I were elected - to make it easier for families to pack up the car and take that vacation they so deserved," he said.

Gore went on to describe Republican ploys to keep Clinton from succeeding and applauded the President's work to create the upswing in the now booming economy.

Early in the administration, the President had assigned Gore the task of re-engineering government.

"I called it regovernment," he said, dead-panning, "That's 'Gore' spelled sideways."

Gore discussed his active role in reducing paperwork and the costs of procurement. He recalled having to "take bold action" to declare a marijuana sniffing pig in Oregon a "dog" so the police force could receive Federal training money dedicated to drug sniffing dogs.

"We believe that if our economy continues to gain strength we will have an easier time solving all the other problems we face," said Gore.

He said the administration pays careful attention to the hotel and travel industry and recognizes "the size and importance your industry plays in the United States of America," Gore praised, adding that travel and tourism supplies millions of jobs and is the number one service export industry.

The industry, he said, shows off the best of the country and leads to a greater understanding of both self and others, leading to better lives.

"Let us work together to maintain an economy that is healthy, vibrant and growing. Let us move smoothly" he said, ribbing himself for not moving "smoothly" through the last word, "from one American century to the next. We look forward to continuing our partnership with you and working together with you to strengthen our economy and help our nation."