THE little old lady was a ringer.

Last Wednesday, as Al Gore waxed rhapsodic on Medicare in Altoona, Iowa, 79-year-old Winifred Skinner stepped out of the crowd with a story sad enough to make the most hard-bitten cynic shed a tear.

To cover the skyrocketing costs of her prescription drugs, Skinner said, she had to pick up roadside aluminum cans. Oh, and she didn’t tell the IRS – “You’re not gonna tell the government, are you?”

Enter heroic Al: “You don’t have to worry for one minute, I’m all for you.” How sweet.

Of course, Ms. Skinner developed this problem … during the Clinton-Gore administration, which actually sabotaged the last major bipartisan effort, led by Sen. John Breaux (D-La.), to add a prescription-drug benefit to Medicare.

But the Gore event was even more of a fake than that. Here are some interesting facts about America’s sweetest grandmother:

* While the incident may have seemed spontaneous, it wasn’t. The local United Auto Workers chapter actually invited Granny Skinner to appear and drove her to the rally.

* She isn’t exactly poor. Her son, Earl King, is a wealthy former businessman. While she doesn’t take money from him to pay for medication, he has paid her property taxes and to put a new roof on her house. She was also wearing an expensive Tommy Hilfiger jacket when last spotted collecting cans.

* And Winifred Skinner did not come out of nowhere. She told Diane Sawyer that she is well known around Altoona for her can-collecting and strong views on the Medicare battle.

Now, Gore has made a big show of enlisting Skinner as an adviser for tonight’s debate, having her and her dog taken to Boston via Winnebago.

So not only was Skinner a plant, Gore will now parade her around the country, milking her for all the publicity she’s worth.

It’s what Al does best.