How much did Al Gore change?

How much is the man we see before us in 2006 like the man we saw in 2000. Did he change much, or did we just not know him as well then, due in part to the media's distortions of him?

Did losing the presidency change him, or is it because he's stepped away from public office that the veil has been lifted and we're seeing him without media filter.

What are your thoughts?

But sometimes that doesn't fly. There are those who would say that following the advice of bad advisors and indeed having hired them in the first place puts the leadership of each man into question.

I say each had to live and learn. I'm thinking neither man would make the same mistake again. That's one of the reasons I don't like the mentality that says that every candidate we present must be new, as if that were magical or something. How about old and experienced?

Makes you wonder.

And Bob Shrum is an imbecile.

I would have preferred to see the REAL John Kerry and the REAL Al Gore.

I used to think Brazile was a firebrand but during the past few years, she's revealed herself as an overly conciliatory, DLC apologist. I'd love to see Gore run a campaign with Joe Trippi in the manager's seat!

that did it foe me.. and the fact that she sits there like a bump on a log while her counterparts trash every democrat they can..Donna smiles and nods:puke:

Yeah, I don't have good feeling about Donna at all. Then she trashed Kerry for the amount of money he had left, when Gore had about as much, and that was a campaign she was involved with. I just don't get the feeling she's exactly our buddy.

He's much better now that he is just Al Gore instead of Al Gore (insert title here).

I truly think the media and his media trainers turned him into "Al Bore" and his MLK Day speech was the day the cocoon burst open... I never realized he could be so charismatic! Whoa!

here's his Iraq speech before the war:

http://www.commonwealthclub.org/archive/02/02-09gore-speech.html

Here's a great one on "Fear — It's Political Uses and Abuses"

http://www.rappdems.org/gore_politicalabuses.htm

And here's one on the decline of the American media:

http://www.tpmcafe.com/story/2005/10/5/14301/6133

I'll enjoy reading these I'm sure. Sorry I missed them.

(Well, actually, they all are. And there are more!)

but don't forget this speech defending the fillibuster and the judiciary. That one kicked butt.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/Commentary/com-4_28_05_AG.html

If you have a better link for it, I'll edit.

I take it your answer is no.

So there. :P

I presented one explanation amongst many. I'm asking a very open ended question, to which a attached several possibilities. You are free to pick one, reject others, and explain why you feel that way.

Or at least, care to explain why you think it's badly worded?

Drive more people away from DU??? Havnt we had enough of that?

I'm pretty sick of the bullies around here. I thought the question was clear. And even if it wasn't, who are any of us to play the smack down? I'm sick of it. Not everyone is eloquent (not saying anything about the OP here... as I said, I thought it was fine) and I'd hate to think someone, even one person, would be made to feel so self-conscious that they wouldn't ask the question.

We can always ask questions nicely for clarification. There is no reason for this. It's really becoming a pet peeve.

Is it worth it to you to make people so self-conscious that they may not ask a question that should be asked?

but he did lose the presidency. It was taken away in court. I worded it specifically that way for a reason.

http://www.badapple.biz

They also seem to be turning the Mac into yet-another-PC...

I've yet to find how Gore voted on the issues that have been making Apple look worse and worse every month.

Actions also speak more than words, so for Gore to be considered legit, we'd have to know what he's voted for and obviously what he voted for would have to be for the opposite of what has happened, though I understand the ipod battery chucking problem started before he came on board. Took a long while to fix, though... and is it really fixed? (for those recycled batteries, are they still being dumped in a 3rd world country's backyard?)

He's got chutzpah and a lot of veracity... but in such a big position to have so little clout? I think he's (at least partly) sold out to money.


I am not being accusatory. I am curious, ignorant, and you bet I've lost my faith in politicians. Which is exactly what they want, I fear.

Apple is threatening to gouge into the PC market. That can't be a bad thing. Apple makes FAR superior products.

that count to me. I do think he can be too easily swayed to the corporate viewpoint, though I believe he tries to soften it by acting strongly in other areas.

He's a mixed bag like most lawmakers usually are. Not as bad as most, and not as great as some.

But, he's smart and a solution-seeker when he focuses on something. I like solution-seekers alot. I like solution-seekers who are also anti-corruption and open government lawmakers the most.

I think he doesn't plan on running ever again so he's showing us who he truly is. I've supported Gore since he first ran for President (86) and I don't see a much different Gore. He's always had strong beliefs and values.

by the crappola that comes with running for prez, esp. in 2000.

How frustrating that must have been, to know the man and his values, and watch the media distort him.

I spent the runup to the election just pissed off at the media. I helped only marginally in that election. When the election was stolen, I saw the cackling media and thought I had lost my country. Then I found like minded souls here, in my community, and other web sites and realized many of us were angry. By the way, I've been more actively involved in every election since.

If you want an example of someone who cannot be changed by events, I suggest the current occupant of the White House.

Bush is the definition of insanity personified.

In 2000, much of America was burned out on the Lewinsky scandal, and for those in America who were going to punish him for Clinton's mistakes, Gore wanted to show that he was a separate individual with more traditional values, the kind of guy who wasn't going to fool around on Tipper in the Oval Office the same way Bill had fooled around on Hillary.

He didn't change his beliefs, but he changed the way he presented himself. He played to the middle of the road. He picked a conservative Democrat, Joe Lieberman, as his running mate. He kept Bill Clinton in the background and largely away from his campaign.

And despite a completely toxic media that smeared and lied about him at every opportunity, it worked. Gore won the popular vote, and depending on the standards you use to count, he won the most votes in Florida as well, even excluding the infamous 'butterfly ballots' and other electoral scandals at the time. Unfortunately, the Supreme Court stole the election from the people, and Bush was appointed president.

I can't imagine how difficult that must've been for Al. And I'm sure, as the months went on, it must've seemed worse and worse: 9/11. Plamegate. The invasion of Iraq. Abu Ghraib. Secret prisons. Katrina. All the while, knowing that he would never have let these things happen to the country he loves. I think each atrocity just called Al out of his shell, begging him to speak up. And this time, when he spoke out, he didn't try to gain others' approval, he just said what was right and true and weighing on his heart.

And the more he spoke out, the more people listened. The more people listened, the more they wanted to hear. And I think, for the first time in his life, perhaps, he felt free to speak his mind and change the world however he wanted to, because he wasn't asking people to vote for him anymore. He didn't have sit down and smile politely -- he could stand up, he could make waves, he could rock the boat.

I think that he's found a real freedom now, a real happiness in being himself and speaking his mind, and I think he's aware that politics makes certain demands on candidates, and he doesn't want to give up who he's become to make another run for president. I think he's had enough of the toxic lying media, and doesn't want to spend another 4+ years dealing with their slime. I think he's proud of the work he's doing, and feels that it is worthwhile and enough.

I have to say, if I were Gore? I wouldn't run. I'd enjoy my life, my grandkids, and my freedom. I'd change the world but stay a private citizen.

Being president isn't worth it to me. But I hope it is to Al.

It's that happiness in his freedom that keeps telling me that he's not likely to run for prez, though I do think he'd make a good one.

in time...saves nine' :patriot:

after the Sp Ct selected the chimp. It was a long time I think about six months (which he was in almost total recluse) and I thought he must be in a depressed state. I still think he was for a while during that time, though he never said that. He came out sporting a goatee and about twenty pound heavier which MSM made total light of his pictures without mentioning what he had to say. I wish I had a link to what he said to share but it was the most stinging rebuke of the chimp that had been displayed since the selection. In the middle of a time when almost everyone was oohing and awing and it was not popular to diss the chimp, he did.

I can't say what it was exactly that said, and at the time I remember going back and reading what he said that made me feel that way and determined it wasn't in anything particularly that he said, but it made me feel like he was going to run again and not disappear into the oblivion as is the norm for loosing prez dems.

I still think this and haven't seen anything that has changed my mind. I've listed the every speech he's done since then listening for that no word and have never yet heard it. On every occasion he has carefully couched his wording as many do before a bid to not say the no word. If fact the finely tuned ear hears yes every time as far as I can determine. One thing was certain to me, he wasn't the same man that ran in 2000. I also think the reason why he isn't going away is he felt he was robbed. What I've seen is a more steely eyed man with a plan.

Yesterday I was briefly nerved on the matter when it was being reported in a thread that he had ruled out a run and I went off to write a letter to him until I carefully researched what he had said. He said nothing of the sort and in carefully couched manor was saying yes as a matter of fact.

I think it is precisely correct for him not to announce at this time. It would deter his plan. He sees the environment as the sleeper in politics and the issue that the nation is prepared to rally around. I agree with his interpretation.

and spoke from his gut. Everything changed that day.

On edit - I dug him before that...all stiff and wooden whatever...but that speech changed him.

It might have been when I discovered Kerry 1971.

With Gore, I discovered I'd bought into the media distortion when I read the Daily Howler and realized that he'd been misrepresented. But I had never listened to a speech until I heard the one sponsored by moveon.org regarding the fillibuster. Good stuff.

I saw "An Inconvenient Truth" the other night and what struck me is that whatever his capabilities as a politician, the man is a hell of a science teacher. He has a way of explaining things, making them understandable without being in any way condescending.

That wasn't the way he was during the campeign. Now, admittedly, my memory is clouded by those dead on SNL impressions but clearly many people thought that Gore was talking down to them. Remember the lock box?

I'd love to think that if he decides to run we'll see Gore the impassioned, humorous teacher expanding his subject to foreign policy, healthcare and economics instead of Gore the ponderous politician. The problem is that as a politician, he may feel he has to do things like beg for money from those that have it and downplay issues that he believes in order to get dollars and or votes and he'd have to fake enthusiasm for things he truly could care less about.

I think he'd be the first to admit that he absolutely sucks when it comes to faking it.

Could Al Gore take his environmental activist/educator persona on the campeign trail and survive in the mind numbing intellectual void that is modern politics? I don't know. I'd love it if he could but I can understand his reluctance to try.

that friends of Gore think he'd make a hell of a president, if only he didn't have to campaign to get there.