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Albert Arnold "Al" Gore, Jr. (born March 31, 1948) is an American environmental activist who served as the 45th Vice President of the United States from 1993 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton. He is an author, businessperson, Nobel laureate, and former journalist. Gore also starred in the 2006 documentary An Inconvenient Truth, which won an Academy Award in 2007. He later won a Grammy Award for the audio version of his related book An Inconvenient Truth: The Planetary Emergency of Global Warming and What We Can Do About It, in February, 2009.
Gore was involved in American politics for 24 years, serving first in the U.S. House of Representatives (1977–85) and later in the U. S. Senate (1985–93) (representing Tennessee) before becoming vice president.
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Encyclopedia
Albert Arnold "Al" Gore, Jr. (born March 31, 1948) is an American environmental activist who served as the 45th Vice President of the United States from 1993 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton. He is an author, businessperson, Nobel laureate, and former journalist. Gore also starred in the 2006 documentary An Inconvenient Truth, which won an Academy Award in 2007. He later won a Grammy Award for the audio version of his related book An Inconvenient Truth: The Planetary Emergency of Global Warming and What We Can Do About It, in February, 2009.
Gore was involved in American politics for 24 years, serving first in the U.S. House of Representatives (1977–85) and later in the U. S. Senate (1985–93) (representing Tennessee) before becoming vice president. Gore was the Democratic nominee for president in the 2000 presidential election. He won the popular vote by approximately 500,000 votes, but ultimately lost the electoral college to Republican candidate George W. Bush when the legal controversy over the Florida election recount was eventually settled in the U.S. Supreme Court by a 5-4 margin in favor of Bush.
Gore is the recipient of a number of awards. He and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007.Gore received a Primetime Emmy Award for Current TV in 2007, and a Webby Award in 2005. Time magazine named Gore as a runner-up for its 2007 Person of the Year.
He is currently the founder and chair of Alliance for Climate Protection, the co-founder and chair of Generation Investment Management, the co-founder and chair of Current TV, a member of the Board of Directors of Apple Inc., and a senior advisor to Google. He is also a partner in the venture capital firm, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, heading that firm's climate change solutions group. In addition, Gore is on the faculty of Middle Tennessee State University as a visiting professor, and was a visiting professor at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, Fisk University, and the University of California, Los Angeles.
Childhood
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Albert Gore, Jr. was born in Washington, D.C., to Albert Gore, Sr., a U.S. Representative (1939–1944, 1945–1953) and Senator (1953–1971) from Tennessee, and Pauline LaFon Gore, one of the first women to graduate from Vanderbilt University Law School. His older sister Nancy LaFon Gore, who was born in 1938, died of lung cancer in 1984.
Gore divided his childhood between Washington, D.C. and Carthage, Tennessee. During summer vacations, Gore worked on the family farm in Carthage where the Gores grew hay and tobacco and raised cattle. Each school year, however, the family lived in Fairfax Hotel along Embassy Row in Washington D.C. Gore attended St. Albans School from 1956 to 1965, while his sister Nancy attended Holton-Arms School. While at St. Albans, Gore played on the varsity football team, threw discus for the track and field team, and participated in basketball, art, and government. Gore met the date of a classmate, Mary Elizabeth Aitcheson (Tipper) from nearby St. Agnes at his senior prom in 1965.
Harvard, Vietnam, journalism, and Vanderbilt (1965-1976)
Harvard
Gore enrolled in Harvard University in 1965, the only college he had applied to. Tipper, whom he had been dating since his senior prom, followed him to Boston, first attending Garland Junior College and later transferring to Boston University where she majored in psychology.
As a freshman, Gore planned to be an English major and was working on a novel. In 1967 Gore took a course on climate science from Roger Revelle which made a strong impression on him, influencing him in the direction of environmental concerns.
He was not tremendously engaged in his studies until the upheavals of 1968 and the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. Gore took a political science course, developed an interest in politics, and changed his major to government. He and his friends, however, did not participate in Harvard demonstrations. John Tyson, a former roommate, recalled that "We distrusted these movements a lot because a lot of this stuff was very emotional and not well thought out. We were a pretty traditional bunch of guys, positive for civil rights and women's rights but formal, transformed by the social revolution to some extent but not buying into something we considered detrimental to our country."
Gore graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in government cum laude on June 12, 1969. The Washington Post described his commencement ceremony as a "Sixties period piece" of tradition and chaos. This included the moment when "President Nathan Pusey delivered his time-honored welcoming of the graduates to 'the company of educated men,' [and] hundreds of seniors rose from their folding chairs, raised their fists in defiance, and walked out."
Vietnam War and journalism
in Bien Hoa as a journalist with the paper, The Castle Courier.]]
In 1969, neither Gore nor his father was a supporter of the Vietnam War. However, as a college graduate, he could no longer defer being drafted into the U.S. military. In addition, his "low draft number assured that he would be called up soon." In debating how to proceed, his father, Albert Gore, Sr., later recalled that Gore "sat around with his mother and I in the living room and talked about it. He said he didn't believe in the Vietnam War. I said, 'Well, it isn't given in our law for an individual to go contrary to the law.' We discussed all the various things young men were doing to dodge the draft." Also according to his Senate biography, Gore's "mother said that she would support whatever he wanted to do – 'including going to Canada with him.' " The Washington Post later added in 1999 that very few of his Harvard classmates went to Vietnam. Instead, "most of his peers at Harvard were looking for a way out, and finding one. Some took refuge in the National Guard or the reserves, options that might save them from Vietnam. A few resisted or became conscientious objectors or left for Canada."
Gore has stated that he finally enlisted in the army for two reasons: he was concerned over the impact it would have upon his father's career and he did not want someone with fewer advantages than he to go in his place. Al Gore, Sr. was engaged in a difficult political campaign for the 1970 Senate election, one which would have been adversely affected if his son did not enlist in the military. Al Gore, Sr., had authorized American involvement in Vietnam by voting for the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution in 1964, but by 1969 had become a vocal opponent of the war. Thus the elder Gore appeared to some to be "too tolerant of social protest of all kinds and of change in general [...] Young Al worried that if he found a way around military service, he would be handing an issue to his father's opponents."
Gore also chose to enlist because he did not want someone to go in his place. Actor Tommy Lee Jones (a former housemate) later recalled Gore saying that "if he found a fancy way of not going, someone else would have to go in his place." His Harvard advisor, Richard Neustadt, also stated that Gore, "decided that he would have to go and that he would have to go as an enlisted man because, he said, 'In Tennessee, that's what most people have to do.'" In addition, Michael Roche, his editor for The Castle Courier, stated that "anybody who knew Al Gore in Vietnam knows he could have sat on his butt and he didn't."
Gore refused the option of signing up for the National Guard, choosing instead to volunteer for the United States Army, which meant enlisting for two years (he served from 1969 - 1971). After enlisting in August 1969, Gore returned to the Harvard campus in his military uniform to say goodbye to his adviser and was "jeered" at by students. He later described the visit as a "Ralph Ellison experience in that I was the same person inside but my physical appearance conveyed a message that completely overwhelmed the message of my humanity. It was just an emotional field of negativity and disapproval and piercing glances that shot arrows of what certainly felt like real hatred, and I was astonished."
Gore had basic training at Fort Dix from August to October, and then was assigned to be a journalist at Fort Rucker, Alabama. In April 1970, he was "Soldier of the Month". On May 19, 1970, Gore married Tipper at the Washington National Cathedral.
His orders to be sent to Vietnam were "held up" for some time and he suspected that this was due to a fear by the Nixon administration that if something happened to him, his father would gain sympathy votes. He was finally shipped to Vietnam on January 2, 1971, after his father had lost his seat in the Senate during the 1970 Senate election, one "of only about a dozen of the 1,115 Harvard graduates in the Class of '69 who went to Vietnam." Gore was stationed with the 20th Engineer Brigade in Bien Hoa and was a journalist with the paper, The Castle Courier. He received an honorable discharge from the Army in May 1971.
Of his time in the Army, Gore later stated, "I don't pretend that my own military experience matches in any way what others here have been through [...] I didn't do the most, or run the gravest danger. But I was proud to wear my country's uniform. And my own experiences gave me strong beliefs about America's obligation to keep our national defenses strong." He also later stated that his experience in Vietnam "didn't change my conclusions about the war being a terrible mistake, but it struck me that opponents to the war, including myself, really did not take into account the fact that there were an awful lot of South Vietnamese who desperately wanted to hang on to what they called freedom. Coming face to face with those sentiments expressed by people who did the laundry and ran the restaurants and worked in the fields was something I was naively unprepared for."
Vanderbilt and journalism
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Gore was "dispirited" after his return from Vietnam. NashvillePost.com noted that, "his father's defeat made service in a conflict he deeply opposed even more abhorrent to Gore. His experiences in the war zone don't seem to have been deeply traumatic in themselves; although the engineers were sometimes fired upon, Gore has said he didn't see full-scale combat. Still, he felt that his participation in the war was wrong." While his parents wanted him to go to law school, Gore attended Vanderbilt University Divinity School instead, studying there from 1971 to 1972. He later said he went there in order to explore "the spiritual issues that were most important to me at the time." Tipper would also later refer to it as an act of "purification." Gore also began to work the night shift for The Tennessean as an investigative reporter (he worked for the paper from 1971-1976). His investigations of possible corruption among members of Nashville's Metro Council resulted in the arrest and prosecution of two councilmen for separate offenses.
Gore attended Vanderbilt Divinity School on a yearlong Rockefeller Foundation scholarship for people planning secular careers; he had never intended to become a minister and later said that "he had hoped to make sense of the social injustices that seemed to challenge his religious beliefs." Gore left divinity school to work full time at the The Tennessean. His first child, Karenna Aitcheson Gore, was born on August 6, 1973. A year later, he took a leave of absence from the The Tennessean and returned to graduate study, attending Vanderbilt University Law School from 1974 to 1976. His decision to attend law school was a partial result of his time as a journalist, as he realized that while he could expose corruption, he could not change it. Eventually, however, Gore "took away no degrees, deciding abruptly in 1976 to run for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives" when he found out that his father's former seat in the House was about to be vacated.
Congress and first presidential run (1976-1993)
in 2007]]
Gore began serving in the United States Congress at the age of 28 and stayed there for the next 17 years, serving in both the House (1976-1984) and the Senate (1984-1993). During this time, the Gores had three more children, Kristin Carlson Gore (born on June 5, 1977), Sarah LaFon Gore (born on January 7, 1979), and Albert Gore III (born on October 19, 1982) and bought the house belonging to Tipper's grandparents in Arlington, Virginia. Gore spent many weekends in Tennessee, working with his constituents.
House and Senate
At the end of February 1976, U.S. Representative Joe L. Evins unexpectedly announced his retirement from Congress, making the Tennessee's 4th congressional district seat to which he had succeeded Albert Gore, Sr. in 1953 open. Within hours after Tennessean publisher John Seigenthaler, Sr., called him to tell him the announcement was forthcoming, Gore decided to quit law school and run for the House of Representatives:
- Gore's abrupt decision to run for the open seat surprised even himself; he later said that 'I didn't realize myself I had been pulled back so much to it.' The news came as a 'bombshell' to his wife. Tipper Gore held a job in the Tennesseans photo lab and was working on a master's degree in psychology, but she joined in her husband's campaign (with assurance that she could get her job at the Tennessean back if he lost). By contrast, Gore asked his father to stay out of his campaign: 'I must become my own man,' he explained. 'I must not be your candidate.'
Gore won a seat in Congress in 1976 "with 32 percent of the vote, three percentage points more than his nearest rival." He won the next three elections in 1978, 1980, and 1982 where "he was unopposed twice and won 79 percent of the vote the other time." In 1984, Gore successfully ran for a seat in the United States Senate, which had been vacated by Republican Senate Majority Leader Howard Baker. He was "unopposed in the Democratic Senatorial primary and won the general election going away," despite the fact that Republican President Ronald Reagan swept Tennessee in his reelection campaign the same year.
During his time in Congress, Gore was considered a "moderate" (he referred to himself as a "raging moderate") opposing federal funding of abortion, voting in favor of a bill which supported a moment in silence in schools, and voting against a ban on interstate sales of guns. His position as a moderate (and on policies related to that label) shifted later in life after he became vice president and ran for president in 2000.
Gore sat on the United States House Committee on Energy and Commerce and the United States House Committee on Science and Technology, chairing that committee for four years. He also sat on the House Intelligence Committee and in 1982 introduced the Gore Plan concerning arms control, to "reduce chances of a nuclear first strike by cutting multiple warheads and deploying single-warhead mobile launchers." While in the Senate, he sat on the Governmental Affairs, the Rules and Administration, and the Armed Services Committees. In 1991, Gore was one of ten democrats who supported the Gulf War.
Gore was one of the Atari Democrats who were given this name due to their "passion for technological issues, from biomedical research and genetic engineering to the environmental impact of the "greenhouse effect." On March 19, 1979 he became the first member of Congress to appear on C-SPAN. During this time, Gore co-chaired the Congressional Clearinghouse on the Future, along with Newt Gingrich. In addition, he has been described as having been a "genuine nerd, with a geek reputation running back to his days as a futurist Atari Democrat in the House. Before computers were comprehensible, let alone sexy, the poker-faced Gore struggled to explain artificial intelligence and fiber-optic networks to sleepy colleagues." Internet pioneers Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn have also noted that, "as far back as the 1970s, Congressman Gore promoted the idea of high speed telecommunications as an engine for both economic growth and the improvement of our educational system. He was the first elected official to grasp the potential of computer communications to have a broader impact than just improving the conduct of science and scholarship [...] the Internet, as we know it today, was not deployed until 1983. When the Internet was still in the early stages of its deployment, Congressman Gore provided
intellectual leadership by helping create the vision of the potential
benefits of high speed computing and communication. As an example, he sponsored hearings on how advanced technologies might be put to use in areas like coordinating the response of government agencies to natural disasters and other crises."
As a Senator, Gore began to craft the High Performance Computing and Communication Act of 1991 (commonly referred to as "The Gore Bill") after hearing the 1988 report Toward a National Research Network submitted to Congress by a group chaired by UCLA professor of computer science, Leonard Kleinrock, one of the central creators of the ARPANET (the ARPANET, first deployed by Kleinrock and others in 1969, is the predecessor of the Internet). The bill was passed on December 9, 1991 and led to the National Information Infrastructure (NII) which Gore referred to as the "information superhighway."
After joining the United States House of Representatives, Gore also held the "first congressional hearings on the climate change, and co-sponsor[ed] hearings on toxic waste and global warming." He continued to speak on the topic throughout the 1980s. In 1990, Senator Gore presided over a three-day conference with legislators from over 42 countries which sought to create a Global Marshall Plan, "under which industrial nations would help less developed countries grow economically while still protecting the environment."
First presidential run (1988)
Gore campaigned for the Democratic Party nomination for President of the United States against Joe Biden, Gary Hart, Dick Gephardt, Paul Simon, Jesse Jackson, and Michael Dukakis (who eventually won the Democratic nomination). Despite eventual defeat, Gore carried seven states in the primary, finishing 3rd.
While Gore initially denied an interest in running, he was the subject of speculation prior to his announcement: "National analysts make Sen. Gore a long-shot for the Presidential nomination, but many believe he could provide a natural complement for any of the other candidates: a young, attractive, moderate Vice Presidential nominee from the South. He currently denies any interest, but he carefully does not reject the idea out of hand." At the time, he was 39 years old, making him the "youngest serious Presidential candidate since John F. Kennedy."
After announcing that he would run, Gore ran his campaign as "a Southern centrist, [who] opposed federal funding for abortion. He favored a moment of silence for prayer in the schools and voted against banning the interstate sale of handguns." In addition, CNN noted that, "in 1988, for the first time, 12 Southern states would hold their primaries on the same day, Super Tuesday. Gore thought he would be the only Southern candidate. He had not counted on Jesse Jackson." Jackson defeated Gore in the South Carolina Primary, winning, "more than half the total vote, three times that of his closest rival here, Senator Albert Gore Jr. of Tennessee." Gore next placed great hope on Super Tuesday where they split the Southern vote: Jackson winning Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi and Virginia; Gore winning Arkansas, North Carolina, Kentucky, Nevada, Tennessee, and Oklahoma. Gore was later endorsed by New York City Mayor, Ed Koch who made statements in favor of Israel and against Jackson. These statements further cast Gore in a negative light. The endorsement led voters away from Gore who only received 10% of the vote in the New York Primary. Gore then dropped out of the race. The New York Times argued that he lost support due to his attacks against Jackson, Dukakis, and others, as well as for his endorsement by Koch.
Gore was eventually able to mend fences with Jesse Jackson. Jackson supported the Clinton-Gore ticket in 1992 and 1996, and campaigned for the Gore-Lieberman ticket during the 2000 presidential election. Gore's policies changed substantially in 2000, reflecting his eight years as Vice President.
Son's 1989 accident, 1992 election, and first book
On April 3, 1989, the Gores and their six-year-old son Albert were crossing a street after a baseball game when Albert ran across the street to see his friend and was hit by a car. He was thrown and then traveled along the pavement for another . Gore later recalled: "I ran to his side and held him and called his name, but he was motionless, limp and still, without breath or pulse [...] His eyes were open with the nothingness stare of death, and we prayed, the two of us, there in the gutter, with only my voice." Albert was tended to by two nurses who happened to be present during the accident. The Gores spent the next month in the hospital with Albert. Gore also commented: "Our lives were consumed with the struggle to restore his body and spirit." This event was "a trauma so shattering that [Gore] views it as a moment of personal rebirth" and a "key moment in his life" which "changed everything."
In August 1991, Gore announced that his son's accident had "left a deep impression on our family" and that it was a factor in his decision not to run for president during the 1992 presidential election. Gore stated: "I would like to be President [...] But I am also a father, and I feel deeply about my responsibility to my children [...] I didn't feel right about tearing myself away from my family to the extent that is necessary in a Presidential campaign." During this time, Gore wrote Earth in the Balance, a text which became the first book written by a sitting U.S. Senator to make the New York Times bestseller list since John F. Kennedy's Profiles in Courage.
Vice presidency and second presidential run (1993-2001)
Vice presidency
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Gore initially hesitated to accept a position as Bill Clinton's running mate for the 1992 United States presidential election. After clashing with the Bush Administration over global warming, he decided to accept Clinton's request and became his running mate on July 10, 1992. Clinton's choice was perceived as unconventional (as rather than pick a running mate who would diversify the ticket, Clinton chose a fellow Southerner, who shared his political ideologies and who was also close in age) and was criticized by some. Clinton stated that he chose Gore due to his foreign policy experience, work with the environment, and commitment to his family. Clinton and Gore accepted the democratic nomination at the Democratic National Convention on July 17, 1992.
Known as the Baby Boomer Ticket and the Fortysomething Team, The New York Times noted that if elected, Clinton (who was 45) and Gore (who was 44) would be the "youngest team to make it to the White House in the country's history." Theirs was the first ticket since 1972 to try to capture the youth vote, a ticket which Gore referred to as "a new generation of leadership" . Washington Bureau Chief for The Baltimore Sun, Paul West, later suggested that, "Al Gore revolutionized the way vice presidents are made. When he joined Bill Clinton's ticket, it violated the old rules. Regional diversity? Not with two Southerners from neighboring states. Ideological balance? A couple of left-of-center moderates. [...] And yet, Gore has come to be regarded by strategists in both parties as the best vice presidential pick in at least 20 years."
The ticket increased in popularity after the candidates traveled with their wives, Hillary and Tipper on a "six-day, 1,000-mile bus ride, from New York to St. Louis." Gore also successfully debated against the other vice presidential candidates, Dan Quayle (a longtime colleague from the House and the Senate) and James Stockdale. The result of the campaign was a win by the Clinton-Gore ticket (43%) over the Bush-Quayle ticket (38 %). Clinton and Gore were inaugurated on January 20, 1993 and were re-elected to a second term in the 1996 election. At the beginning of the first term in 1992, Clinton and Gore developed a "two-page agreement outlining their relationship." Clinton committed himself to regular lunch meetings, recognized Gore as a principal adviser on nominations, and appointed some of Gore's chief advisers to key White House staff positions [...] Clinton involved Gore in decision-making to an unprecedented degree for a vice president. Through their weekly lunches and daily conversations, Gore became the president's "indisputable chief adviser."
Gore had a particular interest in reducing "waste, fraud, and abuse in the federal government and advocated trimming the size of the bureaucracy and the number of regulations." In addition, under the Clinton Administration, the U.S. economy expanded, according to David Greenberg (professor of history and media studies at Rutgers University) who argued that "by the end of the Clinton presidency, the numbers were uniformly impressive. Besides the record-high surpluses and the record-low poverty rates, the economy could boast the longest economic expansion in history; the lowest unemployment since the early 1970s; and the lowest poverty rates for single mothers, black Americans, and the aged."
installing computer cables with Vice President Al Gore on NetDay at Ygnacio Valley High School in Concord, CA. March 9, 1996.]]
This economic success was due in part to Gore's continued role as an Atari Democrat, promoting the development of information technology, which led to the dot-com boom (c. 1995-2001). Clinton and Gore entered office planning to finance research that would "flood the economy with innovative goods and services, lifting the general level of prosperity and strengthening American industry." Their overall aim was to fund the development of, "robotics, smart roads, biotechnology, machine tools, magnetic-levitation trains, fiber-optic communications and national computer networks. Also earmarked [were] a raft of basic technologies like digital imaging and data storage." These initiatives met with skepticism from critics who claimed that their initiatives would "backfire, bloating Congressional pork and creating whole new categories of Federal waste." During the election and while Vice President, Gore popularized the term Information Superhighway (which became synonymous with the internet) and was involved in the creation of the National Information Infrastructure. Gore first discussed his plans for the growing importance of information technology at UCLA on January 11, 1994 in a speech at the The Superhighway Summit. He was involved in a number of projects including NetDay'96 and 24 Hours in Cyberspace. The Clinton-Gore administration also launched the first official White House website in 1994 and subsequent versions through 2000. The Clipper Chip, which "Clinton inherited from a multi-year National Security Agency effort," was a method of hardware encryption with a government backdoor. It met with strong opposition from civil liberty groups and was abandoned by 1996.
with Gore in the White House during a visit of the 1993 Science Talent Search (STS) finalists on March 4, 1993.]]
Gore was also involved in a number of initiatives related to the environment. He launched the GLOBE program on Earth Day '94, an education and science activity that, according to Forbes magazine, "made extensive use of the Internet to increase student awareness of their environment". During the late 1990s, Gore strongly pushed for the passage of the Kyoto Protocol, which called for reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. Gore was opposed by the Senate, which passed unanimously (95-0) the Byrd-Hagel Resolution (S. Res. 98). In 1998, Gore began promoting a NASA satellite that would provide a constant view of the earth, marking the first time such an image would have been made since The Blue Marble photo from the 1972 Apollo 17 mission. During this time, he also became associated with Digital Earth.
In 1996 Gore became involved in a finance controversy over his attendance at an event at the Buddhist Hsi Lai Temple in Hacienda Heights, California. In an interview on NBC's Today the following year, Gore stated that, "I did not know that it was a fund-raiser. I knew it was a political event, and I knew there were finance people that were going to be present, and so that alone should have told me, 'This is inappropriate and this is a mistake; don't do this.' And I take responsibility for that. It was a mistake." In March 1997, Gore had to explain phone calls which he made to solicit funds for the Democratic Party for the 1996 election. In a news conference, Gore stated that, "all calls that I made were charged to the Democratic National Committee. I was advised there was nothing wrong with that. My counsel tells me there is no controlling legal authority that says that is any violation of any law." The phrase "no controlling legal authority" was criticized by some such as Charles Krauthammer, who stated: "Whatever other legacies Al Gore leaves behind between now and retirement, he forever bequeaths this newest weasel word to the lexicon of American political corruption." Robert Conrad, Jr. was the head of a Justice Department task force appointed by Attorney General Janet Reno to investigate Gore's fund-raising controversies. In Spring 2000, Conrad asked Reno to appoint an independent counsel to continue the investigation. After looking into the matter, Reno judged that the appointment of an independent counsel was unwarranted.
Soon afterwards, Gore also had to contend with the Lewinsky scandal, involving an affair between President Clinton and an intern, Monica Lewinsky. Gore initially defended Clinton, whom he believed to be innocent, stating, "He is the president of the country! He is my friend [...] I want to ask you now, every single one of you, to join me in supporting him." After Clinton was impeached Gore continued to defend him stating, "I've defined my job in exactly the same way for six years now [...] to do everything I can to help him be the best president possible."
Second presidential run (2000)
There was talk of a potential run in the 2000 presidential race by Gore as early as January 1998. Gore discussed the possibility of running during a March 9, 1999 interview with CNN's Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer. In response to Wolf Blitzer's question: "Why should Democrats, looking at the Democratic nomination process, support you instead of Bill Bradley," Gore responded:
- I'll be offering my vision when my campaign begins. And it will be comprehensive and sweeping. And I hope that it will be compelling enough to draw people toward it. I feel that it will be. But it will emerge from my dialogue with the American people. I've traveled to every part of this country during the last six years. During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet. I took the initiative in moving forward a whole range of initiatives that have proven to be important to our country's economic growth and environmental protection, improvements in our educational system.
UCLA professor of information studies Philip E. Agre and journalist Eric Boehlert argued that three articles in Wired News led to the creation of the widely spread urban legend that Gore claimed to have "invented the Internet," which followed this interview. In addition, computer professionals and congressional colleagues argued in his defense. Internet pioneers Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn stated that "we don't think, as some people have argued, that Gore intended to claim he 'invented' the Internet. Moreover, there is no question in our minds that while serving as Senator, Gore's initiatives had a significant and beneficial effect on the still-evolving Internet." Cerf would also later state: "Al Gore had seen what happened with the National Interstate and Defense Highways Act of 1956, which his father introduced as a military bill. It was very powerful. Housing went up, suburban boom happened, everybody became mobile. Al was attuned to the power of networking much more than any of his elective colleagues. His initiatives led directly to the commercialization of the Internet. So he really does deserve credit." Former Republican Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Newt Gingrich also stated: "In all fairness, it's something Gore had worked on a long time. Gore is not the Father of the Internet, but in all fairness, Gore is the person who, in the Congress, most systematically worked to make sure that we got to an Internet, and the truth is -- and I worked with him starting in 1978 when I got [to Congress], we were both part of a "futures group" -- the fact is, in the Clinton administration, the world we had talked about in the '80s began to actually happen." Finally, Wolf Blitzer (who conducted the original 1999 interview) stated in 2008 that: "I didn't ask him about the Internet. I asked him about the differences he had with Bill Bradley [...] Honestly, at the time, when he said it, it didn't dawn on me that this was going to have the impact that it wound up having, because it was distorted to a certain degree and people said they took what he said, which was a carefully phrased comment about taking the initiative and creating the Internet to -- I invented the Internet. And that was the sort of shorthand, the way his enemies projected it and it wound up being a devastating setback to him and it hurt him, as I'm sure he acknowledges to this very day."
Gore, himself, would later poke fun at the controversy. In 2000, while on the The Late Show with David Letterman he read Letterman's Top 10 List (which for this show was called, "Top Ten Rejected Gore - Lieberman Campaign Slogans") to the audience. Number nine on the list was: "Remember, America, I gave you the Internet, and I can take it away!" A few years later in 2005, when Gore was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award "for three decades of contributions to the Internet" at the Webby Awards he joked in his acceptance speech (limited to five words according to Webby Awards rules): "Please don't recount this vote." He was introduced by Vint Cerf who used the same format to joke: "We all invented the Internet." Gore, who was then asked to add a few more words to his speech, stated: "It is time to reinvent the Internet for all of us to make it more robust and much more accessible and use it to reinvigorate our democracy."
Gore formally announced his candidacy for president in a speech on June 16, 1999, in Carthage, Tennessee. He was introduced by his eldest daughter, Karenna Gore Schiff, who was pregnant at the time with her first child. In making the speech, Gore also distanced himself from Bill Clinton, whom he stated had lied to him. Gore was "briefly interrupted" by AIDS protesters claiming Gore was working with the pharmaceutical industry to prevent access to generic medicines for poor nations and chanting "Gore's greed kills." Additional speeches were also interrupted by the protesters. Gore responded, "I love this country. I love the First Amendment [...] Let me say in response to those who may have chosen an inappropriate way to make their point, that actually the crisis of AIDS in Africa is one that should command the attention of people in the United States and around the world." Gore also issued a statement saying that he supported efforts to lower the cost of the AIDS drugs, provided that they "are done in a way consistent with international agreements."
Gore faced an early challenge by former New Jersey senator Bill Bradley. Bradley was the only candidate to oppose Gore and was considered a "fresh face" for the White House. Gore challenged Bradley to a series of debates which took the form of "town hall" meetings. Gore went on the offensive during these debates leading to a drop in the polls for Bradley. Gore eventually went on to win every primary and caucus and in March 2000, secured the Democratic nomination.
On August 13, 2000, Gore announced that he had selected Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut as his vice presidential running mate. Lieberman became "the first person of the Jewish faith to run for the nation's second-highest office" (Barry Goldwater, who ran for president in 1964, was of "Jewish origin"). Lieberman, who was a more conservative Democrat than Gore, had publicly blasted President Clinton for the Monica Lewinsky affair. Many pundits saw Gore's choice of Lieberman as further distancing him from the scandals of the Clinton White House. Gore's daughter, Karenna, together with her father's former Harvard roommate Tommy Lee Jones, officially nominated Gore as the Democratic presidential candidate during the 2000 Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles. Gore accepted his party's nomination and spoke about the major themes of his campaign, stating in particular his plan to extend Medicare to pay for prescription drugs, to work for a sensible universal health-care system. Soon after the convention, with running mate Joe Lieberman, Gore hit the campaign trail. He and Bush were deadlocked in the polls. Gore and Bush participated in three televised debates. While both sides claimed victory after each, Gore was critiqued as either too stiff, too reticent, or too aggressive in contrast to Bush.
Recount
On election night, news networks first called Florida for Gore, later retracted the projection, and then called Florida for Bush, before finally retracting that projection as well. Florida's Republican Secretary of State, Katherine Harris, eventually certified Florida's vote count. This led to the Florida election recount, a move to further examine the Florida results.
The Florida recount was stopped a few weeks later by the Supreme Court of the United States. In the ruling, Bush v. Gore, the Florida recount was called unconstitutional and that no constitutionally valid recount could be completed by the December 12 deadline, effectively ending the recounts. This 7-2 vote ruled that the standards the Florida Supreme Court provided for a recount were unconstitutional due to violations of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, and further ruled 5-4 that no constitutionally valid recount could be completed by the December 12 deadline. This case ordered an end to recounting underway in selected Florida counties, effectively giving George W. Bush a 537 vote victory in Florida and consequently Florida's 25 electoral votes and the presidency. The results of the decision led to Gore winning the popular vote by approximately 500,000 votes nationwide, but receiving 266 electoral votes to Bush's 271 (1 District of Columbia Elector abstained). On December 13, 2000, Gore conceded the election. Gore strongly disagreed with the Court's decision, but in his concession speech stated that, "for the sake of our unity as a people and the strength of our democracy, I offer my concession."
The 2000 election is the subject of a 2008 made-for-TV movie directed by Jay Roach, produced by, and starring Kevin Spacey called Recount. It premiered on the HBO cable network on May 25, 2008.
Other presidential elections
Presidential run speculation (2004 and 2008)
asks: "Will you run again?" Gore replies, "Ohh, you aren't going to get me on this one!"]]
Gore was a potential candidate for the 2004 Presidential Election (a bumper sticker, "Re-elect Gore in 2004!" was popular). On December 16, 2002, however, Gore announced that he would not run in 2004. Despite Gore taking himself out of the race, a handful of his supporters formed a national campaign to draft him into running. The draft movement, however, failed to convince Gore to run.
The prospect of a Gore candidacy arose again between 2006 to early 2008 in light of the upcoming 2008 presidential election. Although Gore frequently stated that he had "no plans to run,"
he did not reject the possibility of future involvement in politics which led to speculation that he might. This was due in part to his increased popularity after the release of the 2006 documentary, An Inconvenient Truth. The director of the film, Davis Guggenheim, stated that after the release of the film, "Everywhere I go with him, they treat him like a rock star." After An Inconvenient Truth was nominated for an Academy Award, Donna Brazile (Gore's campaign chairwoman from the 2000 campaign) speculated on the possibility that Gore might announce a possible presidential candidacy during the Oscars. During the 79th Academy Awards ceremony, Gore and actor Leonardo DiCaprio shared the stage to speak about the "greening" of the ceremony itself. Gore began to give a speech that appeared to be leading up to an announcement that he would run for president. However, background music drowned him out and he was escorted offstage, implying that it was a rehearsed gag, which he later acknowledged. After An Inconvenient Truth won the Academy Award for Best Documentary, speculation increased about a possible presidential run. Gore's popularity was indicated in polls which showed that even without running, he was coming in second or third among possible Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and John Edwards. Grassroots draft campaigns also developed with the hope that they could encourage Gore to run. Gore, however, remained firm in his decision and declined to run for the presidency.
Involvement in presidential campaigns (2004 and 2008)
After announcing he would not run in the 2004 U.S. presidential election, Gore endorsed Vermont governor Howard Dean in December, 2003 weeks before the first primary of the election cycle. He was severely criticized for this endorsement by eight Democratic contenders particularly since he did not endorse his former running mate Joe Lieberman (Gore preferred Dean over Lieberman because Lieberman supported the Iraq War and Gore did not). Dean's campaign soon became a target of attacks and eventually failed, with Gore's early endorsement being credited as a factor. In The New York Times, Dean stated: "I actually do think the endorsement of Al Gore began the decline." The Times further noted that "Dean instantly amplified his statement to indicate that the endorsement from Mr. Gore, a powerhouse of the establishment, so threatened the other Democratic candidates that they began the attacks on his candidacy that helped derail it." Dean's former campaign manager, Joe Trippi, also stated that after Gore's endorsement of Dean, "alarm bells went off in every newsroom in the country, in every other campaign in the country," indicating that if something did not change, Dean would be the nominee. Later, in March 2004, Gore endorsed John Kerry and gave Kerry $6 million in funds left over from his own unsuccessful 2000 bid. Gore also opened the 2004 Democratic National Convention.
A few years later, during the 2008 primaries, Gore remained neutral towards all of the candidates which led to speculation that he would come out of a brokered 2008 Democratic National Convention as a "compromise candidate" if the party decided it could not nominate one. Gore responded by stating that these events would not take place because a candidate would be nominated through the primary process. When Senator Barack Obama became the presumptive Democratic nominee for president on June 3, 2008, speculation arose again that Gore might be tapped for the vice presidency. On June 16, 2008 (a week after Hillary Clinton had suspended her campaign), Gore endorsed Obama in a speech given in Detroit, Michigan which renewed speculation of an Obama-Gore ticket. Gore stated, however, that he was not interested in being vice president again. On the timing and nature of Gore's endorsement, some argued that Gore waited because he did not want to repeat his calamitous early endorsement of Howard Dean during the 2004 Presidential Election. On the final night of the 2008 Democratic National Convention, shortly before Obama delivered his acceptance address, Gore gave a speech offering his full support. Such support led to new speculation after Obama was elected President during the 2008 Presidential election that Gore would be named a member of the Obama administration. This speculation was enhanced by a meeting held between Obama, Gore, and Joe Biden in Chicago on December 9, 2008. However, Democratic officials and Gore's spokeswoman stated that Gore will not be a member of the Obama administration and that during the meeting the only subject under discussion was the climate crisis. On December 19, 2008, Gore described Obama's environmental administrative choices of Carol Browner, Steven Chu, and Lisa Jackson as "an exceptional team to lead the fight against the climate crisis."
Environmental activism and Nobel Peace Prize (2004-Present)
in the city hall of Oslo, 2007.]]
In 2004, Gore co-launched Generation Investment Management, a company for which he serves as Chair. The company was "a new London fund management firm that plans to create environment-friendly portfolios. Generation Investment will manage assets of institutional investors, such as pension funds, foundations and endowments, as well as those of 'high net worth individuals,' from offices in London and Washington, D.C."
In 2006, Gore founded The Alliance for Climate Protection, an organization which eventually founded the We Campaign. Also in 2006, Gore starred in the documentary film An Inconvenient Truth, which won the Academy Award for Documentary Feature. Director Davis Guggenheim asked Gore to join him and other members of the crew on stage, where Gore gave a brief speech, stating: "My fellow Americans, people all over the world, we need to solve the climate crisis. It's not a political issue; it's a moral issue. We have everything we need to get started, with the possible exception of the will to act. That's a renewable resource. Let's renew it." Gore also published an accompanying book, An Inconvenient Truth: The Planetary Emergency of Global Warming and What We Can Do About It, released by Rodale Press.
In 2007, Gore was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, which was shared by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, headed by Rajendra K. Pachauri (Delhi, India). The award was given "for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change." Gore and Pachauri accepted the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway on December 10, 2007. He also helped to organize the Live Earth benefit concerts.
Gore also became a partner in the venture capital firm, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, heading that firm's climate change solutions group.
In 2008, Gore gave a speech at the DAR Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C. in which he called for a move towards replacing a dependence upon "carbon-based fuels" with green energy by the United States within 10 years. Gore stated: "When President John F. Kennedy challenged our nation to land a man on the moon and bring him back safely in 10 years, many people doubted we could accomplish that goal. But 8 years and 2 months later, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the surface of the moon." Some criticized his plan. According to the BBC, "Robby Diamond, president of a bipartisan think tank called Securing America's Future Energy, said weaning the nation off fossil fuels could not be done in a decade. 'The country is not going to be able to go cold turkey [...] We have a hundred years of infrastructure with trillions of dollars of investment that is not simply going to be made obsolete.'"
BankAtlantic Center, February 28, 2007.]]
Gore's estate has been criticized twice by the group the Tennessee Center for Policy Research (TCPR). In February 2007 the group stated that their analysis of records from the Nashville Electric Service indicated that the Gore household uses "20 times as much electricity as the average household nationwide." In reporting on TCPR's claims, MSNBC noted that the Nashville Electric Service report "omits several other key facts. The former vice president's home has 20 rooms, including home offices for himself and his wife, as well as a guest house and special security measures. Furthermore, the Gores buy energy produced from renewable sources, such as wind and solar. Tonight, Countdown confirmed with the local utility officials that their program, called the Green Power Switch, actually costs more for the Gores -- four dollars for every 150 kilowatt hours. Meaning, by our calculations, our math here, that the Gores actually chose to increase their electric bill by $5,893, more than 50 percent, in order to minimize carbon pollution." A few months later, the Associated Press reported on December 13, 2007 that Gore "has completed a host of improvements to make the home more energy efficient, and a building-industry group has praised the house as one of the nation's most environmentally friendly [...] 'Short of tearing it down and starting anew, I don't know how it could have been rated any higher,' said Kim Shinn of the non-profit U.S. Green Building Council, which gave the house its second-highest rating for sustainable design."
Gore was criticized by the TCPR again in June 2008, after the group obtained his public utility bills from the Nashville Electric Service and compared "electricity consumption between the 12 months before June 2007, when it says he installed his new technology, and the year since then." According to their analysis, the Gores consumed 10% more energy in the year since their home received its eco-friendly modifications. TCPR also argued that, while the "average American household consumes 11,040 kWh in an entire year," the Gore residence "uses an average of 17,768 kWh per month –1,638 kWh more energy per month than before the renovations." Gore's spokeswoman Kalee Kreider countered the claim by stating that the Gores' "utility bills have gone down 40 percent since the green retrofit." and that "the three-year renovation on the home wasn't complete until November, so it's a bit early to attempt a before-and-after comparison." She also noted that TCPR did not include Gore's gas bill in their analysis (which they had done the previous year) and that the gas "bill has gone down 90 percent [...] And when the Gores do power up, they pay for renewable resources, like wind and solar power or methane gas." Media Matters for America also discussed the fact that "100 percent of the electricity in his home comes from green power" and quoted the Tennessee Valley Authority as stating that "[a]lthough no source of energy is impact-free, renewable resources create less waste and pollution."
Political activism
During the 1990s, Gore spoke out on a number of issues. In a 1992 speech on the Gulf War, Gore stated that he twice attempted to get the U.S. government to pull the plug on support to Saddam Hussein, citing Hussein's use of poison gas, support of terrorism, and his burgeoning nuclear program, but was opposed both times by the Reagan and Bush administrations. In the wake of the Al-Anfal Campaign, during which Hussein staged deadly mustard and nerve gas attacks on Kurdish Iraqis, Gore cosponsored the Prevention of Genocide Act of 1988, which would have cut all assistance to Iraq. The bill was defeated in part due to intense lobbying of Congress by the Reagan-Bush White House and a veto threat from President Reagan. In 1998, at a conference of APEC hosted by Malaysia, Gore objected to the indictment, arrest and jailing of President Mahathir Mohammad’s longtime second-in-command Anwar Ibrahim, a move which received a negative response from leaders there. Ten years later, Gore again protested when Ibrahim was arrested a second time, a decision condemned by Malaysian foreign minister Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim.
Later, during the 2000s, Gore frequently questioned policies associated with the Bush administration. In a 23 September 2002 speech given before the Commonwealth Club of California, Gore criticized President George W. Bush and Congress for the rush to war prior to the outbreak of hostilities in Iraq. He compared this decision to the Gulf War (which Gore had voted for) stating, "Back in 1991, I was one of a handful of Democrats in the United States Senate to vote in favor of the resolution endorsing the Persian Gulf War [...] But look at the differences between the resolution that was voted on in 1991 and the one this administration is proposing that the Congress vote on in 2002. The circumstances are really completely different. To review a few of them briefly: in 1991, Iraq had crossed an international border, invaded a neighboring sovereign nation and annexed its territory. Now by contrast in 2002, there has been no such invasion." In a speech given in 2004, during the presidential election, Gore accused George W. Bush of betraying the country by using the 9/11 attacks as a justification for the invasion of Iraq. The next year, Gore gave an hour-long speech which covered many topics including what he called "religious zealots" who claim special knowledge of God's will in American politics. Gore stated: "They even claim that those of us who disagree with their point of view are waging war against people of faith. How dare they!" After Katrina in 2005, Gore chartered two planes in order to evacuate 270 people from New Orleans and criticized the Bush administration's response to the hurricane. In 2006, Gore criticized President Bush's use of domestic wiretaps without a warrant. A month later, in a speech given at the Jeddah Economic Forum, Gore criticized the treatment of Arabs in the United States after 9/11 stating, "Unfortunately there have been terrible abuses and it's wrong [...] I do want you to know that it does not represent the desires or wishes or feelings of the majority of the citizens of my country." In 2008, Gore argued against the ban of same-sex marriage on his Current TV website, stating his thoughts that "it's wrong for the government to discriminate against people because of that person’s sexual orientation."
Gore's 2007 book, The Assault on Reason, is an analysis of what Gore refers to as the "emptying out of the marketplace of ideas" in civic discourse. He attributes this phenomenon to the influence of television and argues that it endangers American democracy. By contrast, Gore argues, the Internet can revitalize and ultimately "redeem the integrity of representative democracy."
Awards and honors
Gore is the recipient of a number of awards including the Nobel Peace Prize (together with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) in 2007, a Primetime Emmy Award for Current TV in 2007, a Webby Award in 2005 and the Prince of Asturias Award in 2007 for International Cooperation. He also starred in the 2006 documentary An Inconvenient Truth, which won an Academy Award in 2007.
Selected publications
New York Times, 9 November 2008.*Know Climate Change and 101 Q and A on Climate Change from 'Save Planet Earth Series', 2008 (children's books)****. February 8, 1996. 24 Hours in Cyberspace "." In by Tracy LaQuey, 1994.". In Silent Spring by Rachel Carson. 1994. New York : Houghton-Mifflin. "", Billboard,Vol. 106 Issue 43, October 22, 1994: 6.. Washington, D.C.: The White House, October, 1993 (with William Clinton). . Washington, DC: The White House, August 1994 (with William Clinton). . Washington, DC: The White House, February 22, 1993 (with William Clinton).Putting People First: How We Can All Change America. New York: Times Books, 1992 (with William Clinton). "Infrastructure for the global village: computers, networks and public policy." Scientific American Special Issue on Communications, Computers, and Networks, September 1991. 265(3): 150–153.
External links
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