Al Gore
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Albert Arnold Gore, Jr. (born March 31, 1948) is an American politician and who served as the forty-fifth Vice President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He ran for President in 2000 following Bill Clinton's two four-year terms, and was controversially defeated by the Republican candidate George W. Bush.
Early and personal life
Born the son of Albert Gore, Sr., a veteran Democratic Senator from Tennessee and grandson of Thomas Gore, and Pauline Gore, Al Gore Jr. divided his childhood between Washington, D.C. (where his father worked) and Carthage, Tennessee. During the school year, Gore Jr. lived in a hotel in Washington, where he attended the elite St. Albans School; during summer vacations, he lived in Carthage, where he worked on the Gore family farm.
In 1965, Gore enrolled at Harvard College, where he majored in government and met Tipper Aitcheson, whom he would later marry. His roommate was actor Tommy Lee Jones. He graduated from Harvard in June of 1969 with a Bachelor of Arts degree. He majored in Government.
With Tipper, he has four children: Karenna (born August 6, 1973), married to Drew Schiff; Kristin (born June 5, 1977), Sarah (born January 7, 1979), and Albert (born October 19, 1982). The Gores also have two grandchildren: Wyatt & Anna Schiff.
Vice President Gore owns a small farm near Carthage, and the family attends New Salem Missionary Baptist Church in Carthage.
Career as journalist
Although opposed to the Vietnam war, on August 7, 1969, Gore enrolled in the army to participate in the Vietnam War effort. After completing training as a military journalist, Gore shipped to Vietnam in early 1971. He served as an Army war correspondent until May 24 of that year, slightly less than two years after he enlisted.
After returning from Vietnam, Gore spent five years as a reporter for the Tennessean, a newspaper headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee. During this time, Gore also attended Vanderbilt Divinity School and Law School, although he did not complete a degree at either. Gore's mother was a member of Vanderbilt Law School's first class to accept women.
Early political career
In the spring of 1976, Gore quit law school to run for the U.S. House, in Tennessee's Fourth District. Gore defeated Stanley Rogers in the Democratic primary, then ran unopposed and was elected to his first Congressional post. He was re-elected three times, in 1978, 1980, and 1982. In 1984 Gore did not run for the House; instead he successfully ran for a seat in the Senate. Gore served as the Senator from Tennessee until 1992, when he was elected Vice President.
A candidate for the Democratic nomination for President in 1988, he won more than three million votes and Democratic contests in seven states, but failed to obtain the Democratic nomination, which went instead to Michael Dukakis.
On April 3, 1989, Gore's six-year-old son Albert was nearly killed in an automobile accident while leaving the Baltimore Orioles opening game. Because of this and the resulting lengthy healing process, his father chose to stay near him during the recovery instead of laying the foundation for a presidential primary campaign against eventual nominee Bill Clinton. Gore started writing Earth in the Balance, his book on environmental conservation, during his son's recovery.
Vice Presidency
Al Gore was inaugurated as the 45th Vice President of the United States on January 20, 1993. President Clinton chose then-Senator Gore to be his running mate on July 9, 1992. President Clinton and Vice President Gore were re-elected to a second term in the U.S. presidential election, 1996.
Gore was mostly a behind-the-scenes player in his tenure as Vice President. Early in their first term, the president enlisted Gore to study the entire federal government to pinpoint wasteful areas. Gore's National Performance Review guided Clinton when he downsized the government. The vice president was also instrumental in the passage of 1993's North American Free Trade Agreement.
The president often looked to Gore for advice on foreign-policy issues (partly for which Gore was nominated due to Clinton's lack of experience in the field as Governor) Gore favored action against Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic in 1998. He also supported the bombing campaign (Operation Desert Fox) in Iraq in response to Saddam Hussein's unwillingness to cooperate with UN inspectors.
The Clinton-Gore Administration led the United States into the longest period of sustained economic growth in American history -- marked by 22 million new jobs, and real incomes rising for the first time in a generation.
2000 candidacy
After two terms as Vice President, Gore again ran for President. In the Democratic primaries, Gore faced an early challenge from Bill Bradley. Bradley withdrew from the race in early March 2000 after Gore won every primary election.
During the entire U.S. presidential election, 2000, Gore was neck and neck in the polls with Governor of Texas George W. Bush. The actual vote on November 7 was so close that it gave rise to litigation that took more than a month to settle. Although he won the nationwide popular vote by more than 500,000 votes, he lost by 5 electoral votes, with the outcome ultimately decided by only a few hundred popular votes in Florida. Gore ended up receiving the most votes of any Democrat candidate in history.
Private citizen
Following his election loss, Gore accepted visiting professorships at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism and Middle Tennessee State University. In 2002, Al Gore accepted a consulting job with a Los Angeles law firm and become an adviser to Google. Following the November 5, 2002 midterm elections Gore re-emerged into the public eye with a 14-city book tour and a well-orchestrated "full Gore" media blitz which included a pair of policy speeches. On September 23, Gore delivered a speech on the impending War with Iraq and the War on Terrorism that generated a fair amount of commentary. Less than two weeks later, on October 2, he made a speech on Bush's handling of the economy to the Brookings Institution. Also, during this time period Gore guest starred on several programs such as the David Letterman Show and Saturday Night Live appearing much more relaxed and funnier as a private citizen than he did while holding public office.
In 2003 Gore joined the board of directors of Apple Computer. He also made the news around this time when it was reported that he was looking to buy the Vivendi Cable Network to start a news station that would have a combination of CNN and MTV and would try to reach to young viewers. However, till this point in time, no deal has been struck between the Gore led group and Vivendi. On the political front, Gore assumed an elder-statesman like role in the Democratic Party when he offered his criticism and advice to the Bush Administration on key issues such as the Occupation of Iraq, USA Patriot Act, and the environment.
2004 presidential election
Initially, Al Gore was touted as the most logical opponent of George W. Bush in the 2004 United States Presidential Election. "Re-elect Gore!" was a common slogan among many Democrats who felt the former Vice President had been unfairly cheated out the presidency, despite winning of the popular vote. On December 16, 2002 however, Gore announced that he would not run in 2004, saying that it was time for "fresh faces" and "new ideas" to emerge from the Democrats. When he appeared on a 60 Minutes interview, Gore said that he felt if he would have ran, the election would be made into a rematch of President Bush and himself, and would not have focused on the issues that needed to be addressed. Gore's former running mate, Joe Lieberman quickly announced his own candidacy, something he vowed he would not do if Gore ran.
In a surprise move that shocked many political pundits, Al Gore publicly endorsed former Vermont Governor Howard Dean (over his former running mate Liberman) weeks before the first primary of the election cycle. Many believe that while Dean was the front-runner with respect to polling in the early primary states and the top fundraiser, this move in many ways legitimized Dean into the establishment faction of the Democratic Party, leaving Dean in a very strong position to win the Democratic nomination.
Related topics
External links
- General
- Recent speeches by Al Gore
- Al Gore and the Internet
- Al Gore myths and media bias