Gore In Context

12/15: Gore winning popular vote by 550,000 -- uselectionatlas.org
12/14: moveon.org -- join new push for voting reform
Jesse Jackson's election project -- www.rainbowpush.org/
36% don't know Gore won national popular vote ?!?

Gore In Context

Debunking urban legends about Al Gore.

The purpose of this site is to correct misquotes of Al Gore and to counter other attacks on Gore and Hillary.

Light stories, biography stuff

Putting things in perspective
        From the "Press Roast" Gridiron Dinner
        Why so many misquotes? UK Guardian: Pinocchio's nose belongs to critics, not to Gore
                      MSNBC: "Al Gore is a liar? That’s not true" by David Neiwert
                             Cox News Opinion: "Gore-is-a-liar campaign is a lie" By Tom Teepen
                             Time/BBC: Dubya's devilishly clever campaign against Al Gore "

Gore has had an unusual life, but exaggerations are misquotes:

1. Gore did not say he invented the Internet (misquote)
(but he did lead Congress in its creation: Lars Erik Nelson, others)

2. Gore really was a model for Love Story (misquote)

3. Gore's farmboy stories are true

4. Gore was first to publicize Love Canal (misquote)

5. Town meetings: "five in a given Saturday"

Re Gore's background

1. Gore graduated with honors from Harvard and made good grades in grad school

2. Gore Sr was early supporter of civil rights -- true

3. Zinc mining is NOT allowed on the Gore family farm

4. Occidental Petroleum donates to Bush Jr, not to Gore

5. (and Cheney owns $19m oil stock options)

6. 'Bodyguard' story a misquote, and not supported

7. Vietnam: "I did not see combat myself. I was fired upon."

8. Town meetings: "five in a given Saturday"

9. Gore's sister did volunteer work for the Peace Corps

10. 10/23: Gore was at his sister's deathbed, did change re tobacco

11. Background on Earth in the Balance

12. Hometown and early schooling: much rural as well as in Washington

Miscellaneous false stories

1. Playboy party story untrue: party was not for Gore

2. Gore always supported Wade-vs-Roe/Right to Choose; now also fed. funding

3. Re Elian Gonzales -- Green Cards for everyone, so Family Court could rule for Juan

4. Bush Sr ran ads and used Willie Horton -- Gore did not

5. Re dog and drug prices

6. Re Eels CD at non-Gore event

7. 'Hush-hush on mole' was joking email by young staffer

8. Gore visited 17 disaster areas with Witt/FEMA, visited Texas fire on different day

9. 10/12: Desk story stands up :-) (Principal fibbed)

10. Re Gulf War vote

11. "John 16:3" was a mis-speak by Bush Sr, not by Gore

12. "Union lullaby" an old joke

13. Daisy ad / Chinese money is fiction

14. Dog drug story figures right, quotes are uncertain

15. 10/24: Drug companies do spend more on ads and promo than on R&D

16. Gore was involved in SPR before it was built

Re Gore's past debates, links to transcripts
        (see also horton.html)
       (Gore did not say he wrote the EITC)
         (Gore said Bradley voted against an "extra billion" in flood relief)

Other misquotes:

1. What Gore really said to NAACP about the census

2. Many misquotes of Gore's statements in past debates
re EITC, "pretty savvy", racial profiling in NJ, etc

3. Bush Sr ran ads and used Willie Horton -- Gore did not

Recent additions

36% don't know Gore won national popular vote ?!?
11/26: Seminole info many cites
11:26: Hand recounts more accurate -- more cites -- Mitchell comment
11/23: "Under the Hood of the Florida Supreme Court Decision"
11/22: Text of Texas recount standards
FULL TEXT of Gore's offer re recounts
Machine counts not consistent - chart of results
13 Myths about the 2000 Election
Miscellaneous info on 11/19-11/26 recount phase: http://www.gore-in-context.com/recount-misc-1.html
(previously titled misc-nov19.html)
11/13: Answers to GOP claims about recounts and revote
11/12: Bush wanted outcry for Electoral College to vote for him if he were in Gore's place
11/11: Electoral College can vote without Florida (so there!)
11/9: "Lies" are media's problem, not Gore's -- Woodard
11/9: Dismantling "21 Lies" list -- Woodard
11/7: Gore was involved in SPR before it was built
11/7: (Gore said Bradley voted against an "extra billion" in flood relief)
11/5: Fallacies in National Review "lie list"
11/4: Hometown and early schooling: much rural as well as in Washington
10/30: Daisy ad / Chinese money is fiction
10/29: Dog drug story figures right, quotes are uncertain
10/25: Scoring 'lie lists' (critics are usually lying themselves :-)
10/24: Drug companies do spend more on ads and promo than on R&D
10/24: "Union lullaby" an old joke
10/24: More on EITC
10/23: Gore was at his sister's deathbed, did change re tobacco
10/22: "I did not see combat myself. I was fired upon."
10/20: Can lady neither hobo nor hobbyist
10/19: Printer-Friendly links to debunk articles in popular media etc
10/18 Independent voters: Gore won debate by 13%
10/15: Gore's Gulf War vote
10/13: Desk story stands up :-) (Principal fibbed)
10/12: FEMA story: Gore was there, where was Witt?

Campaign Finance issues

"Gore is now the target of what appears to be a largely phony scandal
being fanned by ... George W. Bush, and the media. .... [T]he charge that
Gore knowingly went there "to raise money" in any illegal or improper sense
-- let alone to shake down monks and nuns -- has now been persuasively refuted.
So have the claims that he has been deceptive or disingenuous in his explanations. ....
[T]he suggestions that he has been dishonest about the Buddhist temple and
his fund-raising phone calls seem like a bum rap."
        -- Stuart Taylor, conservative writer, defending Gore
           Gore and the Buddhist Temple -- a Phony Scandal?
           Atlantic Monthly http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/nj/taylor2000-06-07.htm

"No controlling authority", Buddhist temple

An excellent detailed overview re Buddhist temple story at americanlawyer.com: "Temple in a Teapot"
See also http://www.salonmagazine.com/news/col/cona/2000/06/07/china/index.html

Correcting false stories about the Clintons

Hillary really IS a life-long Yankees fan.:-) Documented! :-)
WH, Hillary, Livingston cleared in "Filegate" (900 FBI files)
WH cleared of influencing IRS audits
"Meaning of 'is' " transcript url and excerpt

All below here is linked from above.

Links to other sites (and to opinion pieces in this site)

Short debunking articles

Major debunking sites

Somerby's Dailyhowler.com http://www.dailyhowler.com Readable and good humoured. The name means "Daily Boner": mistakes in the press. Somerby has good research and cites from legit media: NYT, WP, etc.

The Howlings www.speakout.com/activism/oped/Howlings/072700/default.asp Somerby's column at speakout.com. Simpler than the dailyhowler.com site.

http://www.journalism.org/publ_research/character1.html Pew/PEJ report: media coverage favors Bush

http://www.cjr.org/year/00/3/hall.asp Columbia Journalism Review, September/October 2000 | GORE MEDIA COVERAGE -- PLAYING HARDBALL BY JANE HALL -- different study, same conclusion

More on press coverage:
http://search.ft.com/search/multi/globalarchive.jsp?docId=000817000445
http://www.cjr.org/year/00/3/hall.asp
http://www.people-press.org/july00rpt.htm
http://www.cmpa.com/pressrel/electpr2.htm

American Dispatches
http://www.americandispatches.com/adstories/020900b.html -- good article on media treatment of misquotes of Gore

Consortium Serious investigative journalism.

http://www.prospect.org/ Thoughtful op-eds, well-researched.

http://commons.somewhere.com/rre/2000/RRE.The.New.Science.of.C.html "The New Science of Character Assassination"

General information sites

WP page with many important links: to WP profiles, Bush's record, Gore speech, etc

http://www.nytimes.com/library/politics/camp/081300wh-gore-record.html NYT profile "Issues Ready for Prime Time"
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/10/16/politics/16GOV.html NYT page with links to profiles of Bush and Gore

Gore's acceptance speech -- transcript

www.electgore.com "The Unofficial Al Gore Website" High-tech, useful.

http://gwis2.circ.gwu.edu/~gprice/speech.htm Links to transcipts of convention speeches, many other things

Election2000 transcript links Debates and speeches

Debate transcripts for Oct 2000 debates

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/onpolitics/elections/nysenatetext100800.htm Second Hillary/Lazio debate
http://washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/onpolitics/elections/debatetext101100.htm Second Gore/Bush debate

Gore biography sites:
http://www.politics1.com/gore.htm
http://www.a-ten.com/biographies/al_gore.html
http://www.austin360.com/shared/news/politics/gore.html
WP series "The Life of Al Gore"
Good factual profile/biography at USAToday

Comparison sites

http://www.realplansforrealpeople.com/ Comparison site with good figures re tax plans, health insurance, etc

Sites about Bush and Cheney

BushReport.com Links to legit media headlines about Bush and Gore, lots of Texas papers. Updated daily, archived.

http://home.austin.rr.com/leland/SUBJECTBIG3.html Good source of serious articles from legit media and TPJ re Bush's record in Texas

The Bush Files Links to articles on Bush from Texas Observer, Molly Ivins, etc, going back a couple of years

Molly Ivins columns Archived at the Sacramento Bee

http://www.bush-cheney.net/spotlight/numbers.html DNC site on Cheney voting record

http://www.iknowwhatyoudidintexas.com/scary/bush_record.html Funny DNC site on Bush's record

http://www.georgebush2000.com/ Anti-Bush site, good links to EPA and finance statistics etc, stories on business deals

Bush Watch is at http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/3750/bush.htm

Gore Watch is at http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/3750/gore.htm

Nader Watch is at http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/3750/naderwatch.htm

Cheney Watch is at http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/3750/veepsept.htm

Bush Comedy pages are at http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/3750/bushfoolthree.htm

Bushisms:
The English Patient (Bushisms) is at http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/3750/english.htm
Slate's Complete Bushisms: http://slate.msn.com/Features/bushisms/bushisms.asp

Gore did not say he invented the Internet

Gore did not say he invented the Internet. This is a misquote. He said that he took the initiative among Congressmen of his term during its creation.

The exact words were: "During my service in the US Congress, I took the initiative [among Congressmen] in creating the Internet."

http://www.nydailynews.com/2000-05-05/News_and_Views/Opinion/a-65600.asp
"Libraries, rural schools, minority institutions and vocational education programs will have access to the same national resources — databases, supercomputers, accelerators — as more affluent and better-known institutions." -- [ Gore, 1986 ]

"establish a high-capacity national research and education computer network.".... "I genuinely believe that the creation of this nationwide network ... will create an environment where work stations are common in homes and even small businesses." -- [ Gore, 1989 ]

One of Gore's Republican colleagues, Sen. Slade Gorton of Washington, credited him at the time for introducing a bill that would "create [note that word] a high-capacity national research and education network to link up supercomputers and databases around the country." [ Gorton, 1989 ]

"Today, most students using computer networks are studying science and engineering, but there are more and more applications in other fields, too. Economists, historians and literature majors are all discovering the power of networking. In the future, I think we will see computers and networks used to teach every subject from kindergarten through grade school." [ Gore, 1991 ]

Here is an account of Gore's role by Jaron Lanier, a pioneer of 'virtual reality.'

Al Gore: Internet Pioneer

Jaron Lanier in the Washington Post, April 21, 1999

Al Gore did not say he "invented the Internet." That's media hype.
What he said on CNN was, "I took the initiative in developing the
Internet." Anyone in my world knows that is an accurate statement, and
the media only showed their own techno-illiteracy in not bothering to
investigate, let alone explain, the reality to readers. He deserves
bragging rights.

Continued at internet.html

Love Canal info has moved to Love-Canal.html

What Gore really said about the EITC

Bradley proposed a change to the EITC. Gore said that he had proposed that same change years ago, which is true. Critics misquoted this as Gore saying he had written the EITC itself.

More detail and cite

What Gore really said to the NAACP about the census

The following is the only mention of counting or census that my search function found in Gore's NAACP speech. The entire speech is online at the url below. -- Filia

"Now speaking--speaking of counting--speaking of counting, it's wrong what the leader of the Republican Party and this Congress are doing in blocking an accurate census because they don't want to count everyone that they don't think they can count on. I want to count everyone. I want to count all the people of this country. "

Source:
http://washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/onpolitics/elections/goretext071200.htm
Text: Vice President Gore's Speech to the NAACP
eMediaMillWorks
Wednesday, July 12, 2000 .... transcript of Vice President Gore's address to the NAACP's National Convention.

Gore Sr was early supporter of civil rights -- true

[ For detailed cites, see dailyhowler.com ]
http://www.speakout.com/activism/oped/howlings/072500/default.asp
[W]hen Gore praises his father on civil rights, he is expressing a wholly conventional judgment-one widely expressed by many observers, of various political stripes. For example, in his 1999 biography of Gore for the conservative publisher Regnery, Bob Zelnick described Gore Senior's "courage and decency on the civil rights issue," saying that Gore and two other Tennessee pols of his time "would inspire later generations of southerners who sought to purge the region of its terrible racial heritage."
/// In a cover story for the Washington Post magazine this April, David Maraniss and Ellen Nakashima went into extensive detail. Gore Senior's "opposition to the segregated ways of his native South angered many of his constituents and eventually led to his political demise," the pair said. When Gore Junior entered politics some years later, "he discovered that the Gore name had an unforgettable resonance in the black community, thanks to his father."

Town meetings: "five in a given Saturday"

http://www.nytimes.com/library/politics/camp/081300wh-gore-record.html
To the extent he ever alienated the home folks, he usually managed to work his way back into their good graces by maintaining a relentless regimen of town hall meetings, sometimes five on a given Saturday.
///
After Mr. Gore was elected, he would often stop back in at The Tennesseean at the end of a full day of town hall meetings.

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/elect2000/pres/money/20000813/t000075986.html
Every Friday, he raced from the Capitol after the last vote. He had to catch a 5 p.m. Nashville flight, then head to a night meeting with constituents. He slept in Carthage, then peeled out the next morning on a ride as white-knuckled as a stock car race: four county seats, four town meetings in a day.

Hillary really is a life-long Yankees fan :-)

http://dailyhowler.com/h061300_1.shtml
[ From ] a September 12, 1994 article in The Washington Post, entitled "The White House Pitches In; At Picnic for Ken Burns's 'Baseball,' Hopes Are High for Extra Innings," [ by Donnie Radcliffe ]
Mrs. Clinton, who as a kid was a "big-time" fan of the Chicago Cubs and New York Yankees and "understudied" Ernie Banks and Mickey Mantle, smiled. Another favorite was Satchel Paige and his advice on how to stay healthy. I always loved 'Don't look back, someone might be gaining on you,'" she said.

From WP 1993:
One spring, the entire Rodham family went every day to Hinckley Park and watched Hugh Rodham pitch and pitch and pitch until his daughter Hillary learned to belt a curveball. ///
While her girlfriends had crushes, stared at boys, padded their bras, Hillary talked about politics, Sputnik and sports. "We used to sit on the front porch and solve the world's problems," said Rick Ricketts, her neighbor and friend since they were 8. "She also knew all the players and stats, batting averages—Roger Maris, Mickey Mantle—everything about baseball."
http://dailyhowler.com/h061400_2.shtml
The Education of Hillary Clinton
Martha Sherrill, The Washington Post, 1/11/93

Putting it in context -- Gore's jokes at the Gridiron Dinner

Al Gore Tames the Gridiron Crowd
Dana Milbank of the Washington Post, March 26, 2000
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/2000-03/27/124l-032700-idx.html

[ Info about Love Story has moved to love-story.html ]

Gore did not say he invented the Internet

Love Canal info has moved to Love-Canal.html

What Gore really said about the EITC

Putting it in context -- Gore's jokes at the Gridiron Dinner

Good factual profile/biography at USAToday -- Is Gore a geek at heart?