Al Gore

Albert "Al" A. Gore, Jr. was the 45th Vice President of the United States (1993-2001) succeeding Dan Quayle and succeeded by Dick Cheney, following service in the House of Representatives and the Senate, spanning 1977-85 and 1985-93, respectively.

Al Gore
45th Vice-President of the United States
Term of office January 20, 1993 - January 20, 2001
Political party	Democratic
President	Bill Clinton
Preceded by	Dan Quayle
Succeeded by	Dick Cheney
Born	March 31, 1948 Washington, D.C.
Spouse	Tipper Gore
Religion	Baptist

He was the Democrat Party's candidate for President in the 2000 national election, running on a ticket with then Vice Presidential candidate Joseph Lieberman.

In his early life, Al Gore attended Harvard University and (briefly) Vanderbilt University. He also served in the United States Army, and worked as a war correspondant during the Vietnam War.

He is married to activist Tipper Gore.

In his Senate career, he proposed bills to fund the Internet and chaired panels on environmental issues.

Gore is the author of Assault on Reason. He also starred in the 2006 documentary about global warming entitled, An Inconvenient Truth, which won an Oscar despite its blatant scientific inaccuracies. In 2007, British Court warned schools which show the film to school children that:

1. The Film is a political work and promotes only one side of the argument.
2. If teachers present the Film without making this plain they may be in breach of ... the Education Act 1996 and guilty of political indoctrination.
3. Eleven inaccuracies have to be specifically drawn to the attention of school children. [2]

In 2007, his efforts regarding global warming won a Nobel Peace Prize shared with the IPCC.

Vice Presidency

The Democratic Party selected him for Vice President on the 1992 ticket. The Democrats were victorious and he was sworn in on January 20, 1993.

Campaign for the Presidency

As is customary with Vice Presidents, he was nominated to the Democratic ticket for the 2000 Presidential election. Gore lost to George W. Bush in the Electoral College after a close vote, in which Gore received more popular votes than Bush, but fewer electoral votes. Gore contested the results in Florida. On December 13, 2000, after an extensive court battle (Bush v. Gore), Gore accepted Bush's election to the Presidency..

File:041109 al gore vsml 6a vsmall.jpg

Al Gore, 2004

In the spring of 2000 Gore told the International Press Institute in Boston,

"For all of my career, I have believed that America has a responsibility to lead in the world. ...we must also recognize that there is ...a set of threats that affect us all and that transcend political borders....we need a foreign policy that addresses the classic security threats -- and understands the new ones as well....We need to pursue a policy of "forward engagement" -- addressing problems early in their development before they become crises; addressing them as close to the source of the problem as possible"

Gore contemplates a dark horse bid for the 2008 Democratic Presidential nomination, he appears to have been downgraded from an Alpha male to a Beta male by Newsweek magazine.

Post politics

Gore has started an investment firm to invest in environmentally sustainable technology and industries, a cable channel (Current TV), and is an adviser to Google. Al Gore is also mentioned as a possible 2008 presidential candidate. His famous sentence: "I used to be the next president of United States of America."

Gore shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for his work on climate change.

Criticism

Cartoon by Greg Sheffield

Ann Coulter claims Gore exaggerated his military service record.

• Al Gore endlessly bragged to the media about his service in Vietnam. "I took my turn regularly on the perimeter in these little firebases out in the boonies. Something would move, we'd fire first and ask questions later," he told Vanity Fair. And then we found out Gore had a personal bodyguard in Vietnam, the most dangerous weapon he carried was a typewriter, and he left after three months. [3]

Al Gore has recently received criticism for his environmental issues. When it was discovered that Gore's electric utility bill is 20 times higher than the average American's many of his detractors accused him of not living up to his own standards. Gore's defenders claim that the majority of that power came from 'green', or environmentally friendly, power sources such as solar and wind power. These power sources are much more expensive than traditional power sources such as coal and nuclear power.^{[Citation Needed]}

From The Tennessean:

"Gore purchased 108 blocks of "green power" for each of the past three months, according to a summary of the bills.

That's a total of $432 a month Gore paid extra for solar or other renewable energy sources.

The green power Gore purchased in those three months is equivalent to recycling 2.48 million aluminum cans or 286,092 pounds of newspaper, according to comparison figures on NES' Web site."

Also, some conservatives have pointed to Gore's use of a private jet while spreading the message about the dangers of global warming.

Attention has also been called to Gore's profits from mining royalties. Specifically, the mining of zinc adjacent to his property he leased in Tennessee, which has released millions of pounds of potentially toxic substances into the environment. The mine has been closed since 2003. The new owner Strategic Resource Acquisition is planning to re-open the mine. From The Tennessean (3/12/07):

'Last week, Gore sent a letter asking the company to work with Earthworks, a national environmental group, to make sure the operation doesn’t damage the environment.

“We would like for you to engage with us in a process to ensure that the mine becomes a global example of environmental best practices,” Gore wrote.'

However, this was after he had already made $500,000 from the mining operations.

Known Fabrications and Blunders

February 20, 2000 Al Gore claimed he has “always, always, always” supported Roe v. Wade. Gore, in 1977, voted for the Hyde Amendment, which says that abortion “takes the life of an unborn child who is a living human being,” and that there is no constitutional right to abortion. He cast many other votes favorable to the pro-life cause and earned an 84 percent rating from the National Right to Life Committee.^{[Citation Needed]}

February 4, 2000 Gore claimed “We had a huge event with 3,000 people at Ohio State University.” In reality, “Officials at that rally said the room where it had taken place did not hold more than 1,200 people, and, given the area needed for the staging erected for the occasion, they estimated the crowd at 500,” according to known liberal media source the New York Times.^{[Citation Needed]}

February 2, 2000 Good Morning America Al Gore claimed “We won in every single demographic category” in the New Hampshire primary. In reality Bill Bradley carried male voters and voters aged 18-29, according to exit polls.^{[Citation Needed]}

See Also

Articles about Al Gore from previous "Breaking News"

External Links

• Al Gore, Ignoble Laureate, Investor's Business Daily, October 5, 2007