![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Dec. 14th, 2013
2000 Revisiting Gore-Bush
Dec. 14th, 2013 05:10 pmVanity Fair has a nice piece revisiting the Gore-Bush 2000 election. There is an underlying note of regret: how did we get it so terribly wrong? The key assumption is that the media misdirected us and did a number on Gore and kissed up to Dubya:
Al Gore couldn't believe his eyes: as the 2000 election heated up, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and other top news outlets kept going after him, with misquotes ("I invented the Internet"), distortions (that he lied about being the inspiration for Love Story), and strangely off-the-mark needling, while pundits such as Maureen Dowd appeared to be charmed by his rival, George W. Bush.
Maybe people were suffering from Clinton fatigue. After all the sordid sex scandals involving vagina-wetted cigars and cum-stained dresses, maybe Americans felt like they needed a bath, and we didn't know then who Dubya was. After the Iraq war, we can now appreciate that there are worse things than a few bimbo eruptions and a little dirty, illicit sex.
That is really too bad for Gore. He didn't have any of the fun, but he pays the price. But the argument is that he also made it easy, being a "government nerd" who was running a confused, directionless campaign. When the stories about inventing the Internet and about "Love Story" started making the rounds, as one journalist put it, "He brought out the creative-writing student in so many reporters.… Everybody kind of let loose on the guy."
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
"Particularly in presidential elections … we in the press tend to deal in caricatures," says Dan Rather.
[...]
In 2000, the media seemed to focus on a personality contest between Bush, the folksy Texas rogue, and, as The New York Times referred to Gore, "Eddie Haskell," the insincere brownnoser from Leave It to Beaver.
[...]
George Bush made it easy—he handed them a character on a plate. He had one slogan—compassionate conservatism—and one promise aimed squarely at denigrating Bill Clinton: to restore honor and integrity to the White House. He was also perceived to be fun to be with. For 18 months, he pinched cheeks, bowled with oranges in the aisles of his campaign plane, and playacted flight attendant.
-- Evgenia Peretz, "Going After Gore" in Vanity Fair
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Al Gore couldn't believe his eyes: as the 2000 election heated up, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and other top news outlets kept going after him, with misquotes ("I invented the Internet"), distortions (that he lied about being the inspiration for Love Story), and strangely off-the-mark needling, while pundits such as Maureen Dowd appeared to be charmed by his rival, George W. Bush.
Maybe people were suffering from Clinton fatigue. After all the sordid sex scandals involving vagina-wetted cigars and cum-stained dresses, maybe Americans felt like they needed a bath, and we didn't know then who Dubya was. After the Iraq war, we can now appreciate that there are worse things than a few bimbo eruptions and a little dirty, illicit sex.
That is really too bad for Gore. He didn't have any of the fun, but he pays the price. But the argument is that he also made it easy, being a "government nerd" who was running a confused, directionless campaign. When the stories about inventing the Internet and about "Love Story" started making the rounds, as one journalist put it, "He brought out the creative-writing student in so many reporters.… Everybody kind of let loose on the guy."
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
"Particularly in presidential elections … we in the press tend to deal in caricatures," says Dan Rather.
[...]
In 2000, the media seemed to focus on a personality contest between Bush, the folksy Texas rogue, and, as The New York Times referred to Gore, "Eddie Haskell," the insincere brownnoser from Leave It to Beaver.
[...]
George Bush made it easy—he handed them a character on a plate. He had one slogan—compassionate conservatism—and one promise aimed squarely at denigrating Bill Clinton: to restore honor and integrity to the White House. He was also perceived to be fun to be with. For 18 months, he pinched cheeks, bowled with oranges in the aisles of his campaign plane, and playacted flight attendant.
-- Evgenia Peretz, "Going After Gore" in Vanity Fair
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>