Why Was Old Al Gore Such a Transparent Hypocrite?
In his Election Year 2000 speech to the Democratic National Convention Vice President Al Gore said,
Getting cigarettes out of the hands of kids before they get hooked is a family value. (APPLAUSE) I will crack down on the marketing of tobacco to our children, no matter how hard the tobacco companies lobby and no matter how much they spend. SPEECH AT 2000 CONVENTION
But, according to the New York Times and the Washington Post,
Six years after Vice President Al Gore's older sister died of lung cancer in 1984, he was still accepting campaign contributions from tobacco interests. NYTIMES HITS AL GORE'S HYPOCRISY
Four years after she died, while campaigning for President in North Carolina, he boasted of his experiences in the tobacco fields and curing barns of his native Tennessee. And it took several years after Nancy Gore Hunger's death for Mr. Gore and his parents to stop growing tobacco on their own farms in Carthage, Tenn. NYT HITS AL GORE'S HYPOCRISY
But on Wednesday night, in one of the most striking moments of an already emotion-laden Democratic National Convention, Mr. Gore told the story of his sister's slow and painful deterioration as a means of highlighting the Clinton administration's war on smoking, an effort that polls show is highly popular. NYT HITS AL GORE'S HYPOCRISY
We all grieve when a loved one dies of cancer and also for Al Gore’s personal loss, which might have remained personal had he not addressed it on stage in a speech to the 2000 Democratic National Convention. That speech, in which Gore sought to earn sympathy from his audience, also raised serious questions in the media about Gore’s authenticity. NYT HITS AL GORE'S HYPOCRISY PHOTO OF AL GORE WITH SISTER NANCY GORE HUNGER
The Washington Post ran a story entitled, Gore Defends Inconsistency On Tobacco Issue
The Washington Post
CHICAGO
Vice President Gore said it was "emotional numbness" that caused him to defend tobacco for years after his sister's death from lung cancer and said the need to break through that same "numbness" in society about the dangers of smoking caused him to tell the story of her illness in his speech at the Democratic National Convention Wednesday night.
Gore denied there was any political motivation behind the Clinton administration's new war against teenage smoking, just as he said there was no political calculation behind his defense of tobacco growers at a time he was campaigning in southern, tobacco states during his 1988 presidential campaign.
On Wednesday, Gore said that his sister's death and statistics showing that 3,000 teenagers a day take up the habit had caused him to vow that, "Until I draw my last breath, I will pour my heart and soul into the cause of protecting our children from the dangers of smoking."
But in 1988, four years after his sister, Nancy Gore Hunger, died in "nearly unbearable pain," Gore said at a campaign rally in North Carolina, "Throughout most of my life, I raised tobacco. I want you to know that with my own hands, all of my life, I put it in the plant beds and transferred it. I've hoed it. I've chopped it. I've shredded it, spiked it, put it in the barn and stripped it and sold it." WAPOST
These facts are ten years old to be sure. The problem is that they are still true, even ten years after the fact. This issue, even now, is relevant to an evaluation of Al Gore’s character as well as his political acumen, just as the skin-color-aroused antagonistic high school offenses of Senator George Allen and ten year-old connections to the Klu Klux Klan were relevant as an historic prism through which to evaluate his current fitness for the US Senate and Presidency. WAPOST SAYS GOV. ALLEN USED RACIAL SLURS DAILYKOS STORY ON ALLEN’S 1996 KLAN CONNECTIONS
The problem is not only that Gore held tobacco stocks and continued producing tobacco while his sister died of cancer. The problem is also Gore’s phenomenal lack of political skills that would allow him to choose to highlight these facts in the heat of a presidential campaign. Apparently, he unaware that others would call hypocrisy when he earned money from the sale of tobacco while simultaneously decrying its effects, including the death of his own sister.
This is not merely a question of "personal ethics". It is also a question of public political skills. What was Al Gore thinking?
For several years after Ms. Hunger's death, Mr. Gore and his parents continued to grow tobacco, experience that proved useful in 1988. ''Throughout most of my life, I've raised tobacco,'' he told an audience in North Carolina. ''I want you to know that with my own hands, all of my life, I put it in the plant beds and transferred it. I've hoed it. I've chopped it. I've shredded it, spiked it, put it in the barn and stripped it and sold it.'' NEW YORK TIMES, AUGUST 30, 1996
Although this was reported ten years ago, it is instructive for the 2008 campaign and every campaign thereafter: When one runs for any political office, or thinks one might in the future, the wise potential candidate views every possible financial decision through the prism of, "What will it look like if this is reported in the press?"
According to Touchstone magazine, ("the only left/liberal/progressive political journal produced within an eighty mile or so radius of Texas A&M University at College Station),
Al Gore hails from Tennessee and was once a proud tobacco farmer, enjoying subsidies under the federal support program. After Dole made his famous remark in Kentucky that he didn't know if science had proved smoking was addictive, Gore was sent out to snap at the Kansan's heels, which he duly did. The Veep went on TV news shows, often flanked with children, and gave the impression that Dole wants to mainline nicotine into the lungs of every young person in America. Gore would conclude with a straight-faced appeal to Dole "not to play politics with tobacco."
Gore has been playing politics with tobacco for many years. While he was managing the family's tobacco farm, Gore pulled in more than $100,000 in tobacco price supports, and he's taken in more than $50,000 in campaign contributions from industry PACs and executives. TOUCHSTONE ARTICLE, ABOUT TOUCHSTONE
The question of hypocrisy is especially important for Al Gore now, as he urges the public to accept that he is not the "Old Al Gore" but is, instead, the "New Al Gore". His credibility as a politician is predicated upon his newness and, as such, he has already conceded that the "Old Al Gore" was, in some way, politically unacceptable. The risk is that, with such pronounced claims of "newness" as his raison d’être, any hint or evidence of "backsliding" may make Gore seem like a morally reprehensible televangelist preacher who exhorts his flock to do one thing while preaching another.
On March 19, 1987, following threats of the revelation of the payoff to former secretary Jessica Hahn, whom [Jim] Bakker's staff members had paid $265,000 to keep secret her allegation that he had raped her, Bakker resigned from PTL. Jerry Falwell called Bakker a liar, an embezzler, a sexual deviant, and "the greatest scab and cancer on the face of Christianity in 2,000 years of church history. WIKIPEDIA: JIM BAKKER BIO
Sometimes, public leaders - even those who tout their virtuous callings - do have moral lapses. When they do, their personal association with signature causes can bring discredit to their causes and their followers as well as to themselves. Occasionally, even politicians backslide.
Main Entry: back•slide
Pronunciation: -"slId
Function: intransitive verb
Inflected Form(s): back•slid /-"slid/; slid or back•slid•den /"sli-d&n/; back•slid•ing /-"slI-di[ng]/
1 : to lapse morally or in the practice of religion
2 : to revert to a worse condition : RETROGRESS
- backslide noun
- back•slid•er /-"slI-d&r/ noun
MERRIAM WEBSTER: BACKSLIDE
Today, the "New Al Gore" has been crisscrossing the country to highlight his concerns about global warming. If it subsequently turns out that he holds stock in oil companies, car manufacturers, chemical producers or other profiting by polluting the planet, it will cause tremendous embarrassment not only to Gore but also to those who have recommended his movie and applauded his commitment to the environment. Any such revelations would be far more damaging to Gore now than the tobacco revelations were in 1996, because (1) Al Gore was our Vice President then, not the President, and (2) Al Gore’s candidacy is now explicitly predicated upon the premise and validity of his "newness" conversion.
To be proactive, and because Gore might run for president once again, I call upon Al Gore to immediately divest himself of any and all corporate stocks and other financial interests that are inconsistent with his stated goal of reducing global warming while viewing any other investments through the prism of the trust of his progressive followers. We don’t want to be disillusioned in 2008 the way we were in 1996, when the New York Times and Washington Post pointed out that Al Gore made a speech against smoking at the Democratic National Convention while still personally profiting from the manufacture and sale of tobacco products.
NEW YORK TIMES, AUGUST 30, 1996
But this raises a more fundamental question about Al Gore’s desire to be President: Should America’s 2008 hopes for electing a Democratic President really depend upon the quality of Al Gore’s conversion from "Old" to "New"? Some of us believe with an unshakeable faith that Al Gore’s conversion to "newness" is sincere, and not merely an exploitative marketing ploy. Perhaps his conversion to "newness" really is sincere. But with out hopes of retaking the White House depending upon this conversion, additional inquiry is certainly warranted and due diligence is required. If Al Gore does any action that would seem, in the eyes of the media or the public to contradict his "newness", might not all our hopes for retaking the Presidency suddenly go up in a hail of tobacco smoke?