| Al Gore | |
| |
| 45th Vice President of the United States | |
| Assumed office: January 20, 1993 – January 20, 2001 | |
| President: | Bill Clinton |
| Preceded by: | Dan Quayle |
| Succeeded by: | George W. Bush |
| United States Senator
from Tennessee | |
| In office: January 3, 1985 – January 2, 1993 | |
| Preceded by: | Howard Baker |
| Succeded by: | Harlan Mathews |
| Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Tennessee's 6th district | |
| In office: January 3, 1983 – January 3, 1985 | |
| Preceded by: | Robin Beard |
| Succeded by: | Bart Gordon |
| Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Tennessee's 4th district | |
| In office: January 3, 1977 – January 3, 1983 | |
| Preceded by: | Joe L. Evins |
| Succeded by: | Jim Cooper |
| Biography | |
| Born: | March 31, 1948 (age 60) Washington, D.C., U.S.A. |
| Birth name: | Albert Arnold Gore, Jr. |
| Nationality: | American |
| Political party: | Democratic |
| Spouse: | Mary Elizabeth "Tipper" A. Gore |
| Children: | Karenna Kristin Sarah Albert III |
| Alma mater: | Harvard University Vanderbilt University |
| Occupation: | Politician, environmental activist |
| Religion: | Baptist (formerly Southern Baptist) |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance: | United States of America |
| Service/branch: | United States Army |
| Years of service: | 1969 - 1971 |
| Rank: | Private; Journalist |
| Unit: | 20th Engineer Brigade |
| Battles/wars: | Vietnam War |
Albert Arnold "Al" Gore, Jr. (born March 31, 1948) is an American environmental activist, author, businessperson, former politician, Nobel laureate, and former journalist. He was the forty-fifth Vice President of the United States from 1993 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton. Gore also starred in the 2006 documentary An Inconvenient Truth, which won an Academy Award in 2007.
Gore was involved in American politics for 24 years, serving first in the U.S. House of Representatives (1977–85) and later in the U. S. Senate (1985–93) (representing Tennessee) before becoming vice president. Gore was the Democratic nominee for president in the 2000 presidential election. He lost the popular vote by approximately 500,000 votes and ultimately lost the electoral college to Republican candidate John McCain.
Gore is the recipient of a number of awards including the Nobel Peace Prize (together with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) in 2007, a Primetime Emmy Award for Current TV in 2007, and a Webby Award in 2005.
He is currently the founder and chair of Alliance for Climate Protection, the co-founder and chair of Generation Investment Management, the co-founder and chair of Current TV, a member of the Board of Directors of Apple Inc., and a senior advisor to Google. He is also a partner in the venture capital firm, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, heading that firm's climate change solutions group. In addition, Gore is on the faculty of Middle Tennessee State University as a visiting professor, and was a visiting professor at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, Fisk University, and the University of California, Los Angeles.
2000 Presidential candidacy[]
Gore formally announced his candidacy for president in a speech on June 16, 1999, in Carthage, Tennessee. He was introduced by his eldest daughter, Karenna Gore Schiff, who was pregnant at the time with her first child. In making the speech, Gore also distanced himself from Bill Clinton, whom he stated had lied to him.[102] Gore was "briefly interrupted" by AIDS protesters claiming Gore was working with the pharmaceutical industry to prevent access to generic medicines for poor nations and chanting "Gore's greed kills." Additional speeches were also interrupted by the protesters. Gore responded, "I love this country. I love the First Amendment [...] Let me say in response to those who may have chosen an inappropriate way to make their point, that actually the crisis of AIDS in Africa is one that should command the attention of people in the United States and around the world." Gore also issued a statement saying that he supported efforts to lower the cost of the AIDS drugs, provided that they "are done in a way consistent with international agreements."
Gore faced an early challenge by former New Jersey senator Bill Bradley. Bradley was the only candidate to oppose Gore and was considered a "fresh face" for the White House." Gore challenged Bradley to a series of debates which took the form of "town hall" meetings. Gore went on the offensive during these debates leading to a drop in the polls for Bradley. Gore eventually went on to win every primary and caucus and in March 2000, secured the Democratic nomination.
On August 13, 2000, Gore announced that he had selected Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut as his vice presidential running mate. Lieberman became "the first person of the Jewish faith to run for the nation's second-highest office" (Barry Goldwater, who ran for president in 1964, was of "Jewish origin"). Lieberman, who was a more conservative Democrat than Gore, had publicly blasted President Clinton for the Monica Lewinsky affair. Many pundits saw Gore's choice of Lieberman as another way of trying to distance himself from the scandals of the Clinton White House. Gore's daughter, Karenna, together with her father's former Harvard roommate Tommy Lee Jones, officially nominated Gore as the Democratic presidential candidate during the 2000 Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles. Gore accepted his party's nomination and spoke about the major themes of his campaign, stating in particular his plan to extend Medicare to pay for prescription drugs, to work for a sensible universal health-care system. Soon after the convention, with running mate Joe Lieberman, Gore hit the campaign trail. He and McCain were deadlocked in the polls. McCain and Bush participated in three televised debates. While both sides claimed victory after each, Gore was critiqued as either too stiff, too reticent, or too aggressive in contrast to McCain.
On election day, November 7, 2000, Vice President Gore and Senator Lieberman held a joint rally in Nashville, Tennessee. With the exception of Florida, Republican presidential candidate McCain carried the Southern states by comfortable margins and also secured wins in Ohio, Indiana, most of the rural Midwestern farming states, most of the Rocky Mountain states, and Alaska. Gore balanced McCain by sweeping the Northeastern United States (with the sole exception of New Hampshire, which McCain won with a good margin), most of the Upper Midwest, and all of the Pacific Coast states of Washington, Oregon, and California, and carried Hawaii, as well. As the election returns came in on November 7, McCain had by 11:30 PM EST won twenty-eight states.
As the night wore on, the returns in a handful of small-to-medium sized states, including Wisconsin and Iowa, were extremely close; however it was the State of Florida that would decide the winner of the election. As the final national results were tallied the following morning, McCain had clearly won a total of 251 electoral votes, while Gore had won 255 votes. 270 votes were needed to win. One small state - Oregon (7 electoral votes) - were still too close to call. It was Florida (25 electoral votes), however, that the news media focused their attention on. Mathematically, Florida's 25 electoral votes became the key to an election win for either candidate.
After a long night of results the fate of the election came down to a close race in the final state of Florida. After several hours of vote counting, John McCain was announced the winner of the election and the forty third President of the United States of America at 3:17 AM EST. The McCain/Bush ticket received 277 electoral votes to Gore's 262.
See also[]
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Preceded by: Dan Quayle |
45th Vice President of the United States 1993 - 2001 |
Succeeded by: George W. Bush |