Profiles in Stupidity: Albert Arnold Gore Jr.

This is the ninth installment of "Profiles in Stupidity" in which we  highlight the dumbest politicians in America today.

Albert Arnold Gore Jr. is a former U.S. Senator, who also served as the 45th Vice President of the United States (1993–2001). He was the Democratic Party's losing candidate for President in the 2000 U.S. election.

He currently is working as a an environmental terrorist, professional hoaxer, and national embarrassment. I was stunned that I hadn't highlighted him earlier in this series, because Gore is the textbook definition of "liberal goofball," and is much more deserving than anyone else I wrote about.   

Albert Gore has a long and colorful history of saying very stupid things, thereby making him someone all liberals could admire and respect.

This dope could have been President if he just wore less rouge, or just had shown up at all three Presidential debates with the same "Gore personality."

Gore probably would have won the 2000 election if he had asked for a recount in all of Florida, rather than just the  four counties Gore had asked for recounts in. But that's Al Gore for you. An idiot who even screws himself.

Gore is best known for his stupid statements, things like....

"It isn't pollution that's harming the environment. It's the impurities in our air and water."
"We are ready for an unforeseen event that may or may not occur."
"I discovered Love Canal"
"A zebra does not change its spots" 
"The book Love Story was written about me and Tipper."
"I was on a tour of Latin America, and I regret that I didn't study Latin harder in school'" 

But the more significant problems Gore had were in his outright lies. For example:

LULLABY LIE
USA Today, Sept. 19, 2000
CLAIM: Addressing a Teamsters meeting, Gore spoke of lullabies from his youth and sang, “Look for the union label.”
TRUTH: The song was written in 1975, when Gore was 27.

TOBACCO LIE #1
March 1, 2000; San Jose Mercury News 
CLAIM: “It’s not fair to say, ‘Okay, after his sister died, he continued in the same relationship with the tobacco industry.’ I did not. I did not. I began to confront them forcefully. I don’t see the inconsistency there.”
TRUTH: The same month Gore’s sister died in 1984, he received a $1,000 speaking fee from U.S. Tobacco. The next year, he voted against cigarette and tobacco tax increases three times and favored a bill allowing major cigarette makers to purchase discounted tobacco.

In the 1988 campaign, Gore bragged of his tobacco background: “I want you to know that with my own hands, all of my life, I put [tobacco] in the plant beds and transferred it. I’ve hoed it, I’ve dug in it, I’ve sprayed it, I’ve chopped it, I’ve shredded it, spiked it, put it in the barn, and stripped it and sold it” (Newsday, 2-26-88). 

TOBACCO LIE #2
March 1, 2000; San Jose Mercury News
CLAIM: “My family had grown tobacco. It was never actually grown on my farm, but it was on my father’s farm.”
TRUTH: Gore had already admitted growing tobacco on his own farm: “On my farm, we stopped growing tobacco some time after Nancy died” (Cox News Service, 4-26-99). Also, Gore received federal subsidies for growing tobacco on his farm (Wall Street Journal, 8-10-95).

ABORTION LIE
February 20, 2000; New York Times
CLAIM: Gore said he has “always, always, always” supported Roe v. Wade.
TRUTH: In 1977, Rep. Gore 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.

VIETNAM SERVICE LIE

October 15, 1999; Los Angeles Times
CLAIM: “I carried an M-16. . . . I pulled my turn on the perimeter at night and walked through the elephant grass, and I was fired upon.” In 1988, Gore told the Washington Post: “I was shot at. . . . I spent most of my time in the field.”
TRUTH: Gore never faced direct enemy fire, although several times he may have arrived on the scene shortly after fighting was completed. The photo at the left shows Gore in Vietnam, hauling his typewriter around with him far, far away from any combat zone.

INVENTING THE INTERNET LIE
March 9, 1999; CNN interview
CLAIM: “During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet.”
TRUTH: The Internet is an outgrowth of a Pentagon program established in 1969. In the 1980s, Gore supported legislation considered favorable to the Internet’s development. 

PEACE CORPS LIE February 16, 1992; C-SPAN’s Booknotes
CLAIM: Gore said his sister was “the very first volunteer for the Peace Corps.”
TRUTH: Nancy Gore Hunger was a paid employee at Peace Corps headquarters, 1961-64.