I Really Like Al Gore

There, I said it.

I think one of the most ill-fitting career choices of someone in the public eye was Al Gore. As an article in the New Yorker about Gore's post-vice-presidential life, ““The Wilderness Campaign”” points out, Gore is actually a very prototypical introvert. (Peter Rukavina has a blog post about this article as well.)

Even during the campaign, Gore was surrounded mainly by paid professionals, not loyalists. And, afterward, his circle, such as it was, fractured and went its own way. Unlike Clinton, who could draw on a huge pool of friends for advice, Gore lacked the gift, or the patience, for showing gratitude, for keeping in close touch. Donna Brazile complained that she had never got so much as a thank-you note for her service in 2000, and many who had worked for Gore or who had given serious money to the campaign felt the same. “He treated people poorly,” Robert Bauer, one of Gore’s aides during the Florida battle, said. “He was cold, aloof, condescending, ungrateful. There were legendary stories about how he treated people with a lack of gratitude. There is a strange character in Gore. . . . He is an isolated man.” Other aides were less harsh, saying that Gore was brusque and demanding but not unkind. Yet, once freed of the apparatus and the requirements of a political campaign, Gore really did savor his time alone, thinking, reading, writing speeches, surfing the Internet. “One thing about Gore personally is that he is an introvert,” another former aide said. “Politics was a horrible career choice for him. He should have been a college professor or a scientist or an engineer. He would have been happier. He finds dealing with other people draining. And so he has trouble keeping up his relations with people. The classical difference between an introvert and an extrovert is that if you send an introvert into a reception or an event with a hundred other people he will emerge with less energy than he had going in; an extrovert will come out of that event energized, with more energy than he had going in. Gore needs a rest after an event; Clinton would leave invigorated, because dealing with people came naturally to him.”

I can completely sympathize with this, as it is generally how I feel. Interestingly, there have been a few very definitely introverted US presidents, most notably Lincoln. Even in the age of television, Ronald Reagan, who made a career as an actor, was able to play the part of a politician like it was any other movie role. Interestingly there are quite a few actors who have introverted personalities. Perhaps related, many introverts feel like they are acting when forced to speak in public or interact in a crowd. I know I do at times, tailoring my reactions and demeanor to suit a particular set of people I'm talking to at the time. Never being ‘fake’ as it were, but simply choosing to emphasize one part of my personality over another. But that takes a great deal of energy, and I suspected for Gore, especially during the 2000 presidential campaign, that it was just too much. Hence, perhaps, his near eagerness to concede victory to Bush when it wasn't clear who the winner was. Gore seemed to just want it to be over.

Not winning by a larger margin in 2000 was certainly Gore's fault, for not trusting himself enough to speak his mind more freely. And not playing into the claims of the Nader crowd that there was no difference between the two major parties by trying to campaign in a way that tried to appeal to the political centre.

Ironically, while Nader took advantage of the Green Party in the 2000 election, Gore was actually a more passionate and knowledgeable environmentalist than Nader ever was. Gore even wrote a book, Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit, about the environment and sustainable development. Imagine having a US president who's solution to rising oil prices might include more than simply invading some Middle-Eastern country. Yet he wouldn't talk about what was really important to him during the elections, thanks to the advice of his political advisors.

I'm fearing that the same thing is happening to John Kerry this go around, but that's for another post.

The best part about the New Yorker article is the link to the song “Al Gore Lives on My Street.” Very funny stuff.

Here's Gore's speech to New York University back in June about the Iraq war: Link. (realplayer)