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Post Magazine
This Week: The One That Got Away
Hosted Liza Mundy
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, Nov. 18, 2002; 1 p.m. ET
Two years after suffering the ultimate political defeat, citizen Al Gore has finally talked about what it felt like to lose the 2000 presidential election.
"I believe that if everyone in Florida who tried to vote had had his or her vote counted properly, that I would have won. I strongly disagreed with the Supreme Court decision, and the way in which they interpreted and applied the law. But I respect the rule of law, so it is what it is," Gore told Liza Mundy, who profiles him in Sunday's Washington Post Magazine. "Look, the other guy was sworn in. End of story."
Mundy was online Monday, Nov. 18 at Noon ET, to field questions and comments about the article and about the man who won the popular vote but lost the election.
A transcript follows.
Mundy is a Magazine staff writer.
Editor's Note: Washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control
over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions.
Liza Mundy: Hi everybody and thanks for writing in. I've scanned some of the questions that are waiting and there are lots of really good ones. I'll try to answer as many as possible in the time allowed. Forgive, therefore, any typos!
Boston, Mass.:
I really enjoyed your article.
I was wondering what you thought about Gore's potential 2004 campaign -- what direction might it take? Would he treat the 2000 defeat with the same "shtick" you described in your article, or would he take a more serious, political stance?
Liza Mundy: Thanks very much. Regarding a 2004 campaign, I do think that of course he would have to be more political. He has made, as you probably know, a series of carefully timed "issues" speeches: on Iraq, on the economy, on healthcare. But in the speeches I saw when he was campaigning for other candidates, the content mostly consisted of the "shtick" I described, making jokes about the 2000 campaign, his loss of an "imperial retinue" and his curious status. I think he enjoys making the jokes, but yes, he will have to make fewer of them, and speak much more about policy, if and when he campaigns again for office.
One thing he did say to me in the interview, which I thought was interesting, was that if he runs again, he will spend much more time trying to speak directly to small groups of people. I think this reflects a view--which many of his advisers express--that he does not come across well on television, often, and that he does not do as well in front of large crowds as he does in smaller ones. I think it also expresses a desire to end-run the media, which the Gore camps considers inordinately hostile. It struck me, when he said that, that that would be an extremely difficult way to conduct a presidential campaign--speaking directly to small groups of people all over the country. Campaigns are tough, grueling slogs even when you're speaking to large crowds. Mr. Gore is said to be an energetic and hard-working person, but I don't know if it would be humanly possible: a presidential campaign consisting mostly of direct addresses to small groups.
Washington, D.C.:
Your interview was nice, but did he put conditions on what you could ask? It seemed like a lot of issues that could have been addressed were sort of glossed over?
Liza Mundy: He did not put conditions on what I could ask, but there were certainly places he didn't want to go. (As when I asked him about his relationship with President Clinton.) What he mostly did, however, would put conditions on how LONG I could ask anything. It took Mr. Gore months to decide whether to grant an interview; during that time I interviewed a great many friends and associates, and tried to cover him when he appeared in public. Once he finally agreed to an interview, very close to my final deadline, it lasted for an hour and a half, which was a decent chunk of time but not nearly long enough to cover all the issues.
Washington, D.C.:
Bottom line: Is Gore running in 2004? (We want your gut feeling.)
Liza Mundy: My gut feeling all along has been that he is. WHen I was following him around during some campaigning he was doing for congressional candidates in Iowa, I kept asking myself: why would he be out there on teh campaign slog, delivering speech after speech in Des Moine adn Dubuque and Mount Vernon, driving all day, staying in hotels, if it weren't preface to another try at the presidency? Also, just now he is in teh middle of a carefully calibrated media campaign in which he has granted interviews to a selection of high-profile television adn print outlets. It's a book tour, but it's more than that, too. I keep thinking that it must be part of a pre-campaign campaign. I said that to one of his advisers, though, and the adviser thought that maybe Mr. Gore is just industriously trying to "keep his options open."
Washington, D.C.:
Good afternoon. As a Gore supporter, I was excited to see he had done an interview. After reading it, I was less enthused. If I read it right, he lost, sulked, went into self imposed exile, shaved his beard, got a job and some speaking engagements and is now ready to work his way back into public life and try running again for the presidency in '04. I believe that I am now even more disappointed in him, because he has no new ideas. What is your sense about how he will approach a new run at the top spot of government?
Liza Mundy: I'd reference you to the above answer--"speaking directly to small groups" is how he put it. As I said in the article, I tend to feel skeptical about the other promise he makes, which is that he will be much looser and unbuttoned this time. As I said, he is making a very deliberate, very controlled media comeback, and hardly seems to be letting the chips fall where they may. Politically, though, he has come up with some take-notice positions: calling into question war with Iraq, recommending something like universal health care, among them. Whether those are truly new ideas depends, i guess, on just how new you want your ideas to be.
Arlington, Va.:
I like that you dove into Gore's cave to reveal a truth less heard. Whether Gore chooses to run again or not, I think it's important for people to learn of the reality in his struggle and less of the political jargon surrounding the circumstances.
Liza Mundy: Thanks for your comment. I do think that his position is fascinating, from a human point of view, in that it's unlike what anybody else has ever gone through. Other politicians must cope with loss, of course: while writing the piece, it struck me that politicians and athletes are alike in that their professional lives consist so starkly of winning and losing, prevailing and failing. This is not nearly so true for most of us. What does loss, cataclysmic loss, feel like? Do politicians (or athletes?) ever get used to it? If so, how does one manage that? And for Gore, of course, the whole experience was magnified because of the nature of that election and teh closeness to victory.
I'm glad you thought piece conveyed some of that reality. I kept thinking that if I'd gotten, say, twenty hours to interview him rather than close to two, there could be so much more reality to describe. He is still, when all is said and done, a restrained, controlled person, not the emoter that, say, Clinton is. I was struck by how, when I asked him to describe his feelings at really crucial moments, he fell back on cliches or song lyricis, things like "Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose." Then again, he did quote Churchill, too.
Washington, D.C.:
Gore still doesn't get it. He was the incumbent with all the advantages (although some were already wasted) of incumbency. And Dubya wasn't a Republican Mario Cuomo type powerhouse. If he couldn't win a clear win majority in popular votes and the electoral college, he had in fact failed politically if not numerically.
That said, a year now after the Sept. 11 attacks, the Republicans have effectively revoked the peace and prosperity of the Clinton years by focusing on Iraq and not the economy.
Until Gore recognizes how he lost '00, by failing to win a political mandate, he won't be able to run effectively in '04. Successful politician ultimately aren't perceived as victims of events, so all this stuff about the supreme court doin him wrong is of no use to him.
Liza Mundy: Rather than providing long-winded answers every time, I'm just going to post some of these comments.
Temple Hills, Md.:
Your article seemed to have just a bit of an edge (not complimentary) towards Gore. Were you skeptical about his skills or sincerity?
Liza Mundy: Really? I was accused by others of sounding like his "campaign manager." Go figure.
Alexandria, Va.:
An excellent, balanced article. You clearly conveyed both the appeal and the distancing effect of Gore's voracious intellect -- the shark metaphor was an inspired choice. Do you think the public will be willing to accept this geekiness/pedantry as the flip side to someone with the intelligence and diligence to master the content of the issues, or will it be his Achilles heel if he decides to run again?
Any reaction from the Gores? I should think they'd be pleased.
And will we ever see your column again in the Magazine? I miss it!
Liza Mundy: Thanks. Regarding his intellect, I have been wondering about this myself: on the one hand, you could take public reaction as one more example of "anti-intellectualism" on teh part of the American electorate, something that's been written about by historians like Richard Hofstadter. (I think I've got that reference right.) On the other hand, Bill Clinton is incredibly intelligent, too, but the electorate did not find that off-putting. Other things, maybe, but not the quality of his mind. So I think ppeople dislike not Gore's intelligence so much as teh way it comes across. And it does not seem to me that he has changed in that sense. I mean, he still has the tendency to come across as pedantic. On the other hand, he can crack some very excellent jokes.
Washington, D.C.:
It seems like some of the policy positions he
seems ready to take are in line with "letting the
chips fall". What I'd like to know is how and if Gore
can change his toxic relationship with the media.
Your piece seemed fair, but most coverage of
Gore seems anything but. Can he change that?
Liza Mundy: I dont' know. I think he's trying to change that. But the Gore camp (as I've learned) has a very, very controlling approach to the media, something the media doesn't always react well to. I think his suspicion of the media tends to make him cautious and controlling, which sometimes doesn't work all that well, which just confirms his suspicion...
He's certainly using the media with great energy as part of this re-emergence/book tour. Some advisers said that he was looking for ways to bypass the media entirely, but I haven't seen a lot of that.
Miami, Fla.:
Gore is not going to be able to win this state unless he apologizes to the Hispanic voters for the actions of the Janet Reno and the Clinton administration in the Elian Gonzales affair. The seizure of that little boy made a WHOLE lot of Hispanics (and others) down here VERY MAD -- and they have not forgotten.
Liza Mundy: I'll just post this one.
New Haven, Conn.:
Your article was great. Gore has said publicly that Leiberman does not have to adhere to his promise to not run for President if Gore does so. Do you think this is because Gore would like to choose a different running mate this time around? Maybe someone that is not such a centrist Democrat? I did get the impression that they did get along well together in 2000 and they certainly made history in some very unexpected ways.
Liza Mundy: Good questions, but not ones that I have better answers to than you do. I tried to interview Sen. Lieberman for this article, but without luck.
Gaithersburg, Md.:
If Al Gore does not run for the presidency in 2004, what role could he assume to effectively articulate his views to the American people?
Liza Mundy: Really good question. I'm not an historian so I don't know what the historical models are. I mean, Walter Mondale (until recently) was the model of a politican who retired from running for office, and accepted senior positions such as ambassador to Japan. That could be a model for Gore, I guess, in a Democratic admnistration. But one senses that, if he doesn't run again, his influence WOULD fade a fair amount; the electorate, at least, would be far less interested in what he had to say. Which leads one to suspect....well....
Forestville, Md.:
I have to first comment that I started not to read the story. Al Gore managed not to whine for quite some time, then came out into the political arena, proving that he really is just like his president; showing himself classless by attacking the winner rather than retreating to private life, blinded by ambition, and not willing to take "NO" for an answer. Your article didn't change that opinion, but it gave him more than two dimensions and I appreciate that. If he really does run again, are you of the opinion that he would really consider Hillary Clinton as his running mate? I normally love to watch folks commit political suicide, but now that I know it might destroy the man, I'm actually worried.
(I actually wrote that with a straight face!)
Liza Mundy: I'll just post this one, and say that I have no idea whether he would select Hillary Clinton as his running mate. Or whether, six years from now, the reverse might happen! My sense is that both scenarios are unlikely.
Alexandria, Va.:
Do you have any sense that anyone has suggested to Gore that he drop the schtick? I felt that he gave the election away when he started trying to have a "who's a more regular guy?" contest with Bush. If he'd kept to the high road and sold his intellect as an advantage -- if he hadn't started making jokes about his own stiffness and trying to sound more like a good ol' boy -- he could have won on that and "gravitas" alone. It seems a calculation was made to pander to the idea that most Americans are threatened by brains, so he had to downplay and joke about his. If he'd stuck with the professorial image and stopped trying to focus-group it away, I suspect he'd be president now.
Thanks for an excellent article.
Liza Mundy: Interesting. You're suggesting that Gore go ahead and be Gore. Good idea.
Regarding the schtick, though, to his credit I think he knows that the 2000 election is the first thing people think about when they see him; what strikes me is that wherever he goes, Al Gore can't escape being Al Gore, can't escape who he is and what happened to him. I think all the jokes about his fallen status are an attempt to disarm people and get the issue out of the way. At the same time time, the jokes ARE pretty bitter.
Minneapolis, Minn.:
Liza Mundy:
Rightly or wrongly, I sense an undercurrent of sarcasm in your commentary on Gore.
Here's a guy trying to cope with a professional loss few of us can
comprehend, and you question whether or not he's doing it authentically? Why is it so difficult for you to take what Gore says
at face value? I hope I could have half as much grace in defeat as he has.
Liza Mundy: Actually, I did take his comments at face value, though at places he was clearly holding back or declining comment.
Ft. Myers, Fla.:
I am 75 years old and always voted. The 2000 election was the first time I was denied a vote for the president. I tried with all my might to punch in a vote for Al Gore but I could not punch a hole in the card. On the next page of the Florida ballot I pushed hard and it went through so easy I thought I broke the punch. Later when I told the one in charge they said that the chad had built up. However, this was 7:30 a.m.
Liza Mundy: Interesting. I'm just going to post this one. (But I can't resist adding that after the recent Florida elections, Gore very much enjoyed repeating a joke that was first made on one of the late-night comedy shows, about how the reason the machines didn't work right the second time around is that they were still "clogged with Gore/Lieberman ballots.") But seriously, as this caller suggests there is obviously some work still to be done in Florida, and doubtless elsewhere.
Savannah, Ga.:
Great article,
I watched Gore in David Letterman's show. I was looking forward to see the Gore portrayed in your article. Unfortunately, he repeated some (if not most) of his jokes and anecdotes during his interview with Letterman. One wonder's if he has been rehersing his "new and improved" looks.
Liza Mundy: Yep, I watched the show and some of the jokes I knew by heart. I've heard most of them quite a number of times now. But remember, politicians DO make the same stump speech over and over; they can't alter the pattern every time. (For what it's worth, while reporting the piece I also heard him make a couple of jokes that he never used again; clearly he does do some refining. Once in a speech, he was talking about something he found deplorable, and said, "It almost makes you want to SIGH." And then he gave that great big sigh he gave during the debate. For some reason the audience didn't get it, and I noticed that he didn't use it again.) Anyway, I think the answer is: yes, definitely, the jokes are rehearsed! And, when they don't work, tossed...
Philadelphia, Pa.:
This is a superficial question, but, I recall during
the campaign there was a lot of talk about how
open and friendly his wife and children are. Did
you find this to be true? And do they really seem
to be as close as they are portrayed to be?
Liza Mundy: I don't think that's a superficial question at all. Gore is all about family; his new books are about family, and I did get the sense that his family served him very well in the two years after the campaign. His wife, Tipper, did give me a three or four-hour interview; she was everything they say about her, lively and gracious and warm and open. She is also very supportive of him. The Gores would not permit the children, even the adult children, to be interviewed, though I did notice that they were "permitted" to be interviewed by Barbara Walters. I do get the sense that the family is close, so close that it sometimes limits access to the rest of the world. Gore took Naomi Wolf's famous "earth tones" advice, after all, in part because she was Karenna Gore's friend.
Arlington, Va.:
How did Gore react to your story?
Liza Mundy: I don't know how he reacted to the story itself, but he did call me, at home, quite angry because the Post had published a few quotes from it in a Friday news article that also included excerpts from the Barbara Walters interview. He saw this as a violation of an embargo and blamed me personally. He said that he hadn't read the article but heard it "wasn't very good." The Gore camp has promised a lot of different interviews to a lot of different news organizations, and are working very hard to control the news cycle.
Washington, D.C.:
Gore children can't be interviewed?
So let me get this straight -- Karenna Gore can write an article every month for Glamour Magazine, and you can't interview her? Oh COME ON!
Liza Mundy: I agree.
Florida Hispanic for Gore!:
I hate to break this to the previous poster, but it was only the (pro-Republican) Cuban exiles who opposed the Clinton administration on Elian Gonzalez. The rest of us supported the decision, and the polls back this up.
Liza Mundy: I'll post this one, too.
Washington, D.C.:
Gore accepts responsibility for his loss, but how much does he acknowledge the DLC's argument for why Gore lost the election. Al From and other DLCers say that Gore ran a populist campaign that did not claim enough responsibility for the booming (although beginning to bust at election time) economy.
Liza Mundy: I think the answer to that is the op-ed he published in the New York Times, defendign the populist campaign. Presumably he still thinks that was the right way to go. Political analysis Merle Black described this to me as the reason he lost Tennessee, which, Black says, is no longer a state of haves and have nots, but a state composed mainly of the satisfied middle class.
Silver Spring, Mf.:
Very informative and well-written article; however, I was wondering why you didn't address why Gore lost in his home state and what the reasons were for the Democratic Party not being able to "seize the moment?" He's obviously a much more intelligent person than Bush. After all, they had eight years to reform the tax code: Had they done that, Monica Lewinsky aside, they could have won -- not doing anything about that issue is giving credence to the Republican's present policies, which, I think, don't take care of the problem either and obviously are making the domestic socio-economic situation much worse.
Liza Mundy: It was more of a personal profile than a political one, but if I'd had longer of an interview I would have asked Mr. Gore to talk about the loss in Tennessee.
Silver Spring, Md.:
Although I am a Democrat, I like to think that I can be objective. I could never quite understand all the criticism of Gore as being stiff, etc., and what if anything it had to do with deciding his qualifications for president. This past week I saw him on TV twice and he seemed funny and smart at the same time. What did you make of his personality?
Liza Mundy: Funny, smart, sometimes warm and relaxed, sometimes, yes, stiff and remote.I talked to many people who work or worked for or with Mr. Gore, and who like and admire him enormously. I also talked to people who said he tends to be not very appreciative of the work done by lesser employees. He is said to be sometimes quite imperious and to take staffers' hard work for granted. Overall, I got the sense of a very controlled, very reserved person who is more likely to make a joke than to laugh at the jokes of other people. I think he prizes loyalty in his friends; I get the sense that he is a great friend if he trusts you, and that if he doesn't trust you, or thinks you have wronged him, you become an outsider.
Front Royal, Va.:
Not a question -- just a comment. I thoroughly enjoyed the article on Mr. Gore, Ms. Mundy. It was riveting -- a great glimpse inside the man, how he works and how he thinks. I love your writing style. Great, great piece! Congrats!
Liza Mundy: thanks.
Arlington, Va.:
Who the heck cares about Al Gore? He's done. He's over. He lost.
No matter how many times and ways you count the votes, complete with hanging chads in the state of Florida. The Democrats need to find another guy to lead them to political victory because this one is living in Lala land who hates the thought of looking for a REAL job in the REAL world!
The Washington Post still hasn't learned that beating dead horses still won't make them get up and run! No one gives a CRAP about this man outside the Beltway!
Liza Mundy: All that may be true, but while following him around I did find that people tend to regard Al Gore with great interest, sometimes political interest but often sheer human interest in how he has gotten through the past two years.
Downingtown, Pa.:
I strongly object to your characterization of Al Gore as being "just a gavel stroke away from the presidency." That is an insinuation that Gore in fact is the real president and Bush stole an election. To say something like that, there would have to be evidence. However, there is none. Even the newspaper recounts after the fact resulted in a Bush victory.
Liza Mundy: I think you're right; that phrase was in the packaging to the story and I agree that it's imprecise.
Charlottesville, Va.:
I enjoyed your article very much. What I missed, though, was Mr. Gore talking about his relationship with Joe Lieberman after the 2000 election. Did he mention him?
Liza Mundy: Again, something that I would have asked if I'd had more time.
Harrisburg, Pa.:
Al Gore states in your article that he agrees with President Bush's actions after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Did Mr. Gore go into further detail? It would be interesting to learn if there are things Al Gore would have done differently as president. I think with Al Gore's more extensive background, things would have been different, yet few reporters have explored this topic.
Liza Mundy: We didn't talk at length about what he would have done differently, but I did notice that in a serious moment on Letterman, he said that he would have (1) kept more troops in Afghanistan, longer and (2) used this as an opportunity to encourage Americans to wean themselves from their dependence on fossil fuels.
Washington, D.C.:
Thank you very much for this opportunity. I personally admire Al Gore, specially his sense of loyalty. What is, in your opinion, that drives his interest in politics? Is it the very idea public service? Is it personal ambition? Both?
Liza Mundy: Wow, great question. Obviously, his father's involvement in politics, and his parents' expectations that he would follow suit, must have had a huge influence on him. I think his involvement in politics has to do with a commitment to "public service" rather than, say, a Clintonian enjoyment of the political fray. I do think that he has a sense of how the world should be, and what would make it better, and that he would like to work toward that. But it also seems to me, as I said in the piece, that more, maybe, than other politicians, Gore has a non-political side that would have been very satisfied by academics or some other intellectual pursuit.
Silver Spring, Md.:
Thanks for a great article. Any chance you can provide an address where anyone can write to Mr. Gore?
Liza Mundy: I'd try his PAC in Arlington, Leadership '02. And I'd do it before the PAC changes its name, which presumably will happen imminently. Whether it will say Leadership '04, we should know soon. Time's up, and thanks, everybody, for writing in!
washingtonpost.com:
Post Magazine
This Week: The One That Got Away
Hosted Liza Mundy
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, Nov. 18, 2002; 1 p.m. ET
Two years after suffering the ultimate political defeat, citizen Al Gore has finally talked about what it felt like to lose the 2000 presidential election.
"I believe that if everyone in Florida who tried to vote had had his or her vote counted properly, that I would have won. I strongly disagreed with the Supreme Court decision, and the way in which they interpreted and applied the law. But I respect the rule of law, so it is what it is," Gore told Liza Mundy, who profiles him in Sunday's Washington Post Magazine. "Look, the other guy was sworn in. End of story."
Mundy was online Monday, Nov. 18 at Noon ET, to field questions and comments about the article and about the man who won the popular vote but lost the election.
A transcript follows.
Mundy is a Magazine staff writer.
Editor's Note: Washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control
over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions.
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© Copyright 2002 The Washington Post Company | 
