Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: lawdog who wrote (109367)	12/10/2000 11:33:21 AM
From: The Street	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769667

From the National Review: 12/09/00 12:55 p.m. Gore's Ambition And what it means for the republic. By Jonah Goldberg, NRO Editor In 1991, Al Gore remarked that a candidate needs to be willing to "rip the heart and lungs out of anybody else in the race." Al Gore has also often admitted, as he told Time magazine, "I don't consider myself a natural politician." And therein may lie the problem. Al Gore was raised to be president of the United States. Every biographer and journalist who has looked into Gore's childhood reports the same thing. His parents assigned tasks to young Albert that were intended not to make him into a man, but to make him into a man that could be president. "A president of the United States should be able to clear that field" his father might say. Indeed, from the sound of it, most of the chores and duties set out for Gore seemed intended to create a man who could endure and persevere under difficult circumstances. The problem arises from the fact that Al Gore was trained against the grain of his genes. His father may have been a natural politician, but his son simply is not. Like a wolf raised as a house pet, or more accurately a house pet raised like a wolf, Gore has no reliable instincts for when to be vicious and unforgiving and when to be genteel and humble. His ambitions are not truly his own. In 1988 when contemplating his first run for the presidency he commented, "Daddy really wants me to do this." Before a presidential debate that year his mother handed him an encouraging note, "Relax, Smile, Attack." These are three things a natural politician doesn't need his mother to tell him. In David Maraniss's biography of Gore we learn that when Harry McPherson was helping President Clinton select a vice president, he was shocked and disturbed by the fact that none of Al Gore's colleagues liked him. "Damn, the guy has no friends!" McPherson recalled thinking. When a politician has no friends, it is a pretty clear sign that he is not a normal politician. The qualities his parents endeavored so hard to imprint on their son would have greatly improved a natural like, say, Bill Clinton. But when imprinted on a man who has no feel for the profession they are profoundly dangerous as we are learning now. According to various news reports, Al Gore spends all day managing his legal assault. He demands that all members of the Gore team wear Blackberry handheld e-mail devices so he can dash off commands at any hour. He works the cell phone and the laptop. He calls even junior lawyers working on obscure aspects of one of his numerous legal actions. He impresses anyone who talks to him with his comprehensive knowledge of the nitty-gritty of Florida election law. He is clearing the field his father set for him. The tragedy is that a presidential man wouldn't behave like this. It has nothing to do with whether Gore thinks he won more votes or not. Let's be honest, that is certainly possible. It doesn't matter that the republic will likely survive all of this just fine, no matter what happens. What matters is that Al Gore is willing to risk damage to the republic. A better man simply wouldn't take the risk. A better politician would know that's what's happening now. We all know the story, if not all the facts, about Richard Nixon's loss in the election of 1960. He felt the election had been stolen. Whether it was doesn't matter. Nixon thought it was. He chose not to put the country through a wrenching contest over the results of the election. He, too, probably knew that the country would in all likelihood survive a contest of the election results. But the fact remains that Richard Nixon was unwilling to take the risk. He had a politician's feel for when enough is enough. Indeed, that instinct proved useful when he resigned rather than put the country through an impeachment trial &emdash; something Bill Clinton had no qualms doing. Meanwhile, Al Gore continues to personally lead his hit squad of lawyers. There is no sign of compromise or statesmanship in the man, only dogged determination, rank ambition, and a willingness to throw the dice on the stability of our constitutional arrangements. Yes, a politician needs to be prepared to be brutal. But he also must know when to be brutal. A natural politician knows when to pull back and when to unleash thunder and fury. Al Gore doesn't seem to have the natural instinct, the simple human internal diving rod, that tells good politicians to stop clearing the field like their Daddy wants them to, and to simply walk off the field. That is a disturbing thing to learn about a man who may end up being the next president of the United States, especially when the voters themselves can't do a thing about it.