SEX AND GORE ON TV

Posted By: Glenn HaumanPosted On:

Okay, there wasn’t much sex, but did anyone see Al Gore on “Saturday Night Live?” My God, did the writers and Gore rise to the occasion. His hilarious Trent Lott impersonation was beautifully balanced by the Democratic rep who cheerfully agreed with everything the GOP did while trying to act as if the Democrats were coming up with new ideas. The stuff with Tipper, Weekend Update, everything worked beautifully. And the “West Wing” sequence was an odd combination of funny and wistfully depressing.

I’m not surprised he’s passing on the 2004 nomination. If he couldn’t beat Bush even when he *did* beat Bush, what’s the point of trying it again. Hey! Maybe Lieberman will run for President and Gore will be *his* VP.

PAD

24 comments on “SEX AND GORE ON TV”

  3. The pundits are saying the hot tub scene with Lieberman was a clear sign that he wouldn’t run, because no one running for president would dare do such a thing. Are the American people really that prudish? Hëll, I might’ve voted for him just for having the chutzpah to do such a scene.

  4. Gore’s real problem is that he didn’t beat Bush. Basically, in terms of both popular vote and electoral vote, given the total number of votes, the result was an effective dead heat (i.e. within what you’d expect just as a margin of error, even without the Palm Beach situation). Given that Gore was running as a member of a sitting administration when the economy was good, he himself was considered a competent candidate, and on matters of sexual ethics he’d distanced himself from Clinton, he did *extremely* poorly to only manage a dead heat. Frankly, the Florida thing is about the only reason Gore would’ve been considered a significant candidate for 2004 as opposed to “Well, Al, you had your chance and you just didn’t do very well with it”.

    Re: the hot tub scene. The pundits may also be recalling the San Franciscan mayoral candidate of a few years back who ended up taking a shower on the Mark & Brian radio show (I’m a bit fuzzy on the exact details), which supposedly hurt him in the polls.

  5. Actually, distancing himself from Clinton was his biggest mistake. The best comp for the 2000 election is the 1988 election: vice president of a two-term president who remained immensely popular despite a major scandal running against a state governor.

    The difference was that Bush The Elder was riding the coattails of Ronald Reagan, whereas Gore — stupidly — refused to use Clinton’s coattails. Clinton remained popular throughout the Lewinsky nonsense, and I honestly think that if Gore hadn’t distanced himself from Clinton, he might have made a better show of things.

    One other thing: precedent is actually on the side of Gore running again. The only other time someone won the popular vote but lost the electoral vote was in 1824, when John Quincy Adams (also the son of a previous president) became president despite more people voting for Andrew Jackson. Jackson then won the 1828 election of JQA handily.

    —KRAD

  6. Lieberman for President? Nnnno. I’ve heard exactly one issue raised by this guy, and it’s the regulation of video game content. For cryin’ out loud, they call the guy “Joystick Joe.” I don’t think so.

  7. Since he’s the only Presidential candidate….in my memory, at least….to concede the election then recant (!!), I’ll take Gore at his word when whomever does win in `04 is being sworn in!!

  8. Just to be clear (I’m sure Keith is aware of this), the 1824 election wasn’t quite as cut and dry as JQA winning despite getting fewer popular votes than Jackson. 1824 was a race with four significant candidates. Henry Clay and William Crawford both got around 15% of the vote, both popular and electoral. Since no candidate got a majority of electoral votes, the matter was, as per the Constitution, tossed into the House for them to decide. Clay cut a deal with Adams to support him in exchange for being appointed Secretary of State, leading to Adams’ win and a *very* ticked off Jackson.

  9. Hey, Lieberman is more than a 1 trick pony on video-game censorship. He’s also into Movie and TV censorship.

    If that’s not a Renaissance guy, I don’t know what is.

    (Actually, I found it interesting that Tipper Gore is primarily known for her crusade against the music industry – leading to the parental advisory labels on CD’s- and that Lieberman is primarily known for his stances against pop-culture type things too).

  10. Ok, I never understoof the “Gore lost because he distanced himself from Clinton” argument.

    I agree that he did so because he didn’t want to turn off anti-Clinton folk and he wanted to appear as his own man. I don’t know if that part succeeded.

    But the majority of the country that was in Favor of Clinton – what, were they so dumb that they didn’t realize “Hmmn, I love Bill Clinton…I wonder who’s the closest candidate to Bill….the Republican or Clinton’s Vice President?”

    C’mon, did Gore really need to be actually standing next to Clinton during the entire campaign?

  11. Lieberman running for President is great and all, but do we really need another Republican president?

    Abraham Lincoln was fond of a certain joke: “If you call it’s tail a leg, how many legs does a horse have?” The answer is, “Four, calling a tail a leg, doesn’t make it a leg.”

    Lieberman can call himself a Democrat all he wants to.

    Regarding Gore distancing himself from Cllinton?

    Yeah, those who supported Clinton weren’t likely to support Bush…but by distancing himself from Clinton, Gore might have disgusted a few of those voters, and they might either have chosen to vote for a third party candidate, or stay home.

  14. Gore did not win the electoral college. He did win the popular vote. Why is this so hard to grasp? This is how we elect our President. All recounts since have shown that Bush won. Gore wanted a recount in selected districts that would have put him over the top, not a recount of the entire state.

    None of the above is partisan. The respective decisions of the Florida and US Supreme courts MAY be viewed as such. But regardless of what either court decided, the numbers still show one thing and that is that Bush won.

    This is not a rant.

    Love your work.

  15. Russ, I’ve read both books, and been to his site. Thank you.

    Chris, I went to all three sites, reading most of the first, skimming the second, and enjoying portions of the third. Thank you.

    If the charges levelled against Moore are true, he should be ashamed. I don’t care for propaganda myself, whether it comes from Right Wing Propagandists like Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter or Sean Hannity, or whether it comes from Left Wing Propagandists like Michael Moore.

  16. I agree with Peter and so does America, apparently, since it was the highest rated SNL of the season. IMODO it was also the best SNL of the season. They pulled together a great show.

    While it seems they keep recycling the Bachelor skit (we saw it a couple of weeks back), this time it made sense and Gore and Lieberman in the hot tub was as scary as it was funny. 🙂

    k9

  17. You should stay away from making political statements in this forum, Peter. It just makes you look silly if/when you’re wrong or partisan. That is just my opinion, though, cuz it IS your forum…

    Don’t stay away from political jibes in your comics because it is much more powerful and effective there.

    Supergirl will be missed. I don’t understand why this wonderful comic is going under and hasn’t been more popular.

  18. Gore did not win the electoral college. He did win the popular vote. Why is this so hard to grasp? This is how we elect our President. All recounts since have shown that Bush won. Gore wanted a recount in selected districts that would have put him over the top, not a recount of the entire state.

    It wasn’t Gore’s job to do Bush’s work. If Bush wanted a recount, he could ask for one himself, in select districts or statewide (and Bush most certainly would have asked for recounts in selected districts if the roles had been reversed).

    Besides, if Gore had suggested a state recount at the start, it may very well have been rebuffed as being too complicated (easy to believe considering who’s in charge in Florida).

    None of the above is partisan. The respective decisions of the Florida and US Supreme courts MAY be viewed as such. But regardless of what either court decided, the numbers still show one thing and that is that Bush won.

    Unfortunately, that’s not entirely accurate.

    Yes, Gore won the popular vote, and yes, Bush won the electoral vote, but very likely by default. There is good evidence that Gore would have won (and certainly _should_ have won) Florida and thus, the electoral college.

    Not all of the recounts show that Bush would have won, just the ones using the most likely counting methods. Using the most thorough counting methods, Gore would have won, and by a wider margin than Bush did.

    Add the fact that a great many votes intended for Gore went to Buchanan by mistake thanks to the butterfly ballot (a point Buchanan himself agrees with), and that votes were thrown out because of poorly set voting machines, I am led to conclude that Gore was screwed.

    And that he remains President-in-Exile Gore.

  19. I must say I enjoyed the episode with Senator McCain as the host. He was able to laugh at himself, and also at other Republicans. I also loved the riff abouth Barbara Streisand (I’m sorry, but she really annoys me).

    I don’t really know enough about the Florida election to make an informed decision, although I have heard things damaging to both sides. The accursed butterfly ballots, for instance, had been used in Florida in the 1996 election, and no one seemed to complain of confusion. They were aproved by a commission made up of Democrats and Republicans.

    However, I have also heard allegations that Republicans actively kept black voters away from the polls or refused to register them. I am not sure of the validity of these statements, but they have stuck with me.

    Also, about the Adams/Jackson thing, it doesn’t work well when closely scrutinized. Adams was probably the smartest man to ever hold the office, and was incredibly unpopular. I voted for Bush, but I know in my heart he is below average. Jackson, meanwhile, was a man of the people who initiated the era of government largess, corruption, and genocide on the Cherokee people. This does not particularly sound like Al Gore.

    Ben Hunt

  21. If anyone doubts that Gore would have won if a full and fair recount had been permitted, I encourage them to look at the following stories.

    “How Bush took Florida by mining the overseas ballot vote”

    http://www.nytimes.com/2001/07/15/politics/15BALL.html

    This is a fascinating New York Times report with interactive on-line features to let readers see how the overseas ballots were counted.

    The Consortium

    This the web site of the independent press consortium which re-examined the ballots after the election was over. Some reports of interest from this group include:

    http://www.consortiumnews.com/2001/051201a.html

    http://www.consortiumnews.com/2001/111201a.html

    http://www.consortiumnews.com/2001/112101a.html

    http://www.consortiumnews.com/2001/071601a.html

    For more analysis on the overseas vote re-examination:

    “Did illegally counted overseas absentee ballots decide the 2000 US presidential election?”

    http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~kimai/research/ballots.html

    For more analysis of the US ballot re-examination:

    “It’s Official Gore Should Be President”

    http://www.angelfire.com/rant/sstewert/News/gorepresident.html

  22. As an Australian who doesn’t have access to this show via our free-to-air tv channels, I’m sorry that I probably will never get to see this episode of SNL. Fortunately I did see the Futurama episode with Gore and from seeing that and reading Peter’s take on the SNL show, I must say that it’s refreshing to see a US politician who isn’t afraid to laugh at himself. Bill Clinton was a fave of mine because he had the same ability, even after being caked in all the mud that was slung at him.

    BTW, has Clinton ever appeared on SNL?

  23. Gore did not win the electoral college. He did win the popular vote. Why is this so hard to grasp? This is how we elect our President.

    Exactly. An excellent arguement as to why this nation should abolish the electoral college as a means of desciding the presidency.

    When the candidate with fewer votes nevertheless wins the election due to an outdated relic from colonial times, that relic should be revised if not eliminated entirely.

  24. I’ve read (somewhere) that Gore was dominated by his upbringing. According to this commentary, Gore’s father instilled in him a need to run his life seriously and straight. A person with that kind of background may achieve great things, but not willingly. No one can know how true that is, but it would explain why Gore was so passive in the 2000 vote debacle.

    I didn’t see, but of course I heard about the “Saturday Night Live” performance. Some people thought it was Gore starting up for the 2004 run. When I heard it, I thought, “No, he’s just issued his resignation.” He may have come to the realization that the drives that were pushing him weren’t his own, and decided at last to become his own man, let his hair down and just have fun for once.

    I don’t know if that ends his political career as a candidate or not, but it sure frees him up to be a critic of the Bush administration – as well as any Democrats thinking of a Presidential run. As a “policy wonk,” he could be ignored. As a guy who willingly left the competition, his voice is more compelling.

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