Whatever It Takes

You have to hand it to Al Gore – he’ll say anything, do anything that it takes to be elected President, and I’m not just talking about his claim to the invention of the Internet. After all, this is the man who said that he and his wife Tipper were the model for Erich Segal’s best seller Love Story, which Segal later denied.

This is the man who French-kissed his wife at the Democratic national Convention in Los Angeles with such intensity, that one has to wonder whether or not Tipper was uncomfortable about it. I’m sorry, folks, but there is a time and a place for that, and a national stage is definitely not the place for that degree of intimacy.

Now, the latest display of Al doing whatever it takes to be our 43rd President comes from Hollywood. For years, Al and/or Tipper have been crusading against the entertainment industry in one way or another. First of all, we had Tipper Gore taking on the music industry over the lyric content of songs that are heard by children. I remember that while she was doing battle with the forces of the music world, that Al was nowhere to be found when it came to backing her up. The music industry and the pundits in the press were raking Tipper over the coals, and to my recollection, Al was nowhere to be found when it came to supporting his wife. The irony of it all is that in this instance, Tipper was right and justified in her criticisms.

In addition, we had then and continue to have Al Gore and Joe Lieberman ranting about the overdose of violence and mayhem in television, movies and video games – yet they continue to take donations from the entertainment industry.

When a news story breaks, particularly in politics, it’s often checked to see if it has ‘legs’. What that means is, does it have the ability to take on a life of its own and have a life span of more than 24 hours. The controversy over the Bush campaign with the "Rats" of bureaucrats was much ado about nothing. While Bush and Gore may both have smart people working for them, the timing of the floating word bureaucrats to read ‘Rats’ was too brilliant for them to have done that on their own. Besides, when you think about it, the words bureaucrats and Democrats both end in "rats", don’t they?

The current story that does have legs is the blatant hypocrisy shown by Gore and Lieberman as it pertains to the Hollywood community. Just this past Monday evening, Gore was collecting all kinds of cash from wealthy Hollywood types for his campaign coffers. Even Elton John got in on the act by saying that electing George W. Bush would be a return to the ‘Dark Ages’ – his words, not mine. Excuse me, but since when do we need a British national telling us about the quality of our leaders, especially one who is so out of touch with mainstream American values?

Also, one more of Gore’s many statements has come back to bite him on the butt. A couple of days ago, he was lamenting how the cost of arthritis medicine for his mother-in-law was like $160.00, whereas an animal equivalent for his aging dog Shiloh cost $30.00 and change. A closer look at the situation revealed that the medication he was referring to for his mother-in-law was the name-brand version and not the equally effective generic version, which sells for about $40.00 - almost the same amount as the medication for his arthritic pooch. The New York Post has taken to calling this latest gaffe by Gore "Doggygate".

Here again, we have a candidate who fails to consider the dynamics of the situation, as it would only be a case of being confused by the truth. Research and Development (R&D) for new drugs for humans costs considerably more than it does for animals, and new medications for humans has to undergo much more clinical testing than for animals before these new drugs receive federal approval. Given that the costs for R&D are almost always done by the private sector, they have to have a means of recovering their out-of-pocket expenses.

My best friend is a doctor in family practice in Canada. In addition to his practice, he works with another doctor friend of mine who has a research facility that is used for clinical trials. From our conversations, he tells me that it is very expensive to get new medications to market. One of the things he told me is that because prices are strictly regulated in Canada and some other countries as well, the prices tend to be higher in the United States, except to those agencies that the drug companies have to give a price break to. This is necessary to recover the costs that go with R&D and is also why the inventor of any new drug enjoys a 20-year patent. Those agencies that get preferential pricing due to volume purchasing would be the Defense Department, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and select limited others.

So much for that exaggeration, embellishment, half-truth or lie by Gore – whatever you choose to call it. We now move on to Al Gore’s claim that he remembers hearing the "Union Label" song as a lullaby when he was a kid. It turns out that the song was written in 1975 – when Al Gore was 27. How many 27-year olds do you know go to sleep to a lullaby? I can’t think of any.

Like Bill Clinton, Al Gore will say anything, be anybody and do whatever it takes to become President of the United States and fulfill his lifelong dream. He has taken the blind ambition idea right out of Bill Clinton’s playbook. Contrary to what he may claim, he is NOT a man of the people. He is a child of privilege whose ties to Tennessee are at best limited. His father was the late Senator Albert Gore Sr. (D-TN), and Papa Gore spent a good portion of his life on the Hill. Al Gore Jr. grew up living in a Washington DC luxury hotel and going to private schools. His life and time in Tennessee is limited, as most of his adult life has been spent in Washington as either a Congressman or Senator in his own right.

As for Gore’s Vietnam service: Give me a break! Gore was in country only 141 days or just over 4 months; the average soldier was there for 13. At almost all times, he was accompanied by someone who was assigned as a glorified babysitter. After all, they didn’t want to see the son of a prominent politician get popped. After returning from Vietnam and upon leaving military service, Gore went to work for a time at The Tennessean, a Nashville newspaper for a little while before he decided to follow his father’s footsteps and run for Congress.

Unlike Gore, who has been in the public arena for practically all his adult life, Bush has been in the private sector. The Presidency has not been a lifetime ambition for him and should he lose, he’ll be content to go back to Austin and concentrate on his duties as Governor of Texas.

Unfortunately, we as a people will never be able to expect that from Al Gore. Like his Master before him – the once-impeached Bill Clinton, Gore is too self-absorbed and locked in his own tunnel vision to see through his own hypocrisy and repeated flip-flops over the past two decades. As such, it’s not only time for a new leader, but for a new philosophy at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Let’s hope the American people will wise up and select a leader who will pursue a course of action and dignity in restoring honor - not only to the Office of the Presidency, but to America’s reputation both at home and abroad.

You can e-mail your comments to Timothy at trollins@idirect.com.

Copyright © 2000 by Timothy Rollins.
All Rights Reserved.

-Published with permission