In a fashion magazine, President-elected Gore tells us how he really feels about 9/11 Bush.

[NNadir]

Suddenly stylish Al Gore was interviewed in GQ. (Don't you wish that say, Newsweek could ask questions like the ones GQ asks?)

Okay, on to 9-11. What were you really feeling? Was there a part of you that felt a sense of relief that you weren’t in charge that day?

You mean a sense of relief that I didn’t have to deal with it? Oh no. Not at all. Not for one second. Not for one second. Why would I? I mean, well first of all, it just didn’t occur to me to feel anything like that. What did occur to me was to feel what every American felt, the outrage and anger and righteous anger, and support for the President at a time of danger… And, honestly, I was focused on the reality of the situation. And I wasn’t president, so, you know, it wasn’t about me. Now, I do wish, now that we have some distance from the events, and we have all this knowledge about what this administration did do, I certainly feel that I wish that it had been handled differently, and I do wish that I had somehow been able to prevent some of the catastrophic mistakes that were made.

Do you feel that we would be safer today if you had been president on that day?

Well, no one can say that the 9-11 attack wouldn’t have occurred whoever was president.




Really? How about all the warnings?

That’s a separate question. And it’s almost too easy to say, “I would have heeded the warnings.” In fact, I think I would have, I know I would have. We had several instances when the CIA’s alarm bells went off, and what we did when that happened was, we had emergency meetings and called everybody together and made sure that all systems were go and every agency was hitting on all cylinders, and we made them bring more information, and go into the second and third and fourth level of detail. And made suggestions on how we could respond in a more coordinated, more effective way. It is inconceivable to me that Bush would read a warning as stark and as clear as the one he received on August 6th of 2001, and, according to some of the new histories, he turned to the briefer and said, “Well, you’ve covered your ass.” And never called a follow up meeting. Never made an inquiry. Never asked a single question. To this day, I don’t understand it. And, I think it’s fair to say that he personally does in fact bear a measure of blame for not doing his job at a time when we really needed him to do his job. And now the Woodward book has this episode that has been confirmed by the record that George Tenet, who was much abused by this administration, went over to the White House for the purpose of calling an emergency meeting and warning as clearly as possible about the extremely dangerous situation with Osama bin Laden, and was brushed off! And I don’t know why—honestly—I mean, I understand how horrible this Congressman Foley situation with the instant messaging is, okay? I understand that. But, why didn’t these kinds of things produce a similar outrage? And you know, I’m even reluctant to talk about it in these terms because it’s so easy for people to hear this or read this as sort of cheap political game-playing. I understand how it could sound that way. But dammit, whatever happened to the concept of accountability for catastrophic failure? This administration has been by far the most incompetent, inept, and with more moral cowardice, and obsequiousness to their wealthy contributors, and obliviousness to the public interest of any administration in modern history, and probably in the entire history of the country!

But how do you really feel?
(cracks up)

http://men.style.com/gq/features/full?id=content_5179&pageNum=1

[stellanoir]

1. wows

"This administration has been by far the most incompetent, inept, and with more moral cowardice, and obsequiousness to their wealthy contributors, and obliviousness to the public interest of any administration in modern history, and probably in the entire history of the country!"

thank you Al!!! the unofficial patron saint of DU.

K&R'd

see post #3 for reference

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=2985337#2985343

[jobycom]

2. For now.

He was once the Joe Lieberman/Hillary Clinton of DU, and Hillary Clinton was once the Al Gore of DU...

I'm proud to say I was flamed a lot for defending him back when.

[jobycom]

3. Honesty and courage fit my definition of style, far better than some clothing criterium.

[NNadir]

7. Maybe you should write to Maureen Dowd.

As I recall in 2000 she thought the biggest issue facing the country was Al Gore's suit.

[jobycom]

8. I don't think she would understand the words I use. nt

[reichstag911]

12. Not if you use "criterium"...

...instead of "criterion," that's for sure! :P

[jobycom]

14. LOL!

Yeah, well, maybe she's a cycling fan... :blush:

[whistle]

4. America is waking up from its Big Sleep

[Supersedeas]

15. the networks will feed America more infotainment and 'horse race' gossip

[goforit]

5. Hmm, well said. Just wished he said 911 needs to be re-investigated.

[Tesla]

6. I'm with you, there are too many questions unanswered

or the answer you get doesn't make any sense!!

[Mandate My Ass]

9. Quite frankly, I think the first two questions suck intensely

The report that Al Gore won the election came out either one day before or after 9/11, I can't remember which. The repubs answer to that particularly inconvenient bit of truth consisted of insisting most of the country was relieved Al Gore was not president and people trusted Bush to keep them safer. Those questions just reinforce that particular fallacy.

[NNadir]

10. I don't think so. I think they give Mr. Gore the direct ability to confront those

myths.

The interviewer is in the room with Al Gore, not on Fox News. He may be raising a point that has been suggested by the right wing press, but he is doing so in a context that makes it possible to confront the issue.

The third question clearly asks for elaboration and Mr. Gore gives it. Note that if he were on Fox News, Mr. Gore would not have been able to get through the first sentence without being interrupted with several talking points.

[Mandate My Ass]

13. Then why not ask it that way?

Such as: "It has been said that a majority of Americans felt a sense of relief that you were not president on 9/11 and that Bush made people feel safer. How do you answer those allegations?"

By asking it the way they did, it appears they also believe that to be true and actually ask him to join that imaginary group of people. I can't imagine asking a former vice president who was very concerned about terrorism to justify himself in this way. Why would any leader deserving of the title feel any sense of relief? Never in all my life since 2000 have I been told how a majority of American people feel, and it runs consistently contrary to what most of my family/friends/acquaintances/co-workers feel.

[NNadir]

16. Um, because the interviewer is being succinct?

Sometimes brevity is the soul of wit.

Personally, I would be more pissed off if the question had been posed as you ask it. Your way sounds to me more inquisitional, and personally I think it is too leading.

The interviewer is clearly treating Mr. Gore with intellectual respect because not leading him. The President-elected does not to be led around by the nose to make his point. He does in fact make the point and the result is published as we see it. This gives the interview a natural quality that is, I think, more powerful.

[Mandate My Ass]

17. Umm whatever

I would have flunked journalism 101 if I had ever asked a question in which an implicit assumption that is detrimental to the interview subject is treated as a proven fact. Talk about leading!

It sounds like a high school interviewer in my book, but Al reacted admirably. We'll just have to agree to disagree. :shrug:

[NNadir]

18. Well I'm sure we disagree about what "journalism" is.

I am a relatively old man. I therefore recall something about what a "journalist" was, but I can't remember seeing one for quite some time.

This guy is doing an interview for a fluff magazine, not Foreign Affairs. I think he did a good job.

Journalism is so poor in this country these days - and I'm not saying it's because the places that teach "Journalism 101" suck - that we need fluff magazines to get the word out.

Newsweek would have never published this interview. I've not, in fact, seen any account anywhere else in the media asking Al Gore directly about his perception of what should have been done about 9/11.

[Lisa]

35. after ploughing through page after page of pouty male models ...

... in order to read all of Mr. Gore's remarks, I was surprised that the interview did get so political (instead of focusing on issues like his favorite way of trimming his beard -- when he had one).

[NNadir]

37. I just ran across the thing on line, and didn't see the pouty male models.

Believe me this is my first experience with GQ.

[Raster]

11. Well we KNOW that if 9/11 had happened on Gore's watch, Rumsferatu would NOT

have been holding the decision-making apparatus as to whether to scramble fighters to intercept. NORAD would have been doing their job from the beginning. Here's another thing that wouldn't have happened: when notification came through the first flight was hijacked, EVERYTHING WOULD HAVE BEEN GROUNDED. Including, those mysterious rescue-the-Saudis flights.

[DemonFighterLives]

19. Yes, those are sure things

I don't even think that those hijackers would have made it on the planes or out of flight school.
The bushies put in the team and the event happened on, during and because of their watch.
:dem:

[NNadir]

21. Ah, but the ending of "My Pet Goat" would have not been read to the children.

The children would therefore be suffering the horrible anxiety of not knowing what happened at the end.

No Child Left Behind, after all.

[Art_from_Ark]

23. That excuse wouldn't fly, I'm afraid

After all, it was the children who were reading "The Pet Goat" to bu$h, not the other way around. No doubt they had practiced it many times, and knew the ending by heart.

[NNadir]

26. No wonder he lingered there then.

Obviously he would have been in too much suspense.

[Art_from_Ark]

29. I think that's it

The story was just too damn riveting for him to concentrate on anything else.

[Lisa]

34. yes -- I've seen the book -- it has illustrations!

The brightly-colored pictures, combined with the long words in the story, would have made it very difficult for him to focus on extraneous matters.

[petgoat]

42. He had to sit there because flight 77 was behind schedule.

If he'd gone out to see what was going on he would have been
expected to order fighter cover for DC (after all, he had
fighter cover 24/7 at Crawford when he was there in August).

If he'd ordered that, someone would have been expected to
shoot down 77 before it hit the Pentagon, and then an event
orchestrated to provide sympathy for the military would have
turned the military into the bad guys, shooting down a civilian
plane. Or--worse than that--maybe the hijackers would have
surrendered and then there would have to be a trial.

[AtomicKitten]

20. A pundit once declared when Gore loses weight, he's running.

"Suddenly stylish" is damn close. Woo-hoo!

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

32. Hmmm, verrry interesting.

Suddenly stylish as code.

Very good! :-) MKJ

[AtomicKitten]

36. works for me!

[Cocoa]

22. there's a TMI moment in that interview

What kind of freedom do you feel now that you didn’t feel when you were running?

You know my all time favorite Onion headline—you read The Onion?—sometime in the summer of 2001, the lead story on the front page had a picture of Tipper and me, and the headline was, “Gores Enjoying Best Sex of Their Lives.” And she said, “How did they know?”

[NNadir]

24. What is a "TMI" moment?

[laundry_queen]

30. Too Much Information. :) n/t

[NNadir]

31. Oh. Well it's nice to see a politician that loves his wife.

Maybe we didn't have to know that, but hell, I don't care.

When first I heard of Tipper - it was in connection with her confrontation with Frank Zappa - I really had a negative reaction to her.

To be frank though, I love her now. I love the whole damn Gore family. They seem like such fine people.

Being in love with one's wife after a long marriage is a value I hold very strongly. I feel exactly the same way about my wife as Al feels about his.

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

33. I think that's cute!!!

He just said it out loud, is all.

They definitely "get" each other. :-) MKJ

[me b zola]

25. .

recommended

[Iris]

27. Not to mention the report that came out that SAME DAY indicating he had, indeed, won FL.

[jtrockville]

28. D@MN he looks good.

In more ways than one.

[Name removed]

38. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[hootinholler]

39. How sad

We have to turn to magazines like Vanity Fair and GQ to get interviews like this.

Thanks for posting it, I never would have seen it!

-Hoot

[road2000]

40. Time Magazine also has him...

... as one of the top five candidates for Person of the Year. 
If you like him and what he's done with AIT, please vote:

http://webcenter.polls.aol.com/modular.jsp?template=1038&view=94179&pollId=94262&channel=aol_us_timeinc

[nam78_two]

41. Run Al run!/nt

[LSK]

43. I am so sad that he is not President

I would support him over anyone in 2008 without question.