It's All Over Now, Baby Blue
October 31, 2000 9:45 AM   Subscribe

It's All Over Now, Baby Blue : Gore hints on CNN that he'd consider appointing Bob Dylan as Poet Laureate. But there's no folk gap quite yet. "Times Are Changin' Back" scribe Senator Bob Roberts endorsed Dubya at a Nader rally two weeks ago.
posted by kevincmurphy (12 comments total)
 
Gore, once again, fibbing -- the power to appoint the Poet Laureate is vested in the Librarian of Congress, who is himself responsible to a special joint committee of Congress.

I'll post some links backing this up in a bit...
posted by MattD at 10:00 AM on October 31, 2000


" "Eddie seems to be a very smart guy, so whatever he's up for, I'm up for," he said."

Ah, today's youth.

posted by grimmelm at 10:00 AM on October 31, 2000


Well, Matt, Gore isn't even quoted re the Bob Dylan thing, and the take in the article didn't even say Gore claimed he would appoint Dylan to the post. C'mon.

But to get back on topic, I think Bob Dylan would be an excellent choice for the job. His music is great because of the poetry of the lyrics more than anything else. And his work has had a powerful influence on American culture. Go Bob Go!
posted by daveadams at 10:23 AM on October 31, 2000


Dave, you're absolutely right. I am so fed up with this. "[It's] something worth considering" somehow becomes "I'd appoint Bob Dylan poet laureate," just as "helping with the creation of" became "I invented the Internet."

Bush is still claiming Gore claimed to have invented the Internet. Who is the liar/fibber/major-league asshole now, huh?

Are there any examples of times when Gore has actually lied, as opposed to said something that got distorted by the media and right wing, or messed up a detail from something that happened 20 years ago? (OK, I can think of one, when he said the death penalty was a deterrent, but that's different.)
posted by luke at 12:00 PM on October 31, 2000


Ugh. Stanley Kunitz is our current Poet Laureate. I have my own opinion on the guy, but he is old enough that he probably won't be around too much longer.
posted by john at 12:04 PM on October 31, 2000


In other news, Gore was asked whether he needed to visit the bathroom before boarding the plane. "I might," he replied, whereupon his campaign team whisked him off to the airport. Once again, Gore lies.
posted by dhartung at 12:26 PM on October 31, 2000


And Eddie Vedder sang a Dylan song with his blessing at the Nader MSG rally.
posted by capt.crackpipe at 1:14 PM on October 31, 2000


It's not "helping with the creation of," it's "took the initiative in creating." So Gore said he created the internet instead of inventing it. Same difference.
posted by gyc at 1:36 PM on October 31, 2000


"So Gore said he created the internet instead of inventing it. Same difference."

Baloney. There is a world of difference between "took the initiative in creating" and the shorthand "inventing." The former is accurate, the latter is not. And, hey, what do you know?! The former is what he actually said!

Here's just one of the hundreds of columns out there pointing this out. No, Gore didn't monkey with any of the source code, and that's why he didn't say he did or use any conjugation of the i-word. But if it weren't for forward-thinking legislators like him and Patrick Leahy, we'd still be a decade away from the popular Internet. And that's no lie!

(Not that I won't be voting for Nader. Just trying to wipe out ignorance wherever I can; GOP rhetoric is fertile ground: dirty and full of shit.)

posted by luke at 2:28 PM on October 31, 2000


Any examples of Gore lying? Are you kidding? If the whoppers in the debate weren't enough (James Lee Witt was NOT 20 years ago), Gore lied his ass off through the Democratic primary:

* Gore lied about Bradley's disaster relief record in an Iowa debate. As Kathleen Hall Jamieson, dean of the Annenberg School for Communication, noted, "You could argue that Gore built his Iowa victory on a significant deception."

* Gore claimed he has always supported Roe v. Wade" and "always supported a woman's right to choose," even though the record clearly indicated that he had not.

* Gore lied about his own record on preserving tax exempt status for schools that racially discriminate, such as Bob Jones University.

* Gore exaggerated his role in the creation of the EITC. As Margaret Carlson noted, "Why brag that he was the "principal proponent" of it in Congress when, at most, he co-authored one extension?"

* Besides saying he was a "co-sponsor" of McCain-Feingold (even though he wasn't even in the Senate at the time), Gore also attacked Bradley by saying, "I didn't wait until I ran for president to first speak up on campaign finance reform." In fact, as former Common Cause president Fred Wertheimer noted "Gore's statements about Bradley's record in the Senate are not true." Bradley sponsored campaign finance legislation in at least six different Congresses, and was "'an original co-sponsor' of the only legislation to get through Congress in recent years--only to be vetoed by President George Bush."

* Gore has greatly distorted his his own personal record with marijuana. It's his business, of course, until he's putting people in jail for it.

* Gore swore to shut down an incinerator in Ohio in 1992...eight years later, it remains open.

* Gore bragged about his past as a farmer. It didn't hold up to scrutiny (Nor, I might add, does his 1988 tales of prowess in Vietnam (he has since come clean about his uneventful days as an army reporter) or his comments that he put "a buncha people in jail" as a Tennessee reporter. Nobody went to jail.)

* In a debate on Meet the Press, Gore lied about the extent to which the pharmaceutical industry was backing Bradley.

* Gore blatantly misrepresented Bradley's position on taxes.

* Gore lied about his commitment to affirmative action (as unearthed in George Stephanopoulos memoir, All Too Human.)

* Gore lied about the number of gay delegates Bradley had in New York to a gay audience - Bradley had more.

* Gore repeatedly delved in Mediscare tactics (anyone remember $150 voucher?) that were at best misrepresentations and worst outright lies. He also (and this is the one that I'll never, ever forgive him for) insinuated that Bradley was out to harm minorities.

And there's the classic story about him switching ribbons on prize cows for a photo. For goodness' sake, even his own staff have warned him about lying like a rug.

Nader told a hilarious anecdote about this tendency on The Daily Show. Gore apparently was eating an ice cream cone at some point during the election, and a reporter asked him what his favorite flavor was. According to Nader, Gore stopped for a moment and got his standard-issue "PROCESSING>>>" look of calculation across his face - he was clearly trying to figure out what the best answer was for the moment, irregardless of what flavor actually lights his fire.

The guy lies like a rug. If you're going to support Al Gore, than please admit that you're doing it IN SPITE OF his penchant for untruthfulness. Don't try to tell me that the guy's got a bad rep from the media. Please.

posted by kevincmurphy at 2:33 PM on October 31, 2000


Some of these are pretty flimsy, though I'll concede others are disturbing (if you concede that they're hardly atypical for anyone running for office). Then why is the most attention given to the Internet, "Love Story" and Love Canal "fibs," which have been proven over and over again to have not been the whoppers they are cast as?
posted by luke at 2:50 PM on October 31, 2000


Some of these are pretty flimsy, though I'll concede others are disturbing (if you concede that they're hardly atypical for anyone running for office). Then why is the most attention given to the Internet, "Love Story" and Love Canal "fibs," which have been proven over and over again to have not been the whoppers they are cast as?
posted by luke at 2:51 PM on October 31, 2000


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