Al Gore

Albert Arnold Gore Jr. (born March 31, 1948) is an American politician who served as the 45th Vice President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He ran for President in 2000 following Bill Clinton's two four-year terms, but was defeated by the Republican candidate George W. Bush in a bitterly contested election that included multiple recounts and a Supreme Court decision that effectively decided the election in favor of Bush. While Gore received the most popular votes, the states Bush won gave him a majority in the U.S. Electoral College and Bush was elected President. The election remains one of the most divisive and controversial topics in recent American politics.

Vice Presidency

Bill Clinton chose then-U.S. Senator Al Gore to be his running mate on July 9, 1992. After winning the U.S. presidential election, 1992, Al Gore was inaugurated as the 45th Vice President of the United States on January 20, 1993. Clinton and Gore were re-elected to a second term in the U.S. presidential election, 1996.

Related Topics:
Bill Clinton - U.S. Senator - July 9 - 1992 - U.S. presidential election, 1992 - January 20 - 1993 - U.S. presidential election, 1996

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During his time as Vice President, Al Gore was mostly a behind the scenes player. However, many experts consider him to be one of the most active and influential Vice Presidents in U.S. history. One of Gore's major accomplishments as Vice President was the National Performance Review, which pointed out waste, fraud, and other abuse in the federal government and stressed the need for cutting the size of the bureaucracy and the number of regulations. His book later helped guide President Clinton when he down sized the federal government. http://clinton2.nara.gov/WH/EOP/OVP/speeches/interego.html

Related Topics:
Bureaucracy - Federal government

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In 1993 Gore debated Ross Perot on CNN's Larry King Live on the issue of free trade. He is widely believed to have won the debate hands down, and public opinion polls taken after the debate showed that a majority of Americans agreed with his point of view and supported NAFTA. Some claim that this performance may have been responsible for the passing of NAFTA in the House of Representatives, where it passed 234-200. http://clinton5.nara.gov/WH/EOP/OVP/initiatives/reinventing_government.html

Related Topics:
Ross Perot - CNN - Larry King Live - Free trade - NAFTA - House of Representatives

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As Vice President, Gore instituted a federal program calling for all schools and libraries to be wired to the Internet. This was a culmination of work that he had started several years before. While serving in the Senate, Gore had introduced legislation which called for the creation of a new federal research center for educational computing to support an "information systems highway". http://clinton5.nara.gov/WH/EOP/OVP/initiatives/technology.html This later served as the tenuous basis for mocking from his opponents that he'd claimed to have "invented the Internet".

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During Gore's tenure as Vice President, he was a strong proponent for environmental protection. While a senator working on his book Earth in the Balance, Gore had traveled around the world on numerous fact finding missions. On Earth Day 1994, Gore launched the worldwide GLOBE program, an innovative hands-on, school-based education and science activity that made extensive use of the Internet to increases student awareness of their environment and contribute research data for scientists.

Related Topics:
Earth Day - 1994 - GLOBE program

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The insight he gained on issues such as global warming, the depletion of the ozone layer, and the destruction of rain forests is said to have played a major role in policy making for the Clinton administration. In the late nineties, Gore strongly pushed for the passage of the Kyoto Treaty, which called for reduction in green house emissions. http://web.archive.org/web/20001207090900/www.algore.com/speeches/speeches_kyoto_120897.html, http://clinton5.nara.gov/WH/EOP/OVP/initiatives/environment.html

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Because of President Clinton's inexperience and Gore's service in Vietnam and in the Senate, Clinton would often look to Gore for advice in the area of foreign policy. Gore was one of the first to call for action to remove Yugoslav President Slobodan Milo?evi? from power in 1998. Gore also supported Operation Desert Fox, the bombing campaign against Iraq in response to Saddam Hussein's unwillingness to cooperate with UN inspectors. http://clinton5.nara.gov/WH/EOP/OVP/initiatives/foreign_policy.html

Related Topics:
Slobodan Milo?evi? - 1998 - Operation Desert Fox - Saddam Hussein's - UN

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During the Clinton/Gore administration, Americans enjoyed eight years of relative peace along with the longest economic expansion in history. It is likely that the prosperity which occurred in the Clinton/Gore years is due to Alan Greenspan-endorsed Clinton and Gore's economic plan which limped through Congress without one Republican vote, and Vice President Gore casting the tie breaking vote in the Senate. Gore attributes the following economic achievements to his administration's economic plan: http://clinton5.nara.gov/WH/EOP/OVP/initiatives/economy.html:

Related Topics:
Alan Greenspan - Clinton and Gore's economic plan

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• More than 22 million new jobs
• Highest homeownership in American history
• Lowest unemployment in 30 years
• Paid off $360 billion of the national debt
• Lowest poverty rate in 20 years
• Higher incomes at all levels
• Converted the largest budget deficit, up to that time, in American history to the largest surplus
• Lowest government spending in three decades
• Lowest federal income tax burden in 35 years
• More families own stock than ever before

Upon the end of his tenure as Vice President, Gore was considered by some one of the most active, powerful, and popular Vice Presidents in US history.

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