When Al Gore was asked on Friday to call the 2016 election, he "refused" to endorse Hillary Clinton even though he was the Vice President in the administration of Bill Clinton, Hillary's husband. Gore claimed it wasn't a refusal, he just "cleverly dodge[ed] the question."
Gore was addressing the Cannes Lions festival in France that celebrates Advertising creativity. The former V.P. wasn't there to address advertising, but to urge the advertising executives to help him sell the climate change hypothesis which earned Gore a vast fortune through his investments in related companies.
After his speech, the former Vice President was questioned on stage by Sir Martin Sorrel, the founder of WPP, the largest advertising firm in the world. As recounted by NY Post's Page Six Column:
Sorrell asked Gore, “Would you refuse to answer the question [who will be the next president of the United States]?”
Gore responded, “I wouldn’t refuse to answer that question, I would try to cleverly dodge the question … I would say it’s actually too early.”
Gore merely smiled, but didn’t comment further, after Sorrell added, “I think Hillary will win and it would be great to have a female president of the most powerful nation on the planet.”
Hillary Clinton is the presumptive nominee of the Democratic Party, so it seems strange that Mr. Gore didn't come right out and endorse her.
Perhaps, one of the reasons behind the former V.P.'s "clever dodge' was Gore's loss in the 2000 elections.
According to the Pulitzer Prize-winning author Taylor Branch, who interviewed Bill Clinton seventy-nine times during his presidency, Clinton and Gore had a major blowout after the 2000 election.
Then there was Clinton's take on a heated, two-hour discussion he had with then-Vice President Gore just after Gore had lost the 2000 presidential election to Republican George W. Bush.
The meeting started politely enough, Clinton recalled. Then Clinton, who felt underutilized during the 2000 campaign, told Gore he could have tilted the election to the Democratic side if he had been dispatched to stump in Arkansas or New Hampshire, both states in which Clinton was popular. Either state would have provided the electoral votes Gore needed to win.
Gore replied that Clinton's scandalous shadow was a "drag" that had plagued Gore at every step of the campaign. The two "exploded" at each other in mutual recrimination.
Ironically Gore's appearance came the day after the subject of one of the Clinton scandals, Monica Lewinsky received a standing ovation while addressing the same crowd.