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Albert
Gore, Jr. did not have a typical childhood. As a boy he shuttled back
and forth between the powerful and privileged in Washington, DC and
the rolling countryside and herds of cattle that his family raised in
Carthage, Tennessee. This double life - the life of a politician --
was one he himself would later lead. Al
Gore was born on March 31, 1948 to United States Senator Albert Gore,
Sr. and Pauline LaFon Gore. He had one older sister, Nancy, and as children,
the young Gores met powerful people at the dinner table, on the family
phone and in the hallways of the Washington hotel they called home. Pranks
and games, however, were not absent from Gore's unique childhood. As
a young boy, Gore climbed to the roof of the Fairfax Hotel, lay on his
stomach and lowered a toy duck, suspended on a string, down to the sidewalk
in front of the hotel. He tried to bop pedestrians in the head with
the duck while they walked past. He also took advantage of the height
of the roof to throw water balloons at cars passing by. Despite
his somewhat fancy surroundings while living in DC, Gore's father did
not want his son to be a "Capitol Hill brat." Every morning,
young Albert was expected to do 50 push-ups and, when the family went
back to their Carthage farm, he had his share of farm chores to do,
including cutting tobacco, cleaning hog pens and baling hay. Gore
attended St. Alban's, a private boys' prep school in DC and was involved
in the student government there. (As a prefect, he oversaw the lunchroom.)
But when he went back to Carthage for the summer, he refused to wear
the many T-shirts that had the school's name emblazoned on them. It
was during his days at St. Alban's that he first met the woman who would
later become his wife, a girl named Mary Elizabeth "Tipper"
Aitcheson. In
the fall of 1965, Gore was a freshman at Harvard University, the only
college that he had applied to. On his second day on campus, he began
campaigning for president of the freshman council. He won this campaign
by knocking on doors in every freshman dormitory and imploring his fellow
students, including his opponent, Paul Zofnass, to vote for him. But
Gore's time in office lasted only one year as his interest in school
politics waned. In
college, Gore's roommate was future actor Tommy Lee Jones and the two
became great friends. At the end of their freshman year, Gore, Jones
and their friends put together a traveling musical show; Gore starred
as the stand-up comedian. They called themselves Tommy Lee Jones and
the Ben Hill County Boys. Gore
majored in government and wrote his senior thesis on the impact of television
on the presidency between 1947 and 1969. He graduated in 1969 with honors.
After graduation, Gore grappled with one of the key questions facing
his generation: Should he go to Vietnam? This question was uniquely
difficult for him, as his decision would have a great affect on his
father's political career. In the end, he decided to enlist in the Army
with his friends from Carthage. From 1969 to 1971, he served as a journalist
for the Army. In 1970 he married his longtime steady, Tipper Aitcheson.
In 1971 he spent five months in Vietnam. When
Gore came home from the war, he became a reporter for The Nashville
Tennessean. But his career in journalism did not last long. The lure
of politics brought him back to the life that he had experienced since
he was a kid. In 1974, he enrolled in Vanderbilt Law School and in 1976,
he decided to run for Congress. He won a seat in the House of Representatives
and in 1985, he became a U.S. Senator, just like his father. This
first victory was hard won, and Gore's work did not end on election
night. Every Friday after the last vote at the Capitol, he raced home
to Tennessee to hold his trademark town meetings with his constituents.
He spent 16 years in Congress and never had trouble getting re-elected.
In 1988, he made his first bid for the presidency but lost the Democratic
nomination to Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis. By
1992, Gore's hopes of entering the White House were fulfilled. After
much deliberation, Presidential hopeful William Jefferson Clinton asked
Gore to be his running mate. Together, they defeated incumbent President
George Bush and Vice President Dan Quayle and in 1996, they were re-elected.
Over the years, the Gores raised four children: Karenna, Kristin, Sarah and Albert III. Last year they welcomed their first grandson, Wyatt Schiff. The Gores have a black labrador dog named Shiloh and a mixed-breed dog named Daisy that the children found abandoned. On Aug. 17, 2000, after eight years as vice president, Al Gore Jr. accepted the Democratic Party's nomination for the presidency. RealAudio: The Winston-Salem Debate Gore speaks at Cleveland State University in Ohio. RealAudio: Gore gives a speech on Education |
Al
Gore, Democratic Candidate