Friend just made the following claim to me. I couldn’t find any evidence of this, but I didn’t look very long; was wondering if it’s true.
“During the 2000 presidential election, Al Gore was clocked by some independent research group as telling at least 1 bona fide new lie each and every day.”
That’s because every day Tipper asked if her dress made her butt look big.
All politicians lie, but I’d still wonder why this “independent research group” only caught the Democrat lying.
Why aren’t you asking this of the friend who made the claim? Surely he should be able to back this up.
It’s hard to prove a negative. This friend should be able to provide a source that shows a lie for each day of the year, which you could then debunk.
My response would have been: “Seriously – Al Gore and the 2000 election? With everything going on in the world right now, that’s what you want to talk about?”
There are far too many people (on both sides) for whom politics does not consist of discussion of government and law an economics, but is instead a comic book with good guys and bad guys. So no, sorry, your personal distaste for Al Gore does not actually mean global warming is something he made up.
I did a google search for [Gore lie every day 2000] and this thread was the second result. Unless the Some Research Group is a respected think tank I’ve never heard of, this sounds like garbage. The National Review offers its own list of Gore campaign lies. If you count all 41 as lies, which is at best very debatable, it’s still nowhere close to one per day, and they’re not all from 2000. Most of them are from 1999 and 2000, but several are from earlier in the '90s and a few are from the '80s.
Your hypothesis as to the context of his remark was on-the-ball. See my post and his comment here.
Just did (it’s a blog conversation). But I’m pretty experienced with these sorts of claims. When somebody says “some independent research group” made such a startling discovery and conservative websites and magazines aren’t toting that every time there’s an opportunity to mention the name “Al Gore,” it means that my friend recalls reading something, somewhere, which said what he’s now claiming, but he can’t recall the exact source. It’s either extremely obscure or a product of my friend’s memory (as opposed to actual history). I have my opinion, but figured I’d ask here anyways to see if the startling claim is true and will blow my mind or if it’s on a Snopes-type site.
QFA (quoted for awesomeness)
To misquote then-Secretary Rumsfeld:
(1) There are things which are true we suspect to be true.
(2) There are things which are true we suspect to be false.
(3) There are things which are false we suspect to be true.
(4) There are things which are false we suspect to be false.
(5) There are things that sound like what moronic Teabaggers tell each other after too much beer.
I don’t know about you, but I have enough trouble distinguishing among (1)-(4). Statements of type (5) just go in one ear and out the other.
Hope this helps.
A unique lie every day, or the same lie over and over?
If the former, that would be the sort of dedication I would expect from Gore. Any old hack can tell the same lie over and over. If I made a New Years resolution to tell a unique lie every day I’d do ok for a week or two, but then fail and go back to telling the truth. I admit I’m weak. Al is made of sterner stuff - if he resolves to tell a new lie every day, you can believe it when he says he did it. Or can you?
You’re one of my favorite people today! 
That was hilarious!
Every day he said “my fellow Americans” yet none of his audiences were entirely composed of American citizens. He lied to us. I am an independent researcher.
Independent, as in not affiliated with any actual research?
The “Al Gore is a liar” thing was invented by Karl Rove. His self-acknowledged political technique is “Don’t attack your enemies weakness. Instead attack their strength.” So Al Gore, up until the 2000 Presidential election, was regarded as “dull, but honest” so Rove attacked his honesty with “Al Gore claimed to have invented the Internet” meme, when what he actually claimed was “During my service in Congress I took significant initiative in the creation of the commercial Internet” - which is a claim backed up by the father of TCP/IP Vint Cerf.
This especially rankles as I’ve been on the Net since 1988 when it was entirely non-commercial and principally funded by the NSF. I was a faithful reader of Boardwatch magazine and remember the Commercial Internet Exchange, all the battles over peering and the very real possibility that the whole thing might shut down when the NSF pulled it’s funding for the lines that interconnected all the various networks. And Al Gore did the only thing anyone in Congress can actually do, which is supply funding.
Of course he lied: he’s a politician. Next!
You mean you WILL ask him – on September 15, 2011. 