# Gore hypnotizes a chicken (and millions of Americans) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [March 28, 2000, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gore-hypnotizes-a-chicken-and-millions-of-americans/1219 "2000-03-28T19:40:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![CreoSote](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f08c70/32.png) [@CreoSote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CreoSote)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2000, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gore-hypnotizes-a-chicken-and-millions-of-americans/1219/21 "2000-04-06T02:45:00Z")
Someone asked for a Link? [http://enquirer.com/editions/2000/03/24/loc\_gore\_does\_chicken.html](http://enquirer.com/editions/2000/03/24/loc_gore_does_chicken.html) 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Yoop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/cdc98d/32.png) [@Yoop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yoop)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2000, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gore-hypnotizes-a-chicken-and-millions-of-americans/1219/22 "2000-04-08T03:11:00Z")
> [@](#): > > No, I’m sorry, Gore sounds too stupid to ever look smart! Perhaps. But I’d bet he knows that Canada’s leader isn’t a potato snack, and that there’s no E in potato. ---
**Author:** ![TimWillin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@TimWillin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TimWillin)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2000, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gore-hypnotizes-a-chicken-and-millions-of-americans/1219/23 "2000-04-10T14:21:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally posted by Yoop: > \*\* Perhaps. But I’d bet he knows that Canada’s leader isn’t a potato snack, and that there’s no E in potato.\*\* OK. The Democrats have had the White House for 8 years and still they harp on Quayle’s problems. What about the embarrasing stuff Gore has said? Need a reminder? Here’s a link to read. [http://www.gargaro.com/algore.html](http://www.gargaro.com/algore.html) Now I ask you, do you want _this_ man representing your country? Please… ---
**Author:** ![Rocket](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@Rocket](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rocket)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2000, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gore-hypnotizes-a-chicken-and-millions-of-americans/1219/24 "2000-04-10T16:36:00Z")
Dana30; That’s a pretty good formula, but I always thought you could tell when a politician was lying by another method - whenever they were talking. No hypnosis necessary. Or maybe we’re the ones being hypnotized. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2000, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gore-hypnotizes-a-chicken-and-millions-of-americans/1219/25 "2000-04-11T02:14:00Z")
TimWillin, There’s some interesting things on the website that you give a link to. Why don’t you start a thread in Great Debates about it? I think that most of can be explained by a) A certain amount of verbal fumbling by Gore. Do you really think that the candidate who is the smoothest talker is always the best choice? b) A certain amount of sloppiness in his answers to questions. This site treats some of his statements as ridiculous when they are merely poorly stated. c) Some inconsistency in his positions. Useful to think about, but if the same thing was done to every politician, nobody would be suitable for election. d) Some bad decisions by his staff. I don’t think they should be considered his mistakes. e) Some cases where he made a reasonable statement that just happens to disagree with the politics of whoever created the website. I think this is worth discussing. Start a thread on Great Debates. Then find a website similarly attacking George W. Bush and start another thread on that. ---
**Author:** ![Yoop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/cdc98d/32.png) [@Yoop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yoop)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2000, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gore-hypnotizes-a-chicken-and-millions-of-americans/1219/26 "2000-04-12T01:12:00Z")
From Tim’s site: > [@](#): > > The inspiration for “Love Story”? **Yes. He was. Erich Segal said so to the New York Times.** And maybe Erich Segal, author of the novel and later the screenplay _Love Story_, would not know about the inspiration for _Love Story_, but I kind of have my doubts. Let’s see what someone _else_ has to say about Gore’s brains: > [@](#): > > The first few paraphrases, then, were tendentious and polemical, exaggerated and misleading, but one hesitates to call them “lies”. Gore made clear that the actions he took on behalf of the Internet were in the context of his Congressional service; he is clearly taking credit for legislative initiatives, and in fact he frequently used > the word “Initiative” when naming his proposals. That’s Phil Agre, whose Red Rock Eater digest has been discussing the Internet since 1994. > [@](#): > > The media and politicians have had much fun about the Vice-President’s purported claim that “I invented the internet”. It is the case that Al Gore was perhaps the the first political leader to grasp the importance of networking the country (and later the world). > > In 1986 I chaired the Computer science and Telecommunications Board and Gore was our dinner speaker at the National Academy of Sciences. He spoke about the importance of a National Information Infrastructure. At the time he was a senator from a fairly small Southeastern state and I was amazed at his national vision. He has continued to be a national leader in promoting the importance of the internet for commerce and education. Could we perhaps see an end to cheap shots from politicians and pundits about inventing the internet. And _that_ is from Joseph Traub, who was the head of the computer science department at Carnegie Mellon university from 1971 to 1979, and Founding Chairman of Columbia’s comp sci department. The Traub quote, incidentally, comes from a mail from David Farber, one of the “25 most powerful people in networking” (his page comes right before Bill Gates). The mail commended Traub on “confirmation of something I have said often and loudly”. So, let’s see: on the one hand we have people who have been instrumental in designing the Internet, who think Gore is smart. And on the other hand, we have a right-wing twentysomething who thinks he’s stupid. Gosh, **I’m convinced.**. ---
**Author:** ![Yoop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/cdc98d/32.png) [@Yoop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yoop)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2000, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gore-hypnotizes-a-chicken-and-millions-of-americans/1219/27 "2000-04-12T01:24:00Z")
Incidentally, for those who want to keep track of Gore’s statements, Mickey Kaus has a handy list of alleged Gore lies at [http://slate.msn.com/code/kausfiles/kausfiles.asp?Show=4/3/00&idMessage=5002](http://slate.msn.com/code/kausfiles/kausfiles.asp?Show=4/3/00&idMessage=5002) - Kaus gives Gore’s claim of a $150 Medicare cap during his primary campaign against Bill Bradley as his worst deception. ---
**Author:** ![Boris\_B](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/fbc32d/32.png) [@Boris\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boris_B)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2000, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gore-hypnotizes-a-chicken-and-millions-of-americans/1219/28 "2000-04-12T23:12:00Z")
Tim Willin’s link is an excellent example of the weak attacks Gore’s opponents are resorting to. Guess what? Gore used the word “quadrupally”, which isn’t really a word! Har! Guess what? Gore didn’t recognize a bunch of busts of “the founding fathers”! Har! (Yeah right, like you’re gonna recognize a sculpture of some historical figure while milling around informally. Do you have any proof the figure he was looking at was a household face like Washington or Jefferson? No, he might have been looking at a bust of Gouvernor (spelling?) Morris for all we know.) He can hypnotize chickens! What a hayseed! He went to Harvard! What an egghead! He didn’t study enough at Harvard! What a hippy! It’s funny that, when the Republicans have the sense to give a decent, bright man like McCain a shot at the nomination, the Democrats all sit up and take notice, if not actually voting for him, at least paying him a bit of respect. Now that Gore is a shoo-in, Republicans do the opposite. Dig up any quote on him that sounds funny, since you can’t get anything real on him. Yeah, that’s right, Gore is stupid! Har! All the Harvurds’re stupid! Har! And that Clinton and all them Roads Skollurs’re stupid, too. You want to criticize him on the issues, be my guest. You want to prove that he is intellectually dull? You’ll have to do a lot better than the wet-noodle lashing he’s been getting on this thread. ---
**Author:** ![Boris\_B](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/fbc32d/32.png) [@Boris\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boris_B)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2000, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gore-hypnotizes-a-chicken-and-millions-of-americans/1219/29 "2000-04-12T23:32:00Z")
A pro-life statement? > [@](#): > > It is my deep personal conviction that abortion is wrong. I > hope that some day we will see the current outrageously large number of abortions drop sharply. - Albert Gore In case you hadn’t noticed, you fetus-thumping bulletheads, pro-choice people don’t think abortions are fun. Never once in my life have I heard a pro-choice person say they wanted the number of abortions to go up, or to stay the same. _Plenty_ of pro-choice people think abortion is wrong. Just as plenty of religious freedom advocates think other religous doctrines are wrong. Does a Catholic think the Pope is the anti-Christ. No. Do all Catholics want to ban the Protestant sects that do think so? Take a wild guess. Gore may have pro-life reasons for voting the way he did on that one amendment to that one civil rights bill. Or he may have superficial political ones. But the quote at the top of this post sounds _exactly_ like something most of my pro-choice friends would say. ---
**Author:** ![Boris\_B](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/fbc32d/32.png) [@Boris\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boris_B)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2000, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gore-hypnotizes-a-chicken-and-millions-of-americans/1219/30 "2000-04-12T23:39:00Z")
In case it wasn’t clear, I got the above quote as evidence of pro-life behavior from the aforementioned [http://www.gargaro.com/](http://www.gargaro.com/) site. It’s great if you need material for an anti-Gore faceplant. * * * Hopefully, I can convince you to accept “hopefully” as a disjunct adverb. Frankly, I would be lying if I said I were confident. Perhaps this subject is simply too complex for me to explain. Unfortunately, I would be lucky to explain my way out of a paper bag. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gore-hypnotizes-a-chicken-and-millions-of-americans/1219.md?page=1)