Originally posted by: eskimospy
Originally posted by: FuzzyBee
"Huge passes", my butt. This was reported, and he was ridiculed for it.
If you honestly thought that any of this "cost [Gore] more than the 435 Florida votes deciding who was president", how many votes did it cost Bush when Al Gore claimed his healthcare plan would make it so that people didn't have to "pretend to be a dog or a cat to get a price break"?
BTW, in case you forgot, here's Gore's quite re: the Internet: "During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet." Huh. I didn't realize he was a Senator before the 80's. Applying your Bush reasoning to Gore, he's a liar, too. Funny what a slip of the tongue (either intentional or unintentional) can do.
I like how you call somebody that calls out your crap statements as crap "ignorant." What a mental giant you are.
First of all, Al Gore WAS in the Congress before the 1980's. He took office in 1977. Secondly, the Internet is not some block of technology that was created all at once, and Al Gore specifically helped create the system that we now know of as the Internet. For example, he was one of the primary sponsors of the National High-Performance Computer Act of 1988 that linked schools and libraries together, really forming the backbone of the modern Internet.
So while he might not have invented TCP/IP, he most certainly helped create the network as we know it. As someone else put it (I can't remember who), Eisenhower could have claimed to have created the interstate highway system. That doesn't mean he was claiming to have invented highways, and it wouldn't make him a liar to say it.
Respnding to FuzzyBee:
During my service in the United States Congress
Note he doesn't say 'during his work at Bell Labs as a network designer', he says 'service in the United States Congress', making it pretty clear his role was AS A POLITICIAN.
What do politicians do to lead on issues? They fund things and they make speeches. So what you look for on his internet work is, did he fund it, or did he make speeches?
You don't look - unless you are utterly dishonest - for him to have done the hands-on technical work any more than you discuss FDR's WWII leadership by his carrying a gun.
I took the initiative in creating the Internet
What does it mean for the member of Congress to 'take the initiative'? It means for them to identify an issue and make it a priority to push for funding.
Few people understood the promise of the internet before it was created. Gore seems to have been the member of Congress more than any of his 534 colleagues who did, and who prioritized the funding for the internet. His leadership on the issue was directly important to the funding of the creation of the internet.
Of course, the guys who actually did the creation at a technical level may resent this politician implying that he had more of a role than he did, exaggerating the importance of the government's funding role, and so they might say some bad things about Gore grabbing credit.
Oh, wait, they don't. They actually put out statements saying how critical a role Gore played and supporting his statement.
What we have are liars who try to misrepresent what Gore said and idiots who believe them. You can pick which of those two groups you want to be in, but it's one of them.
Use a little common sense here. The internet is widely viewed as *the* societal avhievment/progress in the last 20 years or so. Should the member of Congress who was a leader in prioritizing its creation be given credit for doing so? Common sense says yes. It's just idiotic to *attack* him for this instead of giving that credit - and it gave us a disaster of a president for 8 years instead of a hell of a leader.
Nations who are idiots in selecting their leaders pay a price. You are supporting our nation paying that price, by ridiculously promoting lies about Gore.
By the way, the above is far more than enough to prove my point but note one additional thing - how since what Gore said was pretty clearly fine, they had to lie about what he said, to change his words to say he said he "invented the internet", which WOULD be excessive - but the fact they had to lie to get the right words to mock shows how empty their attack was. You had sleazeball liars who opposed the public interest standing up and mockng Gore's real leadership by saying they 'invented the paper clip'. Lies.
But plenty of voters are idiots and fall for the lies. The 'big lie' is to repeat the lie and people believe it, and it sure was effective with the big lie on Gore 'inventing the Internet'.
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