IV.

Vice President of the United States

In the summer of 1992 Gore accepted Arkansas governor Bill Clinton’s offer to become his vice-presidential running mate in the campaign against Republican president George Bush. Clinton’s selection of Gore was unusual. Presidential candidates traditionally pick someone from a different part of the country to add geographical balance to the ticket. Clinton and Gore, however, were from adjoining Southern states. They were also of the same religion—Southern Baptist—and roughly the same age. Many political observers believe that Clinton’s selection of Gore was intended to address several political liabilities in Clinton’s record. In contrast to Clinton, Gore was experienced in foreign policy and had served in the military. In addition, Gore had a reputation as a devoted family man, while Clinton was alleged to have had an extramarital affair. Together, Clinton and Gore portrayed Bush as out of touch and insensitive to economic hardships created by a recent recession. Clinton and Gore won the election in November 1992 with 43 percent of the vote, defeating Bush, who received 37 percent, and independent candidate Ross Perot, with 19 percent.

As vice president in the Clinton administration, Gore was given broad responsibilities in areas such as the environment, telecommunications, and U.S.-Russian relations. Some of Gore’s early efforts met with disappointment. His proposal for a new tax based on energy consumption, designed to help the environment, died in the Senate. He also argued unsuccessfully for early U.S. intervention in the ethnic warfare that devastated the former Yugoslavia in the early 1990s.

However, Gore had a major impact in other areas. His televised debate with Perot in the fall of 1993 helped swing public and congressional sentiment in favor of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which lifted barriers to trade with Mexico and Canada. Gore spearheaded Clinton’s “Reinventing Government” initiative, which trimmed jobs from the federal payroll and streamlined federal operations in areas such as purchasing and customer service. He also cast the tie-breaking vote in the Senate in favor of the Clinton administration’s 1993 economic plan, which began to cut the federal deficit.

By 1994, however, the administration was in trouble. Clinton’s plan to create universal health insurance was criticized as overly expensive and bureaucratic. Republicans took control of the House in 1994 legislative elections, and Clinton’s approval ratings plummeted. Gore helped Clinton fight Republican efforts to pass the so-called “Contract with America,” a legislative program that included several measures designed to reduce the size and power of the federal government. Gore successfully led the administration’s opposition to Republican proposals that would have weakened environmental laws. Clinton and Gore also compromised with the Republicans in many areas, including on a plan to balance the federal budget.

In 1996 Clinton and Gore won renomination as the Democratic Party’s presidential and vice-presidential nominees. Riding a booming U.S. economy, the Democrats won the November election with 49 percent of the vote, defeating Republican senator Bob Dole and his vice-presidential running mate, Jack Kemp, who received 41 percent, and the Reform Party ticket of Ross Perot and Pat Choate, with 8 percent. Clinton and Gore became the first Democratic ticket to win consecutive terms in office since Franklin Roosevelt and John Nance Garner in 1932 and 1936.

Just weeks before the election, Gore had begun to come under scrutiny for a number of alleged violations of campaign finance law. While campaigning in April 1996, Gore had attended a luncheon at a Buddhist temple in Los Angeles, California. In October the news media reported that illegal donations had been collected at this luncheon. Gore insisted he was not aware that money was raised at the event. Gore was also criticized for soliciting campaign donations by telephone from his White House office, which, Republicans alleged, violated federal law. The Senate Judiciary Committee recommended that U.S. attorney general Janet Reno appoint a special prosecutor to investigate Gore’s fundraising, but she decided against it. Nonetheless, questions about Gore’s fundraising activities had tarnished his image among some voters.

Perhaps the most difficult aspect of the vice presidency during Gore’s second term was Clinton’s extramarital affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. In August 1998 Clinton acknowledged that he had an improper relationship with Lewinsky and said that his earlier statements denying the affair were misleading. Many Gore supporters hoped he would criticize Clinton’s behavior publicly, but Gore proved a loyal vice president, defending and supporting Clinton. Even after the House of Representatives impeached Clinton in December 1998, Gore stood by his side. On the afternoon that the House passed its articles of impeachment, Gore told a rally of House Democrats at the White House that Clinton would be remembered by history as “one of our greatest presidents.” The articles of impeachment were defeated in the Senate.

Gore’s father died in December 1998. In his eulogy, the vice president called Albert Gore, Sr., “the greatest man I ever knew” and credited his father for teaching him a valuable lesson regarding courage, honesty, and political legacy: “It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not.”