I noticed that Gore didn't have a script...like someone we all know

[butterfly77]

I watched Gore, and Clinton a few weeks ago when they gave their speeches. They were well informed and knew what they were talking about, if asked a question they could go into detail and explain the who, what , whens, where and hows. Go back and look at Bush give a speech HE DOESN'T KNOW WHAT THE HELL HE IS TALKING ABOUT! Watch him turn those pages. The Dumbass!

[stillcool]

1. and his vocabulary is so limited...

to 9/11 freedom & evil-doer's...I find it ironic, that so many complain about the dems not having a coherent message...

[butterfly77]

2. Thats the media..

They hate it because dems are so well informed.

[tridim]

3. Actually he did have a prompter

The difference is, he wrote the speech himself and as you mentioned Gore knows what he's saying.

[Freddie Stubbs]

4. How do you know that he wrote it himself?

Not that I don't think that Gore is incapable, but politicians rarely write their own speeches.

[MADem]

8. I'm guessing he wrote it himself, too, simply because it was completely

"in his own voice." It came across so well because he was delivering a speech that sounds like the way he normally talks.

Clinton used to write his own, pretty much. He'd have researchers give him outlines, themes and sections, and then he'd rip it up and start over.

[butterfly77]

11. Why doesn't bush have a prompter?

because we would see him looking at it throughout the speech. Gore didn't look like he had a prompter it looked natural.

[ronnykmarshall]

5. and didn't say "uhhhhhh" over and over.

It was like a breath of fresh air listening to Al Gore speak.

[Jeanette in FL]

7. Also didn't say "What that means is", "In other words"

Bush assumes that we are all idiots like himself. Gore doesn't have to explain what he is talking about because he understands what he is saying.

I always imagine when Bush is going over "his" speech someones pipes in "What that means is" or "In other words" to explain it to him and somehow he remembers those little tidbits and says it when he finally gives the speech.

[Lisa]

13. funny, isn't it -- yet Gore's the one who's labelled "condescending"

Personally I have never seen anything so condescending as Bush's insistence on explaining things even 8-year-olds know, and chortling to himself as if he's pulled a fast one on the rest of us.

[Lusted4]

6. No earpieces or radio receiver either. n/t

[liam_laddie]

9. Text of Gore's "call to arms"

He very likely did write it; released the text before the broadcast.
RawStory's link to the full text is below, about 12 pgs. printout.
I watched on-line and he was passionate and right on target...outstanding!
If only his "advisors" in 2000 had just shut up and let him be his
authentic self. Was that another Bob Shrum loss?

<http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Text_of_Gore_speech_0116.html>

[ThomWV]

10. He had 2 Prompters - I Was There

He had one set up on each side of him. They were the blind screen sort of things - they look just like a pane of glass (about 12"x18") on a slender stand from the audience side, they work just like the crawl under a newscast from the speech giver's side.

He used them masterfully of course - they were just reminders and that was obvious. He also had written notes, but I think they were more to keep his timeing on track.

[Lisa]

12. Gore's written previous speeches himself

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0008/18/lkl.00.html

KING: Mark, did he write it himself?

FABIANI: Absolutely. Now he got a lot of input early on from people who gave him drafts, paragraphs, ideas but he took all of those things and he's working on the plane as he traveled around the country on his laptop computer banging it out.


--I've read other articles and interviews which suggest that writing is very important to him. When he first went to college, he wanted to be a novelist! His first job was as a reporter. He's got multiple books published. Based on my own experiences, and those of people I know -- if you're passionate about writing, and you have a job which allows you to do it (teaching, policymaking, etc.) -- you won't be satisfied just reading out someone else's notes. Even if you have to do an all-nighter, you will be writing in corrections and adding new lines. It's something you're compelled to do.

If a speech is on a topic which he cares about ... and especially now, since he's out of office and just doesn't have a bunch of staffers at his beck and call ... my guess is that he's written all or most of it. It's one reason why his answers to unscreened questions are both clear and complex -- he's already thought about the material so much. Several interviewers have observed this.