11/28/00 12:05 p.m.
Losing Ugly
Gore’s disaster of a speech.

By NR’s John J. Miller & Ramesh Ponnuru

ice President Gore's speech to the country last night was a spectacular disaster — a simply awful performance at a moment when he needed to be at his best. It is hardly possible to say a good thing about his remarks, except that they were brief. They included blatant deceptions, such as the claims that "organized intimidation" prevented one county's recount and that "many thousands of votes that were cast on Election Day have not yet been counted at all, not once." Some of his remarks were incomprehensible: "The American people have spoken with a voice made mighty by the whole of its integrity." And there was that nauseatingly fake laugh as he said, "This is America."

But perhaps worst of all were the atmospherics. Previously, Gore had been winning the presidential-trappings contest against Bush. His statements at the White House outshone most of what Bush had tried to do from his ranch in Texas. That changed dramatically on Sunday night, when Bush really did look like the president-elect as he spoke from the dark but dignified interior of the state capital in Austin. Gore, on the other hand, spoke on Monday night from a room in the veep's mansion. He rushed in a few American flags to cover up a backdrop that was either beige or yellow depending on which network you were watching, and looking the whole time like a rented banquet room at a hotel in downtown D.C. The cameras were a major distraction: it's impossible to concentrate on a speech lit by strobe, and their unceasing clicks competed against Gore's own voice. Presidents aren't treated this way; politicians caught in scandal are.

Gore already was losing the public-relations war before he addressed the nation. Last night, he made his problems worse.

On the Site
Richard Lowry on Gore's disingenuousness.
John Derbyshire on his lies.