Working-Class Act

COULD it be that Al Gore’s recent swing into populist politics developed in a single moment, when he looked in the mirror? No, really, this may be a serious insight. Although we know that an honest biography of Young Al would read like a fun-free version of Eloise at the Plaza, Gore might well have smiled enigmatically at his mirror image and thought aloud: I look just like a socialist-realism painting of a New Soviet Worker.

And he does. Our vice president has the oversimplified and sculpted features of a standard Proletarian Hero, the identical brawny physique straining uncomfortably against his suit, and the kind of visionary gaze into the middle distance that in real life suggests a man who left his contact lenses on the bedside table.

About the Author

John O’Sullivan

John O’Sullivan is a senior fellow at National Review Institute and a contributing editor of National Review.

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Presidential Election

COULD it be that Al Gore’s recent swing into populist politics developed in a single moment, when he looked in the mirror? No, really, this may be a serious insight. Although we know that an honest biography of Young Al would read like a fun-free version of Eloise at the Plaza, Gore might well have smiled enigmatically at his mirror image and thought aloud: I look just like a socialist-realism painting of a New Soviet Worker.

And he does. Our vice president has the oversimplified and sculpted features of a standard Proletarian Hero, the identical brawny physique straining uncomfortably against his suit, and the kind of visionary gaze into the middle distance that in real life suggests a man who left his contact lenses on the bedside table.