Remember Al Gore’s oft-repeated assertion that the Chinese word for “crisis” contains the characters meaning both “danger” and “opportunity,” when in fact it doesn’t? Well, he’s at it again with the wishful thinking.

Andrew Ferguson has the story of how Gore uses this quote, which he ascribes to Lincoln:

“I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. As a result of the war, corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed.”

It can’t be found in the Lincoln archives, it seems. Andrew goes to the President’s son for the source:

Robert Todd Lincoln, who was the president’s only surviving son and himself a wealthy railroad lawyer, called it “an impudent invention” that ascribed to his father views that the former president would never have held.
“I discovered what I think is the true and only source of this supposed quotation,” Robert wrote in an unpublished letter, probably tongue-in-cheek. “It originated, I think, at what is called a Spiritualist Séance in a country town in Iowa, a number of years ago, as being a communication by President Lincoln through what is called a Medium.” Even bloggers might think twice about trusting such a source.

Now, Ferguson was unfortunately sloppy in his article, with his first paragraph denying that Gore uses footnotes in the book. He does (unlike in An Inconvenient Truth). A correction has now been posted. That in no way validates Gore’s use of an invented quote.

How could Gore have known? Well, he could have used his invention and checked Snopes. It’s been there since July 2002.