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The Prince of Tennessee : Al Gore Meets His Fate

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Anyone who thinks Al Gore isn't a fascinating character study needs to read this book. David Maraniss and Ellen Nakashima bring him to life in vivid detail, probing deeply into the psyche of the man who may be our next president. This may not satisfy either fervent fans or rabid critics, but for the rest of us trying to understand what makes a candidate tick, "Prince of Tennessee" opens the door into Al Gore's private world. It's a compelling read.

This book leaves you with as many questions as answers. This fair, balanced, and well-written biography also shows just how complicated a man Al Gore really is.

The vice president's tendency to stretch the truth, we discover, is nothing new. The authors give some striking examples of this from his 1988 campaign for president when staffers had to write a memo telling him how often he is telling tall-tales. The one thread of the book that comes across clearly, is that Al Gore still lives with a deep insecurity and a very real need to please his late Father.

As I read the book, I was amazed how often my own feelings toward Al Gore would ride a wave only to crash, only to read on and catch another wave. The reason is simple: Al Gore is somewhat of a mystery man. There is a sense from the authors that he is not really secure in his true self or his positions on many issues. He is somewhat of an enigma to even those closest to him. Is he stiff and wooden, or is he a fun-loving guy who is different when the cameras go off? Is he a loyal-to-a-fault vice president, or a disgusted father who cringed at the Lewinsky scandal and wanted to distance himself? This book clearly raises as many questions about Al Gore as it answers. All the facts are here...born in Carthage, raised in two states, congressman, senator, etc. But if you hope by the end of the book that you will truly *know* Al Gore better than before, you might be a tad let down.

The authors leave little doubt as to the intelligence and abilities of Al Gore -- a qualified man, ready to be president. THE PRINCE OF TENNESSEE is a good read in this election year. Love him, hate him or undecided -- this book is a very good biography that is fair and balanced.

This book provides an excellent account of Al Gore's political and personal life, and is certainly not "fluffy" or "vicious," it is a piece of solid journalism on a difficult subject. This book will be helpful to me as I think about the options facing me at the voting booth.

Fearing the worst and expecting little, a pleasant surprise awaited me in these pages. Not junk-writing or caricature as in the Turque scrod "Inventing Al Gore", but as complex as the subject of Al Gore is, you find him in here. This author, David Maraniss, worked and investigated and created a real picture, not just a mockery of a man's life. The author claims some 500 interviews were conducted, and I believe him.

Albert Gore is a man who has always expected perfection in himself, and was never satisfied with much less. Is this a fault in the man who may well be our next President and leader of the free world? I think not. And this many-faceted, unauthorized autobiography gives us the best moments and many of the very-well researched 'bad' moments that happen in a man's life, a man who can only be described as intense and thorough in every thing he attempts.

As a young student, living in Washington, DC and attending St. Albans, he becomes a 3-letter man, and the Captain of his football team. Never one to run from a fight, he occasionally ends up on the bench after defending himself or a teammate against over-rough play from the other side. A leader in his own right, many interviews with former students show how Gore was seen as everything from self-centered to very studious, jocular to very quiet, and everything in-between. Why?

Taking the 'hard right over the easy wrong,' a theme of his recent acceptance speech for the Democratic nomination for the Presidency, came from these early years and was reinforced by his father, Senator Albert Gore Senior, on his deathbed, looking at his son for the last time, and saying "Always do right," his last words.

Although his political opponents used a donkey cart to caricature Gore's working in the tobacco fields, this book shows that the only asses pulling that cart were the Republicans. Every summer, during his teenage years, young Al Gore was taken home to work the tobacco fields his family had held for generations, right along with his dad and hired hands. And he hated his work in the fields, but honored his father with his labors. It was his obligation.

His years at Harvard were defined by the intensity and clear thinking he brought to the classroom. Instructors interviewed for the book knew he was the type of thinking man who could end up in an important position in Washington...although Al Gore steadfastly denied any such ambitions. And there is no evidence to the contrary. Martin Peretz, who would become the Editor-in-Chief of the weekly magazine "The New Republic," recently wrote in the magazine that Gore was the brightest of the bright from the first day in the class he taught at Harvard, and has never disappointed him since then. When Bill Clinton was vetting his candidates for his "A" list for Vice President, he was told time and time again, Al Gore is a man that sticks with you and supports you, "He will never knife you in the back."

When preparing his extensive array of information for his passionate work of ecological leadership, "Earth in the Balance," his publisher defined meetings with Gore as "more like an information download" than an interview. Probably no politician in America has an understanding of the complex problems facing future generations on this impending global environmental disaster as does Al Gore. His original title for this book was to be The New World War, but certainly would not have become a best seller with that title. His publisher was astonished to discover that the young politician would put his entire career on the line to support ideas that in 1990-92 seemed so threatening to a worldwide consortium of polluting interests, which could coalesce to hurt him politically. But in Al Gore's courage and eloquence, there was fearlessness and a leadership that inspired the publisher, Houghton Mifflin to go along with the idea. He would show these same strengths again in the future, when called upon to support President Clinton from partisan attacks during his term as Vice President.

So we get to know Al Gore, probable future President of the United States, as the complex, methodical and careful man he is. Not desiring high office, his whole lifetime has prepared him for it--and the interviewees in this book are not very surprised that he is here. Al Gore was never an accomplished public speaker, but was always working long hours for his constituents. He was never a back-slapper or a good-old boy, but he did know the 'hard right from the easy wrongs' and was willing to fight for his beliefs.

Always ready to move into first place, always strong and of good heart, loving husband and dad. Thanks Mr. Maraniss, for a good read!

The Prince of Tennessee is a very good biography, but not perfection like FIRST IN HIS CLASS. It is well researched, evenhanded,interesting, and insightful. Especially absorbing is the description of the Senior Al Gore and his wife Pauline. Al Gore's sister Nancy is covered in great detail also. The analysis of Gore's personality seems to be based on over 500 interviews and much research. I enjoyed the book immensely, wished it were much longer, but don't know if those not obsessed with politics to the degree I am will find it as fascinating.

Al Gore has been described as a cerebral achiever, a policy wonk with a sturdy propensity to master political minutiae. This is one reason why he has been described as "driven" in a way that his rival in the exciting, close 2000 presidential election, George W. Bush, was not, despite the fact that Bush is the son of a former chief executive.

Maraniss and Nakashima dig out the facts of Gore's boyhood and collegiate days. They provide the formative clues which enable readers to determine what makes Al tick and prompts him to respond to political challenges with a dogged intensity.

Like the now President George W. Bush, Gore had strong political roots of his own, Albert Gore Senior, who was an intense achiever in the same tradition as his son. Gore attended law school by night, romanced Gore's mother and married her during that busy period, then ultimately was elected first to the Congress, then the Senate. He would ultimately be defeated in his bid for a fourth term in 1970 as a result of his opposition to the Vietnam War, which was frowned upon in conservative circles in his home state of Tennessee.

From early boyhood Gore was groomed by his father to achieve the highest pinnacle of political success. This commanding sense of duty would ultimately do him in during his debates with Bush. Despite his command of political facts, and in some measure because of this trait, many voters became nervous by his intensity. As a result this uncomfortable feeling saw these voters gravitate toward Bush and his offhand "ah shucks" manner. Gore was seen as the class smart aleck determined to impress with his encyclopedic command of facts.

This intensity to strive, propelled into Gore early by his father, is explored in great depth extending into his political career as well. Maraniss and Nakashima note that on many occasions, due to this intensity to strive successfully, Gore has been given to exaggerations which his political enemies would seek to extrapolate into untruths. A classic case was Gore's statement that he "invented the Internet." When his qualification is examined one can see that this is an exaggeration rather than a falsehood since he was one of the farsighted Senators to recognize the potential of this soon to become American communications revolution. He became one of the first Washington insiders to propose federal government funding for the new daring project.

Successful biography answers questions by presenting the backgrounds and actions of subjects, making them more comprehensible as people. Maraniss and Nakashima succeeded in this endeavor in the case of Albert Gore.

Al Gore's promise in the 2000 campaign was "I'LL FIGHT FOR YOU."

To Wilson McWilliams in Commonweal (12/01/00) this is the slogan of a "second-rate" contestant saying, "Leave the fighting to ME." Gore "presented himself as ... an expert who will fight our battles for us, not a leader who will make us more able to fight for ourselves (p. 11).

Al Gore lives too many lives at once--not all of them conscious. One life always dominates but others are ready to leap out and bite. Grinding along in any of his lives--journalist, politician, researcher, polymath, crusader, etc., he is easy to predict. What remains unfathomable, however, is the timing of when he will switch lives. What comes next? Look to his genes and his rearing.

In THE PRINCE OF TENNESSEE: THE RISE OF AL GORE, our Vice President grows relentlessly. The book (Simon and Schuster, 2000) is by Clinton biographer David Maraniss, aided by Washington Post staffer Ellen Nakashima.

Maraniss makes it clear where "I'll Fight for You!" comes from, especially the fighting. And the hatred of losing.

Take sports. While his father was Senator in Washington, young Al spent nine years in St Alban's school. He took art as an elective and was a good, imaginative painter. There he once asked a teacher, "Sir, is this the time to be rowdy?" (p. 45). Born in 1948 and for years a bit of a runt, suddenly in the summer of 1960 he became "a husky young man" (p. 52). Captain of St Alban's football team, he felt that his lackadaisical teammates were causing him to lose. So he told the coach they were breaking training. In basketball, Gore was "an incorrigible if deadly gunner from the left corner." A teammate remembered that "his goal seemed to be to score as many points as possible in order to get his name in the paper" (p. 56). He was a little slow and not much of a jumper, but tenacious. Relegated to the varsity bench at Harvard, on the few occasions when he did play, he was so competitive that he invariably threw elbows and was in foul trouble within minutes (p. 71). In the mid '70s as a freshman Congressman, Al Gore played pickup basketball in the House gym. He "fired from the corner, a long-range gunner who passed only if necessary" (p. 182). Does this help understand some of his tactics in the 2000 Presidential debates?

David Maraniss's book unsparingly traces the evolution of Gore's weaknesses: his stoic, machine-like woodenness as a speaker, mediocre grades in formal education, smoking far more dope and for more years than he ever admitted, constantly putting himself into competitions where he was good but never best (football, basketball, defense policy, Presidential campaigning) and a sad, profound loneliness and inability to make close friends.

But THE PRINCE OF TENNESSEE also has his strengths: discipline which gets results, passion for facts, a quick study, an inability to be bored, a passion to try to explain the complex to the uneducated, e.g. global warming, detestation of racism and a shy personal outreach to black people. He had it all from the beginning.

What will Al Gore do now? He once promised Tipper to buy and run a small country newspaper. Daughter Karenna thinks he might become an astronaut. He will try something honorable and be good at it, but probably never be the very best.

If you are looking for a balanced account of a complicated man this is the book for you. Maraniss is one of the best writers of this generation and he simply continues to impress.

David Maraniss skillfully documents the rise of Al Gore to his role as Vice President. Maraniss, as in his other books on Vince Lombardi and Bill Clinton, is a great writer. This book can be easily read in one sitting and is an excellent life assessment on Al Gore, particularly given the recent election chaos.

Good, clearly worded overview of Gore. David Maraniss has already proven his worth as a biographer with Clinton's "First of His Class" and Ellen Nakashima is a writer for the Washington Post. Explains his background and some of his political assets and problems well.