Join Amazon Prime and ship Two-Day for free and Overnight for $3.99. Already a member? Sign in.
|
Frequently Bought Together
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
Bob Zelnick gives Vice President Al Gore a critical once-over on these pages, chronicling his rise from a life on Embassy Row as the son of Senator Al Gore Sr. to his vice-presidency in the Clinton administration. Although not a hatchet job, the book does linger over the more controversial aspects of Gore's professional life: Zelnick clearly delights in recounting Gore's questionable fundraising practices (remember the 1996 Buddhist temple incident?), how today's antismoking animus clashes with his onetime pride in tobacco farming, his flip-flop on abortion and awkward attempts to justify it, his environmental extremism, and his incautious rhetoric ("no controlling legal authority"). Readers will also appreciate several sharp observations that have not yet attracted much attention. "Vice President Gore, who claims paternity of the term 'information superhighway,'" writes Zelnick, "had nothing to say during the first five and a half years of his vice-presidency about the biggest problem in the history of high-tech America"--the Y2K computer bug. There are also gossipy items: the Gores "resented the treatment their son had received" following a smoking-and-drinking-in-the-woods-with-girls incident and transferred Al III from one posh Washington prep school to another. On the whole, Gore skeptics will have their doubts affirmed--and his allies will confront troubling questions about the man who would be president. --John J. Miller --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
From Publishers Weekly
Albert Arnold Gore Jr., who once called the American vice-presidency a "political dead end," will not be flattered by this biography from former ABC News correspondent Zelnick (Backfire). The author does little to penetrate Gore's famously wooden exterior and compiles the usual list of anecdotes from Gore's formative years at the knee of his father, a U.S. senator from Tennessee: working on a farm from sunrise to sunset to "build his character," joining Harvard roommate Tommy Lee Jones onstage for an "Old Time Country Panorama," writing an eerily prescient honors thesis on the impact of television on the presidency. But when Zelnick turns to Gore's political career, starting with election to the House in 1976, it becomes apparent that objective biography is not his aim. In successive chapters, he attacks Gore for reversing positions on abortion, for incorporating his sister's death into his speech at the 1996 Democratic National Convention and for capitulating to unions when "reinventing" government. Zelnick pummels Gore for making what Zelnick says were illegal fund-raising calls from the White House and for accepting campaign contributions from Chinese citizens. He even manages to accuse Gore of being both a radical and a hypocrite on core environmental issues. Many of these concerns seem legitimate, raising troubling questions about the man who would be president. But although it is rarely malicious, Zelnick's assault is so relentless that it is difficult to accept all of his charges. At times he can be gracious (Gore's stint as an army reporter in Vietnam, Zelnick states, was "decent and honorable"), but the cumulative weight of his book is overwhelmingly and exhaustively critical.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
See all Editorial Reviews
Bob Zelnick gives Vice President Al Gore a critical once-over on these pages, chronicling his rise from a life on Embassy Row as the son of Senator Al Gore Sr. to his vice-presidency in the Clinton administration. Although not a hatchet job, the book does linger over the more controversial aspects of Gore's professional life: Zelnick clearly delights in recounting Gore's questionable fundraising practices (remember the 1996 Buddhist temple incident?), how today's antismoking animus clashes with his onetime pride in tobacco farming, his flip-flop on abortion and awkward attempts to justify it, his environmental extremism, and his incautious rhetoric ("no controlling legal authority"). Readers will also appreciate several sharp observations that have not yet attracted much attention. "Vice President Gore, who claims paternity of the term 'information superhighway,'" writes Zelnick, "had nothing to say during the first five and a half years of his vice-presidency about the biggest problem in the history of high-tech America"--the Y2K computer bug. There are also gossipy items: the Gores "resented the treatment their son had received" following a smoking-and-drinking-in-the-woods-with-girls incident and transferred Al III from one posh Washington prep school to another. On the whole, Gore skeptics will have their doubts affirmed--and his allies will confront troubling questions about the man who would be president. --John J. Miller --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
From Publishers Weekly
Albert Arnold Gore Jr., who once called the American vice-presidency a "political dead end," will not be flattered by this biography from former ABC News correspondent Zelnick (Backfire). The author does little to penetrate Gore's famously wooden exterior and compiles the usual list of anecdotes from Gore's formative years at the knee of his father, a U.S. senator from Tennessee: working on a farm from sunrise to sunset to "build his character," joining Harvard roommate Tommy Lee Jones onstage for an "Old Time Country Panorama," writing an eerily prescient honors thesis on the impact of television on the presidency. But when Zelnick turns to Gore's political career, starting with election to the House in 1976, it becomes apparent that objective biography is not his aim. In successive chapters, he attacks Gore for reversing positions on abortion, for incorporating his sister's death into his speech at the 1996 Democratic National Convention and for capitulating to unions when "reinventing" government. Zelnick pummels Gore for making what Zelnick says were illegal fund-raising calls from the White House and for accepting campaign contributions from Chinese citizens. He even manages to accuse Gore of being both a radical and a hypocrite on core environmental issues. Many of these concerns seem legitimate, raising troubling questions about the man who would be president. But although it is rarely malicious, Zelnick's assault is so relentless that it is difficult to accept all of his charges. At times he can be gracious (Gore's stint as an army reporter in Vietnam, Zelnick states, was "decent and honorable"), but the cumulative weight of his book is overwhelmingly and exhaustively critical.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
See all Editorial Reviews
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
Look Inside This Book
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organize and find favorite items. |
Help others find this product — tag it for Amazon search
No one has tagged this product for Amazon search yet. Why not be the first to suggest a search for which it should appear?
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
|||||||||||||||||
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
Customer Discussions
Beta (What's this?)
New! See all customer communities, and bookmark your communities to keep track of them.
|
This product's forum
(0 discussions)
Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Active discussions in related forums
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Product Information from the Amapedia Community
Beta (What's this?)Be the first person to add an article about this item at Amapedia.com.
› See featured Amapedia.com articles
Look for Similar Items by Category
Cut Grass like Butter |
Buy Three Books, Get a Fourth Free |
|||||||||
|
Your Recent History
(What's this?)|
You have no recently viewed items or searches.
After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in. Look to the right column to find helpful suggestions for your shopping session. |
Continue shopping: Top Sellers
| ||||
| ||
| ||
| ||
| ||
| ||
