Al Gore: A User's Manual (Hardcover)

by Alexander Cockburn (Author), Jeffrey St. Clair (Author) "Gore and the decay of liberalism; his life-long propensity for a double standard; absence of noble moments; troubling eagerness to please a marked feature of..." (more)
Key Phrases: green organizations, furlough program, welfare bill, White House, New York, Democratic Party (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
What sort of a man is Al Gore? What's his real political record? This is the first unsparing look at the man whom his parents raised from birth to be president of the United States. Inside these pages, you will find:

* How Al Gore and his father got on the payroll of one of America's most ruthless tycoons, Armand Hammer
* How Al Gore has relentlessly exploited his sister's death and son's accident for personal political advantage
* How Al Gore violated the most basic journalistic ethics by helping the cops run a sting operation on a black politician in Nashville
* How Al Gore played midwife to the MX missile
* How Al Gore became a soul brother of Newt Gingrich
* How Al Gore race-baited Jesse Jackson and introduced George Bush to Willie Horton
* How Al Gore shopped his vote in support of the Gulf War to get prime-time coverage for his speech
* How Al Gore pushed Clinton into destroying the New Deal
* How Al Gore plotted to stop Democrats from recapturing Congress in 1996 in order to keep his rival Dick Gephard from becoming Speaker of the House
* How Al Gore leached campaign from nearly every corporate lobbyist in DC, and broke pledge after pledge to protect the environment

About the Author
Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair are the authors of Whiteout: The CIA, Drugs and the Press. They are editors of the popular newsletter CounterPunch.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Verso (September 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1859848036
• ISBN-13: 978-1859848036
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.7 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,338,559 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Down and Dirty Muckraking, September 18, 2000

By A Customer

This is Al Gore as you've never seen him before: a prevaricator, a conniver, someone who exploits his sister's death and son's tragic accident for naked political advantage. Cockburn and St. Clair have presented an unsparing account, which cuts through the mythology and political spin to show the real man: the man who betrayed his father's liberal legacy on matters of war and peace, civil rights and the nuclear arms race. Gore has now taken to calling himself a populist; yet, Cockburn and St. Clair disclose the fact that time and again he has sold his services to big oil, telecom giants and the nuclear power industry. He calls himself a liberal, but he has referred to gays as "abnormal", has supported tax breaks for racist schools, has voted against federal funding for family planning for poor women and has tried to end affirmative action. If there's one book you read before you cast your vote in November, this is it. Don't say you haven't been warned.

30 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What a Clown, October 11, 2000

By	Dylan M. Keeler (Brooklyn, NY USA) - See all my reviews

It's nice to see lefties like Cockburn and St. Clair and Sam Smith from the Progressive Review go after Clinton/Gore. It's heartening that right-wingers aren't the only people who recognize what a cynical and corrupt administration we're living under. My own views have strayed from some of the liberalism the authors espouse, and I think part of the reason for that has been watching a lot of people on the left blindly defend these crooks. I don't agree with everything Cockburn and St. Clair believe, but they're smart guys, and they recognize hypocrisy and corruption when they see it. AND IT'S SO BLATANT. I do agree with one of the other reviewers that there's a conspicuous lack of sources, but a great deal of what the authors discuss has been out there for a while (Elk Hills, Occidental, Armand Hammer, Buddhist Temple, uncountable fabrications, etc), and a lot of their attacks on Gore are based on his votes in Congress and as VP, not unsubstantiated rumors or accusations. I learned a great deal from this book, but most of it confirmed my intial beliefs...

32 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Truth Behind Gore, October 27, 2000

By	Reza (Portland, OR United States) - See all my reviews

The book Al Gore: A User's Manual, by Cockburn and St. Clair, illustrates the lies that have been the legacy of Al Gore. Throughout the book, the thin veneer of liberalism that Gore wears is stripped down and the reader sees the real Gore: a closet conservative whose record is anti-environment, anti-choice, and anti-labor. This book details the numerous "reinventions of Gore" and shows that if you side with him, he'll let you down. Just ask the people in East Liverpool Ohio, who now live next to the WTI Hazardous Waste Incinerator that Gore promised to shut down. This book is an important part of the literature that demystifies Gore and his treachery to the progressives of this country.