Yet another Gore smear

[VayaConDios]

In another thread, JackWhite wrote:

[ QUOTE ]
Are we allowed to hold his speech at the 1996 DNC Convention against him? The one where he gave a tear-jerking speech detailing how his sister's death from cancer turned him into an anti-tobacco zealot? Of course, years after his sister's death he was still taking tobacco money and bragging that his family had grown tobacco. I certainly hold that against him.


[/ QUOTE ]

Shockingly, Gore said nothing of the sort. The pertinent portion of his speech was:

[ QUOTE ]

Some of the most powerful forces that do the most harm are often hard to see and even harder to understand. When I was a child, my family was attacked by an invisible force that was then considered harmless. My sister Nancy was older than me. There were only the two of us and I loved her more than life itself. She started smoking when she was 13 years old. The connection between smoking and lung cancer had not yet been established but years later the cigarettes had taken their toll.

It hurt very badly to watch her savaged by that terrible disease. Her husband, Frank, and all of us who loved her so much, tried to get her to stop smoking. Of course she should have, but she couldn't.

When she was 45, she had a lung removed. A year later, the disease had come back and she returned to the hospital. We all took turns staying with her. One day I was called to come quickly because things had taken a turn for the worse.

By then, her pain was nearly unbearable, and as a result, they used very powerful painkillers. And eventually it got so bad they had to use such heavy doses that she could barely retain consciousness. We sometimes didn't know if she could hear what we were saying or recognize us.

But when I responded to that call and walked into the hospital room that day, as soon as I turned the corner - someone said, "Al's here" - she looked up, and from out of that haze her eyes focused intensely right at me. She couldn't speak, but I felt clearly I knew she was forming a question: "Do you bring me hope?"

All of us had tried to find whatever new treatment or new approach might help, but all I could do was to say back to her with all the gentleness in my heart, "I love you." And then I knelt by her bed and held her hand. And in a very short time her breathing became labored and then she breathed her last breath.

Tomorrow morning another 13-year-old girl will start smoking. I love her, too. Three thousand young people in America will start smoking tomorrow. One thousand of them will die a death not unlike my sister's, and that is why, until I draw my last breath, I will pour my heart and soul into the cause of protecting our children from the dangers of smoking.

And that is also why I was intensely proud last week when President Clinton stood up for American families by standing up to tobacco advertising aimed at getting our children addicted. He proposed- he proposed the first-ever comprehensive plan to protect children from smoking; to ban tobacco advertising aimed at our children, and to ban it for good.

It took courage for Bill Clinton to take on the tobacco companies. I promise you it is no accident that no president has ever been willing to do it before.


[/ QUOTE ]

Where does Gore say anything about not taking money from tobacco companies? Maybe Gore thinks that adults should be able to purchase tobacco products, but that they shouldn't be advertised to children. But of course that doesn't fit neatly into the talking points. Thanks for repeating yet another distortion from the neocon echo chamber.

[xorbie]

You do realize that it's still really sleazy for Gore to take money from them, right?

[VayaConDios]

[ QUOTE ]
You do realize that it's still really sleazy for Gore to take money from them, right?

[/ QUOTE ]

First of all, I have no idea whether and to what extent Gore has taken money from tobacco companies. I'm guessing that big tobacco is like most other industries and spreads around money to candidates on both sides of the aisle. I'm also guessing that Gore, like the other candidates, is not in the habit of sending back sizable checks that he receives. While I disagree with many of the things that tobacco companies have done in the past, I hardly find it somehow inherently sleazy for him to accept campaign contributions from them.

[Edge34]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
You do realize that it's still really sleazy for Gore to take money from them, right?

[/ QUOTE ]

First of all, I have no idea whether and to what extent Gore has taken money from tobacco companies. I'm guessing that big tobacco is like most other industries and spreads around money to candidates on both sides of the aisle. I'm also guessing that Gore, like the other candidates, is not in the habit of sending back sizable checks that he receives. While I disagree with many of the things that tobacco companies have done in the past, I hardly find it somehow inherently sleazy for him to accept campaign contributions from them.

[/ QUOTE ]

Step 1) Go out and bash the entire tobacco industry, describing just how hard it was to watch their product KILL YOUR SISTER OF CANCER.

Step 2) Gain political support from sob story.

Step 3) Continue accepting contributions from an industry that killed your sister, that you will work against "until you draw your last breath".

Step 4) ???????

Step 5) Profit and hope all that sob-story BS gets you elected President.


Seriously, VCD, I hope to whatever form of God you do or don't believe in that you aren't so dense to see the inherent hypocrisy in this whole thing, if he has been taking money from big tobacco.

[VayaConDios]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
You do realize that it's still really sleazy for Gore to take money from them, right?

[/ QUOTE ]

First of all, I have no idea whether and to what extent Gore has taken money from tobacco companies. I'm guessing that big tobacco is like most other industries and spreads around money to candidates on both sides of the aisle. I'm also guessing that Gore, like the other candidates, is not in the habit of sending back sizable checks that he receives. While I disagree with many of the things that tobacco companies have done in the past, I hardly find it somehow inherently sleazy for him to accept campaign contributions from them.

[/ QUOTE ]

Step 1) Go out and bash the entire tobacco industry, describing just how hard it was to watch their product KILL YOUR SISTER OF CANCER.

Step 2) Gain political support from sob story.

Step 3) Continue accepting contributions from an industry that killed your sister, that you will work against "until you draw your last breath".

Step 4) ???????

Step 5) Profit and hope all that sob-story BS gets you elected President.


Seriously, VCD, I hope to whatever form of God you do or don't believe in that you aren't so dense to see the inherent hypocrisy in this whole thing, if he has been taking money from big tobacco.

[/ QUOTE ]

At no point does he bash "the entire industry." At no point does he state that he is against adults smoking if they choose to do so. At no point does he promise not to take tobacco money. Every single point he makes is against teenage smoking.

How is stance at all different than that of any other mainstream politician, almost all of whom would say that smoking is a bad idea, but that adults should be free to do so. Most would even say that advertising to teens is a bad thing (except for those who really are in the pocket of big tobacco). Yet for some reason Gore is the only one who is singled out and called hypocrite. Wonder why?

[xorbie]

[ QUOTE ]

At no point does he bash "the entire industry." At no point does he state that he is against adults smoking if they choose to do so. At no point does he promise not to take tobacco money. Every single point he makes is against teenage smoking.

[/ QUOTE ]

And he doesn't even have to be against the whole industry or go on a witch hunt banning smoking from everywhere. But taking money from them? Come on. I see it to be as bad as if he was smoking, but with undertones of sleaze instead of just being pitiful.

[ikestoys]

lol you didn't refute the "smear" at all. you just confirmed it happened and tried to rationalize it.

Gore: YOU KILLED MY SISTA (sob)
Tobacco: Here, take a few gs
Gore: Thank you

[bdk3clash]

BTW, a simple Google search reveals that Gore apparently stopped accepting tobacco company donations in 1990.

[VayaConDios]

[ QUOTE ]
lol you didn't refute the "smear" at all. you just confirmed it happened and tried to rationalize it.

Gore: YOU KILLED MY SISTA (sob)
Tobacco: Here, take a few gs
Gore: Thank you

[/ QUOTE ]

The neocon talking point is that Gore is "anti-tobacco" and refused to take tobacco money yet continued to do so. Neither one of these things are true.

[guids]

Deleted The pertinent part of the speech is exactly what that quote said he states (his sister died of lung cancer from smoking).

the fact that he takes money from big tobacco is awesome, whats even better is your blinders. God, how can anyoen be so stupid...haha...seriously Im on life-tilt that the OP could even consider that he is making a good point, or pointing out a republican trying to twist words