If and when a politician or political pundit on the right brings up the old "Al Gore says he invented the Internet" can’t and shouldn’t we just ignore and disregard every thing he or she says from that point on?
It’s been 8 years now since since a little bit of slip of the tongue misspeak took place and and was exploited by the right as part of a political hatchet job and we all (or at least all the reasonably intelligent people in this country) know he has never said any such thing.
As part of the Democratic nomination process and debate responding to a question from Wolf Blitzer of CNN as to what would distinguished him from Senator Bill Bradley he clumsily said:
"…During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet. I took the initiative in moving forward a whole range of initiatives that have proven to be important to our country’s economic growth and environmental protection, improvements in our educational system."
When what he probably really meant to say and was instead implying was:
"…During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in putting through legislation the was helpful in creating the Internet."
or
"…During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating legislation that helped develop the Internet." etc. etc. etc.
Any pundit or politician on the right who really thinks Gore really meant to say that "he created the internet" really really needs to have their head examined to see if they have any cognitive working brain cells inside it or needs to have their head examined to see if they have any political thinking skills too since all reasonable people on the left and the right now know that was just a politically motivated rumor and lie intended to ridicule Gore.
As I was eating my lunch I just saw Contessa Brewer on MSNBC talking with two political wags about Gore’s appearing on the cover of Time magazine and the forthcoming publication of his new book The Assault on Reason and this Republican wag who I previously respected admired and listened to as an intelligent voice from the other side started in on attacking Gore with the old "he said he invented the internet" argument and instantly lost any respect I had for him and lost any interest from my perspective in listening to anything else he had to say.
Perhaps it is more important than ever right now to have intelligent discussions of the issues at hand today where both sides and all those that fill the gaps in between listen to and hear what is really being said to the right and left in the political spectrum and not have our time wasted with the meaningless and pointless political attack rhetoric like "Gore says he invented the internet". In spite of my own political leanings to the left I want to hear what intelligent Republicans and Conservatives have to say and I don’t want to have my time wasted sorting through and throwing out that kind of political bullshit.