So Long, Al Gore. It Was Nice Knowing You...

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Hi, I'm Bill O'Reilly. Thanks for watching us tonight.

So long, Al Gore. It was nice knowing you. That's the subject of this evening's Talking Points Memo.

Well, I was wrong. I thought Mr. Gore would go for the big prize. But he's out, and I think I know why.

The former vice president realizes that Mr. Bush is popular with many Americans. He knows Saddam Hussein will be defeated if the United States goes after him, and Mr. Gore knows that the economy will probably improve. So there really isn't much to run on if those likely scenarios play out.

Also, Al Gore would have to fight for the nomination because many Democrats want a new face. Mr. Gore, I believe, just wouldn't want to go through the primary grind.

Now. Why isn't Al Gore president when he should have won the 2000 election easily? The reason is that Mr. Gore never allowed Americans to get to know him. He came across as formal and distant. He avoided tough interview venues. And everything he said seemed to be rehearsed and calculated.

President Bush, on the other hand, presented himself as a regular guy. And even though he fumbled around, Americans will accept verbal mistakes because they make people human.

Mr. Gore never realized that he had to sell himself to Americans, not just his policies.

I talked with the former vice president last week on the phone. That was the first time we had ever spoken. And I enjoyed the conversation. When the pressure is off, Mr. Gore is funny and down to earth.

But he surrounded himself with advisers who for the most part were arrogant and dismissive of all criticism. So Mr. Gore essentially preached to the choir during his presidential campaign. There is no way on this earth that a sitting vice president coming off a hot economy should have lost a presidential election to a man with mediocre debating skills and no national track record.

What it all comes down to is this. Both Al Gore and George W. are children of privilege, men who had tremendous wealth and power surrounding them. But Mr. Bush maintained a regular guy persona, while Mr. Gore did not display that.

And that's why Americans didn't elect him. In this age of intense television coverage, politicians must connect emotionally with voters.

Al Gore simply did not do that, and that's why he did not become president.

And that's The Memo.

The Most Ridiculous Item of the Day

Time now for "The Most Ridiculous Item of the Day..."

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