You Go, Al!
Al Gore went live with America's "girlfriend" Oprah Winfrey for an hour in Chicago on Monday.
A longtime taste-maker in the book world, now Oprah's in the king-making business.
The Gore show was Oprah's first-ever interview with a politician on her broadcast, and she's booked George W. Bush for the full hour next week. Oprah said she hopes the two shows will help voters answer the question, "Who feels right for you to be the President of the United States?"
Like most of Oprah's full-hour guests, Gore probably revealed a few things he never meant to, but overall, the interview was a benign, watchable tete-a-tete rife with moments sure to play well with the married women who are a key group of swing voters in this election.
Gore had moms in mind when he discussed a new government report that found some entertainment companies are marketing violent content to children and told Oprah that he and running mate Joe Lieberman will give the companies six months to clean up their act, or face the music.
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Al and Oprah
Here are the key moments of Oprah's interview with Gore:
Highlight: Gore's sure-footed responses to Oprah's "Favorite Things" quiz, wherein the guest names his favorite book, teacher, et cetera. Gore defends with conviction his choice of Wheaties as "favorite cereal" and quotes Bob Dylan from memory. Deflects possible boxers-or-briefs moment by answering "bed" when asked what he likes to sleep in.
Lowlight: Oprah Misses the Follow up Question.
Oprah: "If there came a time in your presidency where.. the presidency .. was obviously toxic to your family, would you choose between your job and the family?
Gore: "I would change the job. I would change the nature of the job."
Weirdest moment: Gore names The Red and the Black as his favorite book. No Stendhal in Oprah's Book Club.
"Girlfriend" moment: Gore exchanges high-five with Oprah over her red patent leather boots. (Not cheap). Women everywhere think, Gore "gets it."
Five-alarm Republican wakeup call: Oprah proposes a national parenting curriculum. Gore calls it "a great idea."
Stuff George W. Bush won't say to Oprah: "We're not human beings who occasionally have a spiritual experience; we're spiritual beings having a human experience."
Gore panders to Oprah: Gore tells Oprah he remembers covering stories with her in Nashville, Tennessee, when he was a print reporter and she was the market's youngest TV anchor. "People tended to remember you, Oprah."
Oprah panders back: > Plays The Kiss clip twice. Second time with live Oprah voice-over, "Oooh, man. Oooh, baby!"
Gore Waits to Exhale?: Gore recounts now-familiar tale of new perspective brought on by son's hospitalization. Remembers looking at his schedule book and thinking, this is crap. "All these things for the next month that felt so weighty when I put them on the schedule, when I exhaled they just blew off the schedule light as a feather. They didn't matter anymore."
Nervous Republican strategists have only one week to decide, What's our Oprah strategy?
Compete with Gore on this touchy feely stuff, matching him confession-for-confession, insight-for-insight, Dylan quote for…well, never mind… or stick with the winning combination of Yankee stiff upper lip and Texas twang that worked so well until the Democratic convention?
As for Oprah's Bush strategy: Will she give Dubya equal time on the handholding, embracing and high-fiving she shared with Gore? Tune in.