"Corky Scott" wrote in message
...
On 31 May 2005 11:28:59 -0700, "Sport Pilot"
wrote:

The arguement about President Eisenhower is moot because he never said
it. Since Eisenhower actually had a head on his shouders I doubt he
would have made such a gaffe. If so he would have been able to explain
it. Gore didn't seem to have a clue that his legislation was about the
Web, and that the internet had been invented almost two decades before
his legislation.

Sport Pilot, you must have read the explanation a little bit too
quickly, the Eisenhower comment was meant as a comparison, not a
statement of fact.

Here's the statement:

"If President Eisenhower had said in the mid-1960s that he, while
President, "created" the Interstate Highway System, we would not have
seen dozens and dozens of editorials lampooning him for claiming he
"invented" the concept of highways or implying that he personally went
out and dug ditches across the country to help build the roadway.
Everyone would have understood that Ike meant he was a driving force
behind the legislation that created the highway system, and this was
the very same concept Al Gore was expressing about himself with his
Internet statement. "

The last sentence makes the comparison, it means that Gore was
intending to say that he supported the development of the internet
when it needed support. Granted it was tooting his own horn a bit but
that's what politicians do, and he was after all in a race for
nomination as president of the USA.

Once it got subverted by the talkshow's though, it became conservative
gospel that Al Gore was caught bragging he'd invented the internet.
And he did not say that.

Corky Scott


First, Eisenhower was President when the interstate highway system was
funded and his direct intervention in the political process had a lot to do
with it.

Gore was a Senator long after the Internet had been created and I have yet
to hear what bill he sponsored or even voted for though I'm sure several
went through the Senate during his terms in office.

Let's say for a moment he did sponsor or vote for a bill that did something
to help the Internet grow. I'm sure he also during his time in the Senate
voted for a highway bill. Does that make it an honest statment for him to
say "He helped create the Interstate system"?