To the astonishment of many of us, Al Gore is reportedly separating from his wife, Tipper, after 40 years of marriage. Say it ain't so.
In my view, people (and not just the Gores) who have been married for 40 years should stay married.
At that stage of married life, all the years of driving each other crazy go for naught if their sentence is not completed. A couple of old grouches are not going to reinvent themselves as single grouches. They are just going to mope by themselves when they could be moping together and getting the tax deduction.
Besides, when the "death do us part" time comes, what joy is there for the previously separated or divorced partner if the epitaph on the tombstone reads, "You never believed me when I said I was sick"?
Yet here we have this sad surprise. Al and Tipper Gore seemed the perfect couple. He always looked delighted to have someone love him more than he loved himself, and she was like any regular wife who once attacked the lyrics of rock 'n' roll songs as a hobby.
This sad news also involves an inconvenient truth – that sadness for the Gore family is bound to be entertainment for the rest of America. Goodness knows, America needs some entertainment at this oily hour.
In some ways it is only fair that global warming now meets marital chilling to provide some light relief. Al Gore has been like many politicians who have promoted their happy marriages in order to show the public that they are regular guys.
When running for president, he took this happy-family posing to such an extreme that he shared a long and passionate kiss with Tipper at the 2000 Democratic convention, eliciting cries of "Get a room" and "Get the Lincoln Bedroom." Even the most liberal delegates wanted to throw cold water on the kissing twosome, but discovered they didn't have enough Perrier handy.
But this public display of affection was just the thing a regular guy would not have done, at least not one who knows the First Commandment of Marriage, "Thou shalt not embarrass thy wife (or thou wilt be sorry)." It is a good guess that their marital problems started right there.
Moreover, this romantic tableau didn't do any good with the voters. It only succeeded in grossing out younger people and made older people prefer George W. Bush as president because they were fearful that making out would become a government-run program.
Many readers will wonder: How does a wife separate herself from Al Gore anyway? He is a large presence, seemingly extending over several time zones. He is also notoriously boring, so if he did leave, how would his wife know? According to the Associated Press, the couple broke the news in an e-mail circulated among friends and associates, so it's good that someone invented the Internet even if he gets the bad rap for doing it. The Gores said it was "a mutual and mutually supportive decision that we have made together following a process of long and careful consideration."
In other words, they had a big fight and crockery was thrown. Probably he was mad because she moved his Nobel Peace Prize down to the game room.
The AP said the Gores were telling friends they "grew apart" after 40 years of marriage. There was no affair involved, according to close associates and family friends.
That was the initial story and it is early yet. It is possible that by the time you read this a host of cocktail waitresses will have come out of the woodwork with reports of how they shared private data on polar bears and mean temperatures in the Arctic with the former vice president.
Do not believe these stories too quickly. If there is one thing we know about Al Gore, it is that he is a magnet for bad raps.
In his varied public life as senator, vice president, presidential candidate and environmental prophet, Al Gore has attracted the sort of enemies that make reasonable people think better of him.
Yes, he comes off as being a tad stiff and pompous, and he has said some stupid things – an occupational hazard in his line of work. But he has also done some good along the way.
He went into the Army to serve in the Vietnam War because he didn't want someone else to take his place; he had a distinguished career in Congress and he behaved with dignified restraint – perhaps too much so – when he lost the dubious 2000 presidential election.
Given all this, I wish both of them better than this.
(Reg Henry is a columnist for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. E-mail rhenry@post-gazette.com)
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service,www.scrippsnews.com.)
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To the astonishment of many of us, Al Gore is reportedly separating from his wife, Tipper, after 40 years of marriage. Say it ain't so.
In my view, people (and not just the Gores) who have been married for 40 years should stay married.
At that stage of married life, all the years of driving each other crazy go for naught if their sentence is not completed. A couple of old grouches are not going to reinvent themselves as single grouches. They are just going to mope by themselves when they could be moping together and getting the tax deduction.
Besides, when the "death do us part" time comes, what joy is there for the previously separated or divorced partner if the epitaph on the tombstone reads, "You never believed me when I said I was sick"?
Yet here we have this sad surprise. Al and Tipper Gore seemed the perfect couple. He always looked delighted to have someone love him more than he loved himself, and she was like any regular wife who once attacked the lyrics of rock 'n' roll songs as a hobby.
This sad news also involves an inconvenient truth – that sadness for the Gore family is bound to be entertainment for the rest of America. Goodness knows, America needs some entertainment at this oily hour.
In some ways it is only fair that global warming now meets marital chilling to provide some light relief. Al Gore has been like many politicians who have promoted their happy marriages in order to show the public that they are regular guys.
When running for president, he took this happy-family posing to such an extreme that he shared a long and passionate kiss with Tipper at the 2000 Democratic convention, eliciting cries of "Get a room" and "Get the Lincoln Bedroom." Even the most liberal delegates wanted to throw cold water on the kissing twosome, but discovered they didn't have enough Perrier handy.
But this public display of affection was just the thing a regular guy would not have done, at least not one who knows the First Commandment of Marriage, "Thou shalt not embarrass thy wife (or thou wilt be sorry)." It is a good guess that their marital problems started right there.
Moreover, this romantic tableau didn't do any good with the voters. It only succeeded in grossing out younger people and made older people prefer George W. Bush as president because they were fearful that making out would become a government-run program.
Many readers will wonder: How does a wife separate herself from Al Gore anyway? He is a large presence, seemingly extending over several time zones. He is also notoriously boring, so if he did leave, how would his wife know? According to the Associated Press, the couple broke the news in an e-mail circulated among friends and associates, so it's good that someone invented the Internet even if he gets the bad rap for doing it. The Gores said it was "a mutual and mutually supportive decision that we have made together following a process of long and careful consideration."
In other words, they had a big fight and crockery was thrown. Probably he was mad because she moved his Nobel Peace Prize down to the game room.
The AP said the Gores were telling friends they "grew apart" after 40 years of marriage. There was no affair involved, according to close associates and family friends.
That was the initial story and it is early yet. It is possible that by the time you read this a host of cocktail waitresses will have come out of the woodwork with reports of how they shared private data on polar bears and mean temperatures in the Arctic with the former vice president.
Do not believe these stories too quickly. If there is one thing we know about Al Gore, it is that he is a magnet for bad raps.
In his varied public life as senator, vice president, presidential candidate and environmental prophet, Al Gore has attracted the sort of enemies that make reasonable people think better of him.
Yes, he comes off as being a tad stiff and pompous, and he has said some stupid things – an occupational hazard in his line of work. But he has also done some good along the way.
He went into the Army to serve in the Vietnam War because he didn't want someone else to take his place; he had a distinguished career in Congress and he behaved with dignified restraint – perhaps too much so – when he lost the dubious 2000 presidential election.
Given all this, I wish both of them better than this.
(Reg Henry is a columnist for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. E-mail rhenry@post-gazette.com)
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service,www.scrippsnews.com.)
