Matthews said Gore developed a "psychological problem" after 2000 election defeat -- "grew that beard and got weird"

Summary: On MSNBC's Scarborough Country, Chris Matthews stated that former Vice President Al Gore developed "a psychological problem" after his defeat in the 2000 presidential election. Rather than "stay[ing] in the action" politically after the election loss, Matthews said, Gore "went off and grew that beard and got weird" and "act[ed] like a man who'd been marooned, or cast away, or banished."

On the May 4 edition of MSNBC's Scarborough Country, Chris Matthews, host of MSNBC's Hardball, stated that former Vice President Al Gore developed "a psychological problem" after his defeat in the 2000 presidential election. Rather than "stay[ing] in the action" politically after the election loss, Matthews said, Gore "went off and grew that beard and got weird" and "act[ed] like a man who'd been marooned, or cast away, or banished."

Matthews made his comments during a discussion with host Joe Scarborough of a possible 2008 Democratic presidential primary match-up between Gore and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY).

Numerous right-wing pundits have previously "diagnosed" Gore as mentally unstable or "insane," as Media Matters for America noted. Scarborough himself has described Gore as having had a "thermonuclear meltdown." *

From the May 4 edition of MSNBC's Scarborough Country:

SCARBOROUGH: And Al Gore actually started attacking George W. Bush before most of the Democratic Party establishment did, right?

MATTHEWS: Well, freedom is just another word for nothing else to lose, right?

[laughter]

MATTHEWS: You know it's true. I think the problem with Al Gore is, for whatever psychological reason, he took that loss as a personal rejection. Even though he defeated George Bush in the popular vote, he took it as some real failure, and he went off and grew that beard and got weird, and I think that really hurt him in his chance of coming back in 2004. I think if he had stayed in the action, given speeches, toured the country as a guy that did really well, who got more votes than George W. Bush, and acted like the most popular kid on campus, which he was, instead of acting like a man who'd been marooned, or cast away, or banished. I think that was a psychological problem he had. I wish he had some brothers or friends who would have gone up to him and said, "Al Gore, you just got more votes than anybody else ever got for president. You got more votes than the next president. Act like you're proud. Be a good American. Smile, and you can come back again someday."

—J.B.

*Correction: This line originally stated that "right-wing pundits -- including Scarborough -- have previously 'diagnosed' Gore as mentally unstable or 'insane.'" In fact, as we had noted, Scarborough asserted that in "breathlessly attacking the president in a speech" Gore "adds to the global warming threat today with his very own thermonuclear meltdown." We regret the error.[back to item]