Along with Maureen Dowd, the Washington Post Style section helped popularize the sneering, snarky, personality-driven approach to political reporting that now dominates national press coverage. It's become so influential that a number of its "best" writers have been poached by other publications. As Post culture critic Phil Kennicott told the Washingtonian, "Style has won the war. Narrative journalism is now on the front page and Metro."
Sadly, one of Style's exports is Mark Leibovich, who is now doing awful work for the New York Times, including a recent piece that analyzed Hillary Clinton's handwriting and referred to her current campaign as "Version 08, Nurturing Warrior, Presidential Candidate Model."
Today, Leibovich offers us another pathological profile. In this one, he and co-author Patrick Healy compare Al Gore to a recovering alcoholic:
The last time Al Gore appeared publicly inside the United States Capitol, he was certifying the Electoral College victory of George W. Bush. He returns on Wednesday, a heartbreak loser turned Oscar boasting Nobel hopeful globe trotting multimillionaire pop culture eminence.
For Mr. Gore, who calls himself a "recovering politician," returning to Capitol Hill is akin to a recovering alcoholic returning to a neighborhood bar. He will, in all likelihood, deliver his favorite refrain about how "political will is a renewable resource" and how combating global warming is the "greatest challenge in the history of mankind." He will confront one of his fervent detractors, Senator James M. Inhofe, Republican of Oklahoma, who derides Mr. Gore as an alarmist.
He will also embrace old friends, pose (or not) for cellphone photos and greet the legion of climate change disciples who swear by the "Goracle" as a contemporary sage.
Leibovich and Healy also make sure to mention that Gore has gained weight, writing that "His hair is slicked back in a way that accentuates the new fullness of his face."
Healy, it's worth noting, wrote a long and prurient examination of Bill and Hillary Clinton's marriage for the Times last May that tracked the number of days per month they were together over a seventeen month period.
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