“Don’t you just love all the stuff that comes out when a hot tech company declares it’s going public? I’m thinking in particular about a tidbit from Nick Bilton’s piece in the Times magazine about the intrigue and betrayals in Twitter’s early years,” Jeff Bercovici reports for Forbes. “Around the beginning of 2009, as Twitter was gathering momentum, cofounders Ev Williams and Biz Stone were ‘regularly turning down overtures to buy the company,’ reports Bilton. Among those making the overtures was former Vice President Al Gore, who ‘pitched Williams and Stone one night over copious amounts of wine and Patron tequila at his St. Regis suite in San Francisco.'”
“On whose behalf was Gore pouring all that wine and tequila that night? It could have been one of several parties, given the dense web of tech-industry allegiances Gore has woven for himself since entering the private sector in 2001,” Bercovici reports. “At the time of his approach, Gore was a member of Apple’s board of directors, as he still is. He was also a senior advisor to Google, assuming it took place before August 2009, when he has said he ‘pulled back’ to avoid conflicts of interest, following the lead of Google’s then-CEO, Eric Schmidt, who stepped down from Apple’s board then.”
Read more in the full article here.
Why wouldn’t he? After all, he inventedit!😉
All you Republicans are a joke. You are on an apple forum. Steve Jobs the founder of Apple was a liberal, his wife is a liberal and he is close friends with Bill Clinton and Al Gore.
Steve Jobs also said that Fox News was a joke and should be ashamed for there right wing biased coverage of the news.
Lastly Steve Jobs offered to help Barrack Obama with his re-election campaign. He offered to help Obama and the Democrats with their advertising.
You republicans shouldn’t support Apple anymore as they are clearly a liberal organisation. May I suggest you guys buy some Samsung Products that’s probably a better fit.
It’s frightening to think that this man was once a step away from running the greatest country on earth! As well as being embarrassing! Talk about a dope. Geez!
Don’t you mean, “Al-geez'”.
We’ll, he did sell his cable TV station to “Al-geez-era!”
Gaydar switched to ON. Processes running….
Scanning…
Scanning…
Scanning…
Scanning…
Scanning…
Scanning…
Scanning…
Scanning…
Scanning…
Scanning…
Scanning…
Scanning…
Scanning…
Scanning…
Scanning…
Scanning…
Scanning…
Scanning…
Scanning…
Scanning…
Scanning…
Scanning…
Scanning results complete.
Results of scan: Al Gore is gay.
Yeah… He’s a dope. Compare everything he’s done to whatever it is you do. He is on the board of Apple and was a friend of Steve Jobs… Among many other things. You send your time on an Apple blog. Some is a dope for sure.
He’s a dope and your a dope. And you’re the one who spends his time on this blog Tommy.
gore is a dope and people who get offended cause their favorite politician got called one is a little bitch
It is Gore who called up a little bitch and got caught at the Benson in Portland, Oregon as I recall.
Al Gore intoduced a bill that paved the way for the internet that we know today. He is a great man and a visionary. Conservatives made fun of him for talking about an “information superhighway.” The “invented the internet” crap was just taking his words out of context. Taking statements out of context is the Republican’s bread and butter. People like you, sadly, cannot understand context and are to dumb to see what lying douches you support. Luckily, Republicans have jumped the shark with that nonsense. your party is dead. Bitch all you want . You’ll soon be in the dustbin of history.
This great country would be a lot less great if it wasn’t for Al Gore.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Performance_Computing_Act_of_1991
Al Gore’s personal carbon footprint is larger than 99% of US population, Mr. 1%er. He flies in on his private jet and lectures fellow lemmings on warming in the midst of record-breaking snowstorms. He ditches Tipper for leftie groupies. You bow down to a buffoon that thinks he’s a god. His head can’t get any bigger from your worship…cuz his physical head is, well.. big. God help the lemmings.
You seem to not understand the fact that stronger storms are precisely what’s expected due to global warming. Your statements contradicts your own assertion. Measurably more intense weather is the result when oceans get warmer.
You seem to not understand that the Polar ice caps have GROWN by 29% since 2012. And how about your fellow brainiac climatologists predicting catastrophic global COOLING 50 yrs ago. C’mon, make up your minds. But I digress. None of this alters the fact that Al Gore is an insufferable bore who craves money, power, fame and, well, food. Peace out.
Richard, do you know how many carbon credits Gore buys? Do you know how much he invests in green energy technology companies, including the ones who supply Apple solar panels for its server farms? Why don’t you learn how to calculate both sides of the balance sheet, then we can talk intelligently.
Nobody ever claimed Gore is god. He’s far from perfect, he’s a partisan hack. However, he’s done infinitely more good for the world than at least 3/4 of congress, both in & out of office. You, sir, merely pick out flaws for your partisan hackery. Bully for you. Now you can do something important and let people throw darts at you.
Uhhh…you seem to have a “man crush” on the goremiester. I get it and that’s cool. But I’m not the only one, right or left, that smells a rat. Just a hunch. Follow the money my good fellow. Start with AG selling hugely popular (snark) Current TV to America’s best promoter Al Jazeera. Al Gore. Patriot?…or Profiteer?
Amen.
Hey Hillary, getting the falsehoods all ready for 2016 I see. While Gore did champion the HPCA which on the surface seems wonderful, i.e. lots of money for lots of different computer science related causes, it was primarily just an appropriations bill. Lots of money went primarily to lots of universities for research. In terms of actually building “The Internet” that was still an achievement that was accomplished by private companies left on to themselves without government intervention. In fact the Internet stands as one of the chief examples of “spontaneous order” in the world. Individual submit requests for standards, people comment, standards are developed, systems are created, the Internet expands. This is not to say government isn’t involved, just no more involved than anyone else, and saying that the HPCA was responsible for the Internet as we know it today is just a complete lie. It’s like saying Obama’s appropriation of funds and redistribution to failing solar companies is responsible for the alternative energy programs we have today. Oh wait. Maybe it is.
Love ya’ TM. Just a minor typo correction…
“left on to themselves” maybe should be “left unto themselves”? I read and enjoy everything you and Hannah write. Just couldn’t resist this one tiny chance to maybe “improve” one of your superb missives.
Having a bad day? Got your underwear in a twist bitch? I have no idea why you think I’m a Republican? Or a Democrat? But it’s clear that you are an irrational crazy left wing extremist. Go peddle your bullshit to somebody who believes it. Al Gore had nothing to do with the Internet development.
Hillary 2016,
I like your brand of satire.
Hillary 2016,
Idiots like you, killed this once-great country.
Let’s see: when it comes to Apple “superfans”, we on the Left get Al Gore, while you on the right get stuck with Limbaugh… I almost feel bad for you.
Almost. 😉
@Grigori,
They also argue the Steve Jobs was a conservative, but he just didn’t know it.
World English Dictionary
conservative (kənˈsɜːvətɪv)
— adj
1. favouring the preservation of established customs, values, etc, and opposing innovation
2. of, characteristic of, or relating to conservatism
3. tending to be moderate or cautious: a conservative estimate
4. conventional in style or type: a conservative suit
5. med Compare radical (of treatment) designed to alleviate symptoms
6. physics a field of force, system, etc, in which the work done moving a body from one point to another is independent of the path taken between them: electrostatic fields of force are conservative
— n
7. a person who is reluctant to change or consider new ideas; conformist
8. a supporter or advocate of conservatism
I think it is fair to say that in Job’s heart he was left leaning. He believed in causes like the environment. I don’t think it was just because he supported the environment that Al Gore wound up on Apple’s board. I think it was a conscience symbolic business decision. It is widely (and inaccurately) believed that most of Apple’s customers are liberals. Having Gore on the board would not hurt Apple’s public persona as a “progressive” company.
I’m trying to think of another lefty cause he championed, but there is little I can think of that is strictly left.
Yes his heart was left, and he championed leftist candidates like Gore and Obama, I mean he grew up in the 60s. Still there was an obvious cognitive dissonance here because his mind was steel trap conservative when it came to philosophy of life, business and work. He might have championed Obama, for instance, but after meeting the man famously came away “unimpressed” discovering that Obama was more full of himself than anything else. “Why does he keep talking about himself?” – Steve Jobs on Obama at the infamous dinner.
Heck conservative? I suspect the man was more of a libertarian than anything. It would fit more accurately. I.e. I’m sure he didn’t believe in the government telling people how to live their lives, as long as they weren’t hurting anyone else. He was definitely a free market capitalist, figuring out how to take an idea and make money was one of his chief gifts.
People who’ve never read and/or studied her will choke because such people are typical media dupes but his view of the world was more akin to Ayn Rand than anyone I can think of.
Rand was a champion of individualism.
Steve said things like “I’m an optimist in the sense that I believe humans are noble and honorable, and some of them are really smart. I have a very optimistic view of individuals.”
Or “As individuals, people are inherently good. I have a somewhat more pessimistic view of people in groups. And I remain extremely concerned when I see what’s happening in our country, which is in many ways the luckiest place in the world. We don’t seem to be excited about making our country a better place for our kids.”
This being in response to the growing sense of entitlement he saw in the country, people expecting something for nothing. This is antithetical to leftist thinking. Rand called the shift one to a “moocher economy.”
“The smallest minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities.” – Ayn Rand
Jobs was about doing the best work you can do, no matter what it is you do. You’ve all heard the story of painting the other side of the fence, “because you will know.” This is one of the major ideological components of Ayn Rand’s philosophy: Objectivism.
“… There’s nothing of any importance in life – except how well you do your work. Nothing. Only that. Whatever else you are, will come from that. It’s the only measure of human value. All the codes of ethics they’ll try to ram down your throat are just so much paper money put out by swindlers to fleece people of their virtues. The code of competence is the only system of morality that’s on a gold standard….” – Ayn Rand.
That quote from Rand has Jobs thinking all over it. You know he VALUED extreme competence. He surrounded himself with the best people he could find. Posers were notoriously afraid of him.
Liberals these days often decry the idea of “rugged individualism.” Steve Jobs was the epitome of rugged individualism. That individualism is what made America a great country, is what conservatives seek so desperately to conserve, and liberals so desperately to destroy. I think if you said to Steve Jobs, “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one,” he’d be inclined to respond, “That’s fine, let the many take care of their needs and I will take care of my own.”
Clearly Jobs valued liberty over equality. He obviously knew that there is no such thing as equality in life, business, or society. Some people are better at things than others. Some products are simply better than others. Some companies are better than others. The idea is that you are FREE to choose to be better! At the very heart of liberalism vs. conservatism is the question of equality vs. freedom. Liberals are champions of equality. Conservatives are champions of freedom. The problem is that legislating equality requires imposing a level of mediocrity on everyone, and there is no way Steve Jobs would get behind anything that instills mediocrity. He would choose freedom, the freedom to succeed, and the freedom (and this is important) to fail. Failure is an ingredient to success.
Steve Jobs liberal? I think he was a registered Democrat. He was obviously a practicing conservative. “Achievement of your happiness is the only moral purpose of your life, and that happiness—not pain or mindless self-indulgence—is the proof of your moral integrity, since it is the proof and the result of your loyalty to the achievement of your values.”
― Ayn Rand
“…the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.”
—Steve Jobs
“… Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you havent found it yet, keep looking. Dont settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it….” – Steve Jobs
This little commercial of Apple’s is probably one of the most important pieces of art in my life. I’ll never forget how it influenced me. It is pure conservative thinking.
I,m not sure how you can label this commercial conservative. But then again these labels have been confused and muddled by being attached to U.S. Political parties. Neither party is in the average U.S. Citizens best interests anway. I’m personally really tired of hearing about politics and I’m certain this news story was posted just to stir people up to get hits.
well done!,
I had to read through the whole thing, since it is obvious that a lot of intellectual effort was put into it, not to mention peppering it with quotes.
I have to disagree on few points. I don’t have the time to do this properly, and in detail, so I’ll be brief, if a bit imprecise.
Steve was liberal on many issues, and these include marriage equality, as well as the women’s right to chose. And based on most of the information out there (including the biography, as well as Lashinski’s book), he was NOT against helping the disadvantaged. His views were widely known; he advocated radical changes of educational system in order to improve access to knowledge for everyone.
As for the “entitlement society”, this is no more a liberal than it is conservative. You will find very few liberals who would advocate for a freeloader system where a group would be automatically entitled to something without ANY contribution. What progressives advocate is pooling the resources in order to obtain common good that everyone shares. Instead of one person having to pay $120,000 for treatment of his pancreatic cancer, everyone contributes some rather meager amount of their income and the burden is practically negligible, yet everyone has the benefits.
Back to the main point, about the only thing where Steve was a (probably reluctant) conservative was business, where he advocated lower taxation and reduced power of unions.
This would of course be the Ayn Rand that was on Welfare? That rugged individualist?
Randian thought is compelling when you’re a self-absorbed high schooler…once you realize that society could not function if everyone took that pseudo-Machivallian approach to life you understand that there’s a balance that must be achieved in order to coexist.
“F-you I got mine” was not the mentality of the post-war generation that built the foundations of our modern economy – it’s the selfish siren call of the “me” generation of former hippies that are happy to take, but damn unwilling to share. It’s simplistic rationalization for self-absortion as an admirable character trait.
BRAVO! TM, my hero. You said it and how!
“He was obviously a practicing conservative.”
Ugh. Clearly, “conservatism” is whatever one wishes it to be at any given moment.
Yes you on the left have Al Gore. He is a very accomplished man. He flunked out of law school and divinity school. (Yes, He actually flunked out of divinity school). He did one thing right. He married well. It always helps to marry a rich woman.
He’s very good at going to black churches and DEMONSTRATING his racism during elections, yet strangely Limbaugh is called a racist.
Gore’s been making money running around predicting the end of the world for some time now. In fact the Gore global warming doomsday clock puts us 2 years 109 days overdue for the end of the world.
He’s so notoriously wrong about much of his “inconvenient truths” that even notable climate change proponents groan when you bring him up.
It is possible to stumble around like an idiot and get mind bogglingly lucky. Look at Steve Ballmer.
So yeah, you guys have Al Gore, and you can keep him. I’d rather be associated with the likes of Rush Limbaugh any day. At least he’s a man who built his own fortune through political analysis and punditry as opposed to clever mooching.
This is a man who was known for the stupid things he says. He bastardizes science whenever it suits his needs.
But he is the quintessential DO AS I SAY, NOT AS I DO liberal politician.
BRAVO! TM, my hero. You said it and how!
Hey, I’m no fan of Gore, but compared to Limbaugh? YOU can keep HIM.
You mean, “Al-geez-eer”!
It’s frightening to think that this man was once a seat away from the greatest tech icon on earth!
Al Gore was going to run Australia? I really missed that one…
Ohhh! If only we could have bought a company that has a ton of users and no way to monetize them!!
Al Gore shouldn’t be in Apple board the same way Eric should not have been.
He is even worse. His real agenda goes beyond , it affects all of us, trying to sell the scam of the global warming due to the human activity . With his documentary based on lies. He even got the Nobel prize . So did Obama , what a joke that prize has become .
May be you should. If your credentials are better than Al
As a matter of fact, any one who has a better credential can come forward and demand to be his replacement.
Thanks. I am not interested
That figures!!
Oh please go away Al.
Al gore Is an embarrassment to himself he is a filthy pig whose wife Tipper, who is a Censorist, knows he’s a pig and even though she’s a pig, censorial, she knows he’s a bigger pig to the point that she left Him. she knows how dirty this whore is Al Gore is. But for money stays quiet. He is a whore. burn in hell Al Gore. Btw anyone who was fooled Into believing in global warming is simply an idiot When there are so many better causes to work toward that could help people right now. Burn in hell Al Gore burn in hell
Why the hell would Apple ever want this absolute idiot Al Gore who knows nothing about anything on their board I would never know and Apple has made this absolute Charlatan Rich. Burn in hell Al Gore burn in hell do you know the solution to climate change global warming it’s take the tax incentive out of it
I hate this guy and if he is ever near New jersey at one of his Ridiculous speaking engagements I will shout him down I will challenge him and I will make a fool out of him. This fool actually said publicly on TV that he thinks 200 feet below the surface of the earth it is millions of degrees in Temperature this idiot nothing about anything. I challenge you Al Gore. Debate me on global warming Ill bury you.
I know who former Vice President Al Gore was trying to purchase Twitter for. You would be surprised, The people involved were non other than
All spelling mistakes and grammatical errors courtesy Apple voice recognition
It is to be an utter fool to take anything Al Gore says as the truth or scientifically correct or anything other than a money grubbing scam. Pollution is bad sure save some whales perfect save a tree that would be great but Al Gore exists to only enrich himself every solution he has is only to put money in his own pocket take that away and Al Gore is gone. Sorry for the grammatical voice recognition errors
al gore doesnt give a shit about any apple fans. you mean nothing to him. anything he ever does is for his own self interest. if youre a fan of this guy youre a damn fool
Einstein said,
I fear the day that technology will surpass our human interaction. The world will have a generation of idiots.
Most of the posts above show that day has come.
There are people “in the press” who do things for power, some for politics, some for money, but I detect Gore doing things to glorify himself.
I don’t see Gore being an asset on the Apple Board of Directors, except for his political connections and those fade over time the further out of office he gets. The BoD is supposed to be a guiding force for the company to keep it on track in terms of customer satisfaction so Apple continues to do better and grow.
Given Al’s entire lifespan centered in Politics, what possible connection to a computer has he ever had in education, personal use or business? None that I see or have heard. He is a demonstrated elitist with a high degree of self-agrandizement and self-promotion for financial gain even when it doesn’t help his own country of birth.