Office of the Independent Blogger

One of my favorite trivial historical anecdotes resulted from Woodrow Wilson’s courtship of Edith Bolling Galt. They’d gone out to dinner and the newspapers, of course, wrote all about it. The Washington Post took it a step further than any other daily when they “typoed” the following line in their review of the evening: “The President spent the night entering Ms. Galt.” They meant “entertaining.”

Think there’ll be any “typoes” like that after Al Gore and George Bush have a “date” in the Oval Office?

President Bush and former Vice President Al Gore have spoken just a few times since the evening of Dec. 13, 2000, when Mr. Gore conceded the presidential race, five weeks and a Supreme Court ruling after the voting had ended. But one week from Monday, they will meet in the Oval Office for a ceremony honoring this year’s American Nobel laureates, including Mr. Gore, who shared the Nobel Peace Prize for his work on climate change.

It will be Mr. Gore’s first trip back to the White House since the Clinton administration, perhaps a bittersweet moment for a man who won the popular vote, lost the election and went on to redeem himself as an environmentalist. It might also be an occasion for policy talk. He and Mr. Bush do not see eye to eye on climate change. Aides say the two have spoken briefly over the years at events like the 2001 inaugural and a memorial for Sept. 11 victims. On Thursday, Mr. Bush called Mr. Gore to make certain that he could attend the White House event. The deputy White House press secretary, Tony Fratto, called it a friendly conversation. A spokeswoman for Mr. Gore, Kalee Kreider, said Mr. Gore was looking ahead, not back.

This could, and should, be a beautiful night. Might not be romance, but sparks are going to fly.

This entry was posted on Saturday, November 17th, 2007 at 5:25 pm and is filed under Outside Retort (Current Affairs).