Nobody other than Al Gore could know how it felt to be cheated out of the presidency after winning in the popular vote category and in the Electoral College as well once that Republican Party vote theft in Florida was fully investigated.

A man who was prepared to serve and had been rightfully elected to occupy the presidency instead moved into private life.  This occurred after he had valiantly overcome an effort by powerful elements of the mainstream media to depict him as a "serial exaggerator" and, inferentially, some kind of policy geek with a penchant for environmental extremism.

The tragic irony emerging from the bitterly divisive 2000 election fight was the misrepresentation of both presidential candidates.  George W. Bush was depicted as a "regular guy", the kind of person to whom Americans could relate.  

Bush's promise to be a chief executive above party affiliation and dedicated to ending party division by changing the tone of government was never seriously challenged by the mainstream media.  There was no challenge despite the use of scurrilous lies to defeat fellow Republican John McCain in the South Carolina primary.