I was doing my end-of-year desk cleaning today and came across an old Spin magazine, dateline October 2000. Inside is a pre-election interview with then vice-president Al Gore, telling the Radiohead fans why he should sit at the big desk. It’s pretty standard stuff, but this gave me a chuckle:

And what about President Clinton?
On a personal level, you know, it’s complicated for me because the President is my friend, and that friendship is genuine and real. I felt the same disappointment and dismay that all of his friends felt when he made a personal mistake.

Are you worried that some lingering discontent or ill will towards him will be redirected onto your candidacy?
No, I have faith in the judgment of the American people.

After Gore conceded defeat, the Washington Post carried this account:

WASHINGTON -- They were two political partners who had barely spoken for a year, but a few days after Al Gore conceded the 2000 presidential election he and Bill Clinton were finally talking face to face.
For more than an hour, in what sources close to both men described as uncommonly blunt language, Gore forcefully told Clinton that his sex scandal and low personal approval ratings were a major impediment to his presidential campaign. Clinton, according to people close to him, was initially taken aback but responded with equal force that it was Gore's failure to run on the administration's record that hobbled his ambitions.