-- NBC's Today. Tim Russert interviewed Gore for the first time since a July 16 Meet the Press appearance in which Russert's first question was to ask Gore what he meant when he told a woman in Michigan that being Vice President was a lot like being "the woman behind the man."

This morning, he pressed Gore on his opposition to school vouchers, and Gore at one point accused Russert of bias. "I know you're in favor of vouchers," Gore defensively told Russert, prompting Russert to respond: "No, I have no view on it. I have no view on it. But I went to a private school, you went to a private school. Your children go to private school, mine goes to a private school....Why not, as you said [before], if I was the parent of a child that went to an inner city school that was failing, I might be for vouchers, too. Why not give it a shot?"
(Russert's question)

Gore said he preferred a program in which failing schools are shut down and re-opened by a team of "specialists." "Governor Jim Hunt of North Carolina has put a plan just like that into effect and it works great," Gore exuded.
(The lie)

"We called his office tonight," Russert informed the Vice President. "He has not shut down any schools."
(The truth from Russert)

"Well, he has turned around a bunch of schools that were failing schools," Gore insisted, "and he has sent specialists in. Whether the terminology used is 'shut down' or whether it's 'a take over,' you know, that's something that you ought to-"
(A lie)

Russert countered: "He says he hasn't had to do that yet."
(The truth)