During the Democratic National Convention, successful actor Tommy Lee Jones, who also happened to be the roommate of Vice President Al Gore during his years at Harvard, gave the speech nominating Al Gore as the democratic presidential candidate for the 2000 election.
After a year-long campaign costing millions of dollars and enough vitriol to last the Hatfields and McCoys a few generations, the democrats were ready to nominate Al Gore as their presidential candidate, so one immediately gleans the importance and significance of Jones’ topic. The actor had a strong opening to his speech because he was able to reveal a side of Al Gore that few of us have known, his days as a young college student at Harvard. This not only served to build audience interest, but it also was a way for Jones to inject humor into his speech and loosen up. His audience was biased in favor of Al Gore so the manner of Jones’ was confident, exuberant, patriotic, and filled with emotion.
Jones’ content basically involved some anecdotes from his youthful experiences with Al Gore, a plain, matter of fact, assessment of the character of a man Jones believed would make a “great” president, and the ending which included the nomination of the Vice President “and my friend” Al Gore as the democratic presidential candidate. It was at this point when Jones referred to the Vice President as “my friend” that he choked up a bit and seemed to have tears brimming in his eyes from pride and emotion.
An actor through and through, Jones speech was also filled with hand gestures and body language. At one point he threw his arms up exhorting the crowd to cheer. Another time he rocked back and forth as if he were too anxious from the excitement of the moment to stand still. At other times he put his head down and appeared pensive and reflective, almost as if Al Gore’s upcoming nomination was as big a surprise to him, his long-time f
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