And then came Elián González. Last January, the Immigration and Naturalization Service ruled the young refugee should be returned to his father in Cuba. At the time Gore broke with the Clinton administration, as well as Attorney General Janet Reno and many Democrats, by suggesting the boy's custody be decided instead by U.S. family court, not the INS. During a Jan. 10 interview on the "Today Show," Gore explained he would "like to see the dispute adjudicated in our courts, where traditionally questions like what is best for this child are decided."

In late March when Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla., co-sponsored a bill in the Senate that he said would "move this case from an INS asylum case to a family court," Gore publicly supported it, stressing, "From the very beginning, I have said that Elián González's case is at heart a custody matter. It is a matter that should be decided by courts." It was nearly identical to what Gore said on the "Today Show" 10 weeks earlier.

Regardless, the reaction in late March was immediate and ferocious. Stressing over and again that Gore had "suddenly" broken ranks with the White House, the press was sure of one thing; with an eye on the fall elections, Gore was simply maneuvering for votes. "His pandering to the Miami Cuban community's view on Elián González reinforced the perception that Mr. Gore too quickly puts politics ahead of principle," read a New York Times editorial. To even the pro-Gore New Republic, "Gore's pandering" was "ham-fisted."

"Let's be honest about this," syndicated columnist Steve Roberts told CNN's Wolf Blitzer. "He clearly was pandering." The proof? Journalists offered none. No internal memos detailing Gore strategy, no first-person accounts from Cuban-American activist who'd spoken with Gore. Not even a compelling interview with an anonymous Democratic insider. Instead, the press just knew.

And in a preview of the fall campaign, Bush picked up on the media's crafty work, suggesting, "Al Gore's sudden change of position yesterday may have had more to do with the vice president's political interests than with the best interests of Elián González."

What's so striking about the pandering charge, besides the fact that Gore had maintained his position for months, was that by calling for family courts to decided Elián's case, Gore was actually going against public opinion and risking political fallout in November: A Miami Herald poll taken during the height of the Elián controversy found 76 percent of whites and 92 percent of blacks in Florida disagreed with Gore and wanted Elián sent back to Cuba.

With that sort of deceitful track record is it any surprise we see stories like the Washington Post's Oct. 8 one by Ceci Connolly and David Von Drehle, "GOP Homes In on Gore's Credibility." In it, the two wrote of how Gore had talked of his sister as a Peace Corps volunteer, but "Nancy Gore Hunger did work in the Washington office of the Peace Corps but never volunteered overseas." Read it again. Did Gore ever suggest his late sister "volunteered overseas"? No, that's a phrase the reporters created to disprove something Gore never said. Nonetheless, Connolly and Von Drehle casually chalk the example up as one of Gore's "lies."

Meanwhile, delivering her theater critique of the second debate on CNN's "Capitol Gang," Time magazine's Margaret Carlson approved of the way Bush had "leaned back" in his chair, and wore "that little bit of a grin." (To most, it's called a smirk.) And on the Imus show, Carlson admitted how lazy the Beltway media has become: "You can actually disprove some of what Bush is saying if you really get in the weeds and get out your calculator or you look at his record in Texas. But it's really easy, and it's fun, to disprove Gore."

Well, at least somebody's having fun.

Salon News A Salon-eye view of the day's news, with investigative reports, analysis and interviews with newsmakers.