The way you talk and the assumptions you make of my knowledge makes it look like you’re on the losing end of the argument. The letter you post is credible, but it only talks about Gore’s support of the effort that was undertaken by the Dept. of Defense.
FTP is a protocol (hence the P), and happens to also be the name of the application that uses it. Email is a combination of protocols, namely SMTP and POP3. TCP/IP, according to Wiki, was work that was largely done in 1973. Collectively these protocols, along with the physical mediums, define the internet. Al Gore saw that this was a good thing and helped nurture its expansion through funding, but he was not part of its actual R&D. Again, take all of this in context with what Al Gore had said: “I took the INITIATIVE (i.e. I started) of the CREATION (i.e. I was a direct part of its invention) of the internet WHILE I WAS A SENATOR (i.e. 1979 and later)” All three of these points betray the actual facts. He didn’t do that, but rather supported a bill to expand the concurrent use of it.
At the time he made this fallacious statement, the internet exploded into mainstream use–mom and pop were getting on board. The way I see it, he was trying to win votes by capitializing on the popularity of the internet. This is by no means the only case here. Now, as a Gore Apologist, you are probably well aware of lists of documented mistruths and exaggerations, especially in trying to curry the love of voters. He claimed he and his wife were inspirations for the novel Love Story (trying to draw oooohs from soccer moms), which was negated by its author. He claimed he was in the line of fire in Vietnam (trying to appear to be the war hero to voters) when nothing of the sort occurred–in fact he was purposefully kept out of harms way because his job was to be a reporter not a GI. Contrary to what he said, he did not take any part whatsoever in the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform bill (trying to impress those who were interested in taking big money out of politics) because he couldn’t have: he was no longer senator at the time. Those are the ones that I remember; you can find more here: http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a38dbb84a2e85.htm
