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“If love means never having to say you’re sorry, then politics means you have to say it all the time,” Gore spokeswoman Ginny Terzano said.

Only a few weeks ago, Gore received the endorsement of the Teamsters union, and he spoke warmly of his working-man heritage. “I still remember the lullabies I heard as a child,’’ he said. Then he broke into song, “Look for the union label …” The only problem was that the song was written in 1975, when Gore was 27 years old.

Clinton, Quayle Both ‘Lose Mind’

You might think Bill Clinton is the consummate public speaker, but at the University of Hawaii in 1992, Clinton told students, “This is still the greatest country in the world, if we just will steel our wills and lose our minds.”

Clinton apparently meant to say “use our minds,” but given the struggles of his second administration, you never know.

Certainly anyone can misspeak if you listen long enough. Of course, some people trip over their tongues more frequently than others. And that brings us to Dan Quayle.

Perhaps you remember his thoughts on geography: “I love California. I practically grew up in Phoenix.”

And the environment: “It isn’t pollution that is harming our environment. It’s impurities in our air and water.”

And parenting: “Republicans understand the importance of bondage between a mother and child.”

And science: “For NASA, space is still a high priority.”

And on the NAACP: “What a waste it is to lose one’s mind. Or not to have a mind is being very wasteful. How true that is.”

And World War II: “The Holocaust was an obscene period in our nation’s history. I mean in this century’s history. But we all lived in this century. I didn’t live in this century.”

And family planning: “Illegitimacy is something we should talk about in terms of not having it.”