Video: 'Bill Clinton Secretly Meets Al Gore for Beers & To Secure VP Nomination | THE CIRCUS | SHOWTIME'

(Thursday, July 9, 1992, 12:04 p.m. CDT, less than five months before the 1992 United States presidential election) — Governor Bill Clinton of Arkansas today selected Senator Al Gore of Tennessee to join him as his vice presidential running mate when he receives the Democratic nomination for president in New York next week (click here to watch video of today’s announcement).

In making the much-anticipated announcement on the lawn of the Governor’s mansion in Little Rock, Clinton emphasized Gore’s experience in foreign policy and the environment. And with their wives and children arrayed behind them in the baking noonday sun, both men spoke of their commitment to family values.

Clinton offered Gore the position during a 20-minute conversation last night shortly before midnight.

If elected, Gore, 44 years old, and Clinton, 45, would be the youngest team to make it to the White House in the country’s history.

Aides to the Arkansas Governor emphasized their relative youth as a positive factor in an election year that has turned on which candidate can offer the best formula for change, a pointed reference to President George H.W. Bush, 68, who has been a member of the Washington establishment for more than two decades.

“Throughout American history, each generation has passed on leadership to the next,” Gore said. “That time has come again, the time for a new generation of leadership for the United States of America.”