Al Gore reveals in a new Vanity Fair article the effect he believes the press had on the 2000 presidential election, telling editor Evgenia Peretz that he won’t blame the media for his loss and that he should have spoken more clearly to America.

“Modern politics seems to require and reward some capacities that I don’t think I have in abundance … such as a tolerance for … spin rather than an honest discussion of substance,” Gore says in the article. “Apparently, it comes easily for some people, but not for me.”

When questioned about the debate coverage, Gore tells Peretz, “The sighs, the sighs, the sighs … Within 18 hours, they had turned perception around to where the entire story was about me sighing. And that’s scary. That’s scary.”

Tipper Gore also reveals that after the loss, “we were roadkill … it took a long time to pick ourselves up from what happened.”

Tipper ads that her husband has made no moves that would suggest a run for the presidency in 2008, but adds that if he turned to her one night and said he had to run, she’d get on board, and they’d discuss how to approach it this time around, given what they’ve learned.