At the time you didn’t have to be major disruptor like we need major disruption now. What you needed to do was move the needle, which could be done. Moving the needle early on drastically changes the path decades later.

There’s also what you say during the election and what you do. I’m pretty sure Bush played it up (I’m amazed at what I see him say in old videos). Gore played down what he intended to do, or didn’t make a big deal about it, because that’s not what got votes at the time. So they may sound similar but not actually be similar.