I couldn’t help noticing an editorial in the St. Petersburg Times by Robyn Blumner that dared utter the words “Gore” and “Democrats should enlist in 2008” in the same paragraph. Ms. Blumner voiced what I’ve been feeling for quite some time; that there are no good Democratic candidates willing to run for the Presidency in 2008. Gore, unlike the drooling idiot who sits in the White House, would be “an Adult”, and like Ms. Blumner, I believe that these days the US needs an Adult at the helm pretty badly. The editorial says:
America is ready for an adult like Gore to take charge and put the nation back on sensible footing: a footing where deficits do matter, where energy conservation is not sneered at as a “personal virtue” but is an aggressive national policy, and where science, facts and reality drive public policy, not the Christian Right’s neo-medieval agenda.
My other favourite quote from the editorial is from Gore himself, who said in a Rolling Stone interview:
“Right now we are borrowing huge amounts of money from China to buy huge amounts of oil from the most unstable region of the world, and to bring it here and burn it in ways that destroy the habitability of the planet. That is nuts! We have to change every aspect of that.”
Ms. Blumner mentions the “Draft Gore” movement on the Internet (www.draftgore.com) that’s trying to get him to reconsider running (he has no plans, and has made this clear).
While I wish Mr. Gore were a candidate, I’m also realistic about his chances, which are next to none (although that’s better than Hillary Clinton, who would be a disaster). Until he can get past the Republican control of the voting machines, drawing up of districts, and judicial branch if there are disputes about the voting, the outcome is still going to be a Republican victory. With a press largely controlled by corporate interests who only want the image of an exciting contest but the outcome of their choice (i.e., a candidate friendlier to corporations. which is usually a Republican), the best a candidate who tells the truth about Global Warming and what the US must change can do, is scream into the wind. Then they’ll be dismissed as crazy and having ‘the wrong temperament’ to lead by the press, as they did with Howard Dean. Another bit in Blumner’s piece talks about how Gore knows this all too well:
As reported by the American Prospect in April, Gore feels strongly that today’s media is failing in its duty to inform the public. Former FCC chairman and longtime Gore friend Reed Hundt summed it up like this: “Gore’s own view is that he sighed noisily in the debate and used the wrong telephone line to ask for money and the media said these are momentous events. Meanwhile, they ignore global warming and the failure to catch Osama and the destruction of the safety net.”
If only circumstances were different. If only the tables weren’t rigged. I see our move here as a bit of pessimism (or is it realism?) about what could but won’t change in the US in our lifetimes. While I would certainly approve of a presidency (and government) reclaimed from the Proto-fascists (as John Dean referred to them a couple of weeks ago), I don’t see it coming to pass, unless their Iraq/Katrina-style incompetency finally bleeds over into the one thing they seem to be able to do consistently well time after time: mess with elections.
David, David, David. Have you really been gone from the good old USA for that long?!?
As an unaffiliated (but mostly Republican) voter, I can assure you that we would be DELIGHTED to have Al Bore er I mean Gore run for President. Hell, the Dems would be better off running Scooby Doo!
The only thing I would like better is if John “Haircut” Kerrique couldn’t manage to sit on his monstrous ego and got the nomination instead. Oh, that would be rich!
What the Dems really need to do down here is get behind Hillary Clinton. True, I can’t stand her… but she’s got a real shot at the Presidency, if she can only get the nomination. Otherwise, youse guys are screwed. Have you forgotten how hard it is to stay awake when Algore opens his yap?
“Gore feels strongly that today’s media is failing in its duty to inform the public.” Maybe that’s because today’s media is too busy bashing Israel and taking fix money from Hezbollah.
BTW, I think your new PM totally rocks. You probably.… disagree.
Gore already won once. He might be able to do it again.
I have a signed copy of his book that I got when he came to a local bookstore. I’d been overwhelmed with (the not at all boring) movie An Inconvenient Truth. Anyway I figure that when there isn’t any affordable fuel available to heat my house I can use it to light my woodstove.