Monday, May 28, 2007

More Gore

People want to talk about Al Gore. Even many who support Edwards, Clinton, Obama, Richardson or Biden seem to be thinking: This is my candidate if Al Gore doesn't enter the race.

So to continue the discussion, I thought I would bring to the forefront an exchange between my co-writer, dr. elsewhere, and longtime reader unirealist:

* * *

dr. e [excerpted]:

the point canNOT be to win. we truly must resist the drive to that agenda with everything we have. the best campaign at this juncture will be to run the cleanest, most open and honest campaign this country has ever seen, with integrity and principle the driving forces at every step.

this populace is so starved for integrity and principle, at this point, i have to believe such a strategy would work. and if it doesn't, then god help us all; we're doomed anyway.

gore is in a remarkable position to appeal to EVERYONE in this campaign. hell, faux news LOVES michael moore's new movie, and HE endorsed gore on bill maher's show friday night. there's not a whole lot the right can say to demean gore, given that he has been more than correct on every single issue he has taken on. moreover, he has taken on these issues - iraq, global warming, reason - well ahead of the herd, so attempting to trash him will only highlight what a visionary he actually is.

uni:

It's difficult to pick just one great paragraph out of dr. elsewhere's "ramblings," but I especially like this one:

"this populace is so starved for integrity and principle, at this point, i have to believe such a strategy would work. and if it doesn't, then god help us all; we're doomed anyway."

I'd have to add this, that we are not going to get a BETTER President than Gore would be. We may find someone more electable, but we should keep that first fact in mind as we make our judgments. The man has convincing virtue.


dr. e:

unirealist, we should all keep your pithy synopsis at the forefront of these gore discussions.

i agree; where is there ANYONE who could do better than gore as our president?

point in evidence, this graf from gore's op-ed in today's guardian (via crooksandliars):
The pursuit of "dominance" in foreign policy led the Bush administration to ignore the UN, to do serious damage to our most important alliances, to violate international law, and to cultivate the hatred and contempt of many in the rest of the world. The seductive appeal of exercising unconstrained unilateral power led this president to interpret his powers under the constitution in a way that brought to life the worst nightmare of the founders. Any policy based on domination of the rest of the world not only creates enemies for the US and recruits for al-Qaida, but also undermines the international cooperation that is essential to defeating terrorists who wish to harm and intimidate America.

* * *

C again:

I posted these words to encourage you to post more words. We need further discussion about Al Gore. Let's talk about if he will run, how he should run, how can he win, how he might govern.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

The flip side of my comment would be that we could not possibly get a WORSE President than George Bush. Little did we know in 2000 that the choice was so stark: the worst possible candidate against the best possible candidate.

It may be that Gore is also the most electable candidate now. Certainly the Rep's have already done extensive oppo research on him and apparently come up with nothing too damaging so far. He has acquitted himself admirably since his loss (like Jimmy Carter, whose stature has also grown), and with a Nobel Prize would be almost impossible to successfully impugn.

Anonymous said...

Unirealist

I wish I shared your confidence that Mr. Gore "would be almost impossible to successfully impugn". The people currently in power, will stop at nothing to retain that power. I fear that May 9, 2007 will go down in this nations history as the day the music died. After reading NSPD-51 my fear is will "we the people" be allowed another Presidential election? I hope Mr. Gore runs. But he must decide soon. The opposition to the current madness needs a leader long prior to Nov. 08.

Anonymous said...

i agree again, uni! and joe, thank for highlighting this, especially uni's powerful point that gore really does represent our best guy out there, and from many angles, such as he notes here.

ya know, i just realized that i have friends in high places back in TN who might be in a position to give me some 'dope' (prompting me to revert to my high friends in places line) on this situation, AND to share these interactions and comments with al himself.

my sense of the man is that he is nothing if not dedicated to service; if he senses the passion with which the citizenry require and request him, he will indeed serve.

i'll work to keep this topic very active; thanks again, joe, for being so responsive to your loyal readers.