I've always been up front about my love and admiration for Al Gore, whom I admired even when he wasn't cool and nobody gave a damn about global warming. Maybe because I'm southern, I always regarded him as attractive and genuine. Because I'm intelligent myself, I was never put off by the fact that he spoke in sentences and not in sound bites. And I always thought he had immense authority, passion, and gravity (which is different from the glamour that surrounds Obama like a haze). It was a sad day for this county when we lost him. But it was obvious then and after that the media didn't love Gore; he was consistently cast as awkward, inflexible, unappealing, "wooden."
So now he's trendy and charismatic and rubs elbows with rock stars and moguls and heads of state. Now that he's getting the same swoony treatment from Time as Bush got back when he was still cool, .I'm the last to gainsay the reporters and pundits who have suddenly discovered that they (and their corporate backers) had him all wrong. And I am grateful for, and deeply impressed by, the excerpt from his book, The Assault on Reason.
After reading the article, I've almost come to the conclusion that Gore is too valuable to waste in politics. Why should he risk the work he's done so well by jumping into the ugliness of a political campaign in which the press and the opposing campaign will seek to discredit his beliefs and humiliate him the way they did John Kerry? Since he won the 2000 campaign, Gore has gone a long, long way in a completely different direction. Why spend the goodwill and influence he's earned battling for the presidency? I don't want to see his mission attacked or his credibility threatened by the sort of disgusting tactic that's become known as "swiftboating." If he remains out of the fray, he can be useful regardless of who wins.
In any ideal world, my ideal ticket would be Gore and Richardson (because I think the two are ideally suited to deal with the precise problems facing this country). But this is not an ideal world: this is 21st century America, where the least civically aware or globally savvy people need to feel an emotional connection to the president. And as Gore's book (and film) show, he has learned to use emotional arguments to appeal to people's reason. I hope his book helps to create a movement to restore it to its proper role in decisions that affect the life and future of the nation.
As much as I admire him, I think he is most valuable on the sidelines where the frightened because ignorant knee jerk right winger can't touch him or his causes. It's a sad comment on the state of the system when the best man for the job and the highest office in the land is too good and to useful to waste on it. I signed the petitions at the Gore netroots sites....but if I could, after reading that article, I'd withdraw it.
(Don't let him do it, Tipper!)
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