Why Gore should run, in his own words

Yet another report of Al Gore’s comfortable withdrawal from the world of political madness -- or is it comfortable coyness? -- has surfaced.

“Mr. Gore was on the telephone [with the NYT’s Adam Nagourney] … to dismiss -- with a combination of weariness and wariness, but with something approaching finality -- speculation that his rising profile should be interpreted as the first stirrings of another bid for the White House.”

“‘Why should I run for office?’ Mr. Gore asked.”

Surely, Al, you jest. Why should you run?

Could it be that millions in your party are longing for some realistic alternative to the inevitably catastrophic frontrunner? Or that you could do more good as president than as filmmaker? Or that perhaps you should serve the term you already won?

Or that you’re the most forceful, honest and ethical voice speaking today in opposition to reactionary neo-Republicanism? Or that when the office calls, any personal preference to stay at home should take a back seat?

And shouldn’t you take your own advice, that which you so discerningly dispensed to Mr. Nagourney? To wit …

You “brimmed with disdain at the state of American politics and political journalism, urging [your] interviewer to quit a career of covering politics to turn to matters of real consequence….

“Politics, [you] said, has become a game of meaningless, mindless battles, conducted by unscrupulous methods and people, designed to transform even the most serious policy debates into sport.”

Al, isn’t one politician’s principled concentration on “matters of real consequence” the only way to counteract “unscrupulous” politicians self-embroiled in “meaningless, mindless” manipulations that cater to the lowest common electoral denominator?

“Political scribes,” you lectured to the NYT interviewer, “have to take off their cynical lenses through which they view every moral challenge as political spin.”

Again, aren’t your own words, Mr. Gore, reason enough to run? Forget the pure horserace mentality of political scribes for now. First, the gauntlet of “moral challenge” has to be thrown down. Without that focus, that repeated emphasis on what matters, the scribbling P.T. Barnums of the press corps will have nothing left to cover but the circus.

If you want change, Mr. Gore, you must get in the game.

You said it yourself.

Comments

[Anne Holliday]

Hear! Hear! Thanks Phil.

My fondest dream for our beleagured nation:

Re-election of President Al Gore

Re-election of VP John Edwards

Speaker of the House John Murtha

President Pro Tempore of the Senate Russ Feingold

Secretary of State John Kerrey

Secretary of Health & Human Services, Howard Dean

Secretary of Defense, Wesley Clark

[Professor Smartass]

We need someone like Gore.

What we will get is a DLC corporate puppet who makes some progressive noises but mostly mouths empty platitudes, winds in a squeaker at best, and governs to the right of Bill Clinton and maybe a micron to the left of Papa Bush.

We need to clean the whores out of the party. One way to do it is with public financing of campaigns.

Another is tough anti-corruption laws: no president, vice president, senator, or general who has worked at the Pentagon should be allowed to serve as a corporate lobbyist, CEO or other corporate officer, serve on any corporate board, or accept honoriums or other compensation from anthing but the very generous pension we give them. If they want to write a book, teach college, or help Jimmy Carter with habitat for humanity, great.

But politicians should not see office as a path to personal gain or pursuing business by other means.

If we had rules like those above, half or more of the Democrats wouldn't run for office again, and nearly all the republicans wouldn't.

[Robert Green]

RUN GORE RUN!!!

[Marietta]

We are just hitting our heads against a stone wall. Al Gore has stated that he is enjoying his life right now, and is not interested in running. He is more public now because of his documentary. I wish he would run, it would be good for the country, but I don't blame him for choosing a better life. With the Rethuglican smear machine certain to attack him, and maybe his family, he cannot be faulted for avoiding that ugliness. I would have happily voted for Al Gore had he decided to run. At least he was the only Democrat who had the courage to criticize the failings of Bush and the Rethuglicans, and he was right on every count.

[Karen]

My wish for Americans is that Al Gore will run.
You all deserve so much better than what you got.
Run Gore Run, Run Gore Run

[ed]

The only way to possibly repair the damage from the 2000 coup d'etat is to put the last legitimately elected President of the United States in the Oval Office. Then maybe, just maybe we can all get off our asses and save the country.