The Return of Al Gore?
There’s been a lot of talk about Gore’s potential return to politics in the blogosphere. In particular, Andrew Sullivan has been having an ongoing discussion with his readers on the subject, which you can read here and here. I think Gore’s new environmental film has sparked a lot of the discussion, and I’m not sure he’s really considering a run, but it’s still a tantalizing possibility.
In the 1990’s, I was never a big fan of Al Gore, and I hated him in 2000. Politically speaking, I am a democrat, although my labor dem roots kind of put me all over the political spectrum on various issues (example: liberal on education, realistic federal assistance to the poor, civil rights, health care; conservative on guns). Gore, to me, was one of the party’s elites — wooden, passionless, insincere, pandering to polls. Granted, I was less of a fan of George W. Bush’s, and ended up voting for Gore in 2000, anyway. Bush, I surmised, didn’t have the stuff to be President of the United States. Six years later, following Florida recount, the Iraq debacle, warrentless wiretapping, Plamegate, Katrina (”Brownie, you’re doing a heckuva job”), the torture policy, insane government spending, insane tax cuts and his immigration flip-flop, and I’m pretty sure that my original assessment of Bush’s character was correct.
The thing is, after Florida, Al Gore turned into a new person. Gone were the consultants who micromanaged every aspect of his personality — Gore became vital, engaging, smart, funny and human. Had this Al Gore run against George W. Bush in 2000, he would have won. I’ve found that I really like him as of late, that I’ve really developed an enthusiasm for a Gore candidacy. I’m fond of the new honest, funny Al Gore — the guy who kids us about his loss in Florida, a man whose time has come as his number one issue — the enviornment — steps into the fore of American politics. I want to spend a year watching him on the campaign trail, contrasting against Hillary’s stiffness, her John Kerry-esque parsing, her ambition to win the presidency by sacrificing all of her party’s values in a cynical attempt to play to the mythical American “middle.” I want to see him beat her, and then I want to see him trounce the opposition — George Allen, Sam Brownback, or another Republican given the religious right’s seal of approval in the primaries (if you think this candidate will be John McCain, then there’s a bridge in Narnia I’d like to sell you).
Al Gore is the right man at the right time. If only he can muster the wisdom to see it.
