Or maybe it's because we can relate to his imperfections...his sometimes-goofy, self-deprecating humor, his Saturday Night Live-spoofed staidness, his endearing affection for Tipper. We definitely admire his tenacity in taking a tough punch and yet moving on.
And maybe we're righteously angry that he got cheated in the 2000 election. And even more, that the United States got horribly cheated.
Reported the New York Post yesterday. "As Sen. Hillary Clinton ratchets up her attacks on President Bush, some Democrats think they smell an explanation: the threat of a 2008 Al Gore presidential bid that could come at her from the left on Iraq. The former vice president is suddenly re-emerging as a vocal and visible Bush-basher — he's slated to star at a Democratic National Committee fund-raiser for big donors in Washington next Tuesday."
In a DailyKos straw poll this week for the Democratic candidate in 2008, the results were: "Given these 2008 choices, I would vote for:
Edwards 8%, Clark 24%, Gore 48%, Clinton 4%, Feingold 8%, Other 2%, No Freakin' Clue 2% (Votes: 7432) "
On September 9, Al Gore was accorded a long-lasting standing ovation when he delivered an extraordinary speech to the annual Sierra Club convention in San Francisco. (Here is a link to his speech text.)
In it, he beseeched, "It is time now for us to recover our moral health in America and stand again to rise for freedom, demand accountability for poor decisions, missed judgments, lack of planning, lack of preparation, and willful denial of the obvious truth about serious and imminent threats that are facing the American people....
I would urge you to make global warming your priority. I would urge you to focus on a unified theme. I would urge you to work with other groups in ways that have not been done in the past, even though there have been Herculean efforts on your part and the part of others. I would urge you to make this a moral moment. To make this a moral cause. "
An oft quoted part of this landmark speech by Mr. Gore is, "The Bible in which I believe, in my own faith tradition, says, 'Where there is no vision, the people perish.' "
And in the early days after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, while George Bush remained on vacation, Donald Rumsfeld attended a San Diego Padres baseball game, Dick Cheney relaxed at his Wyoming estate, Karl Rove hobnobbed with the rich in Aspen, and Condoleezza Rice shopped for shoes and enjoyed a Broadway show.....
Al Gore quietly funded and facilitated a harrowing mercy mission in New Orleans to airlift 270 medical patients and evacuees from the New Orleans airport to hospitals and shelters in Knoxville and Chattanooga, Tennessee. Said Dr. Anderson Spickard, Gore's personal physician who accompanied him on the flights, said: 'Gore told me he wanted to do this because like all of us he wanted to seize the opportunity to do what one guy can do, given the assets that he has.' ...." (Read here about this mission of compassion.)
Yes, there's something about Al Gore that we can't get out of our minds and hearts....his wisdom and humanity, his visionary leadership and especially, his personal grace.
Al Gore in 2008? It has a nice ring to it.
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Deborah, I don’t know why it takes me so long to find a good article sometimes, but I just read your plea to Al Gore to run again. Well done! I agree and I have a lot of friends down here near the bottom of the economic ladder, just struggling to keep the lights on and put a little gas in the car (????) to get to work, which is very unstable these days, thanks to George. Applause! Wonder if there is hope we can get Gore going again?? Hmmmmmmmm
Where were you regarding Gore in 2004 when you were probably saying the same thing about Kerry? Perhaps things would be different and Bush wouldn’t have gotten a second term if people have spoken out for Gore this much then to the end… oh, but he didn’t have a popular book and movie out to use as leverage then, right? And the left didn’t have “Hillary” to worry about. I don’t then have much respect for those who come out after the fact and act as if they have really supported him all of this time, when it is obvious that wasn’t the case. And really, could you all wake up to the corrupted DIEBOLD counting voting process we have now in this country along with the military/industrial complex that has a chokehold on our policy? Do you really think Americans have any say in who is President in this country? If the status quo wouldn’t allow him to have it in 2000, what makes you think it is all peachy keen now? Perhaps when people wake up and actually do more to exact change in this country on their own rather than write blog posts pining for someone to save them, we may actually DESERVE a good man like Al Gore. Until then, all this is only more political rhetoric, as he is serving a great purpose as an environmental advocate in the greatest campaign of all for our planet now FREELY as he should have been able to years before when the beltway you obviously support with this post didn’t care to listen to him. So sad that isn’t good enough for so many out here who only see political revenge as their motive for pushing him now.
This is fantastic piece, Deborah. Thank you so much for doing the stuff that does make a difference for so many of “The disenfranchised.”
Your posts and your perspectives have a way of lending bouyancy to the hope of salvaging our democracy.
Keep the faith. Gore 08… Better late than never…