Gore is or is not running for president
Shortly before Al Gore pulled himself out of the 2004 race in December of 2002, and thus pulling out the center of gravity to what in hindsight looks like a farcical charade en-route to the party-determined Kerry nomination, when it was assumed he was running based on some speeches blasting Bush’s Iraq War policy with a brief nod to “universial health care” and guesting on one of the greatest episodes of Saturday Night Live ever… I was the contrarian who thought he was not going to run. I guessed he was surveying the political landscape, decide that Bush was unbeatable, and would decide to bide his time by shoring up the historically skeptical liberal base of the party — but a base that thought he was robbed in 2000 — and run in 2008… a carbon copy of the game Richard Nixon played between 1960 and 1968.
I shrug now. Who knows? He’s since spent his time creating a “youth-oriented” public affairs television network, which is somewhere around channel 420 on your mega-cable package, (bizarrely derided by Rush Limbaugh as the “all blowjob network” because that’s “all the youth is really interested in”). The venture may just be an excuse to work his donor network. He’s made a couple speeches about Global Warming, occasionally on a day that Matt Drudge can sophomorically paste the news to his website alongside a “Record Cold Temperature in Winter Blast Storm in NYC”. He sold out his appearance in Portland, Oregon. And he made a speech yesterday, which was quote-in-quote:
the first sign of leadership from the Democratic party in six years.
… a sure sign that the Democratic Party apparatus hates his guts. I do dare say that there is a chance that Gore, freed from the restraints of having to suck up to the powers that be for his political lifeline, is speaking with conviction and a “freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose”, and his second act is speaking on the troubles that plague our republic as a converted outsider. I dare say.
And so comes the inevitable Hillary versus Gore talk. Hillary, who has occasionally triangulated to a spot right of Attila the Hun in her attempt to corner a mythical center, and who draws a crowd of almost equal size in Portland, Oregon. I trifle over Huffington’s criticism. American history is full of enough presidents who have overstepped their executive power that to say “worst”, “one of the worst”, or even “middling” is a silly parlor game.
Still, we know Hillary Clinton is running. I haven’t got a clue about Gore, who presumably would have the support of Bob Barr if not Bob Barr’s former supporters who must hew closely to Bush lest their heads explode. (But probably not.)