An interesting take from my house on why Gore gave this speech now...

[KoKo]

The thought is not from me but from someone else who watched Gore's speech tonight.
Here's the theory:

Gore used this speech tonight to distance himself from the DLC and therefore from Lieberman with this speech and thereby threw his support to any Dem candidate who would come out and go after Bush. Which also means he's distanced himself from Lieberman.

That's pretty significant. Especially right now when some candidates need the "Green Light" to go after Bush for what Gore calls the "wrong impressions about intelligence and the economy."


Gore just about calls Bush a liar by saying everything he does is based on "false impressions" and is designed to support conclusions he's already made his mind up about. Scratching lightly that's calling Bush a liar.

He also defends the Clinton Gore administration and says they will turn over every bit of evidence about their itelligence gathering.....why won't Bush. So, he defends Clinton Gore and goes after Bush......

Is that why Schwartzenneger decided to announce today? This speech needed to be buried from the Dems who voted for Gore. Only us here in the "Activist" online community of Democrats will hear about it or see it in full.

Woodruff, Blitzer and the rest certainly aren't going to talk about it at any length. I'm glad to see him throw his support to us instead of the DLC........Big troubles will be brewing there..........no matter if it's just us who saw the speech.

[ScreamingMeemie]

1. I was utterly amazed though, that here in Detroit they broadcast it on AM

950. We needed to hear that speech here. You make an interesting case. I felt he basically scratched pretty hard with the "fire him" comment.

[JustJoe]

2. You write...

"Especially right now when some candidates need the "Green Light" to go after Bush for what Gore calls the "wrong impressions about intelligence and the economy."

What candidates specifically need the green light from Gore
to go after bush on intelligence & the economy?

[KoKo]

4. Lieberman , Gebhardt, and Edwards.......need to hit harder.

Gore gave them cover to do it maybe?

[JustJoe]

28. First, Lieberman

is a wilderness wandering in a man.

As for Gephardt & Edwards,
I think youre overestimating Gore's influence on
them, or, I hope, underestimating their ability
to think & speak for themselves without Gore's green light,
at least on how & how much to knock Bush.

[KoKo]

38. ROFL! "A wilderness wandering in a man!" That's a great line........

I have to remember that one.......

[JustJoe]

43. Thanks, but

it spose to be sad & all. Snerfle. Poor Joe.

[Andy_Stephenson]

5. Gore's supporters are a big prize.

Gore is gonna give em to the best man...Thank God, it's not the DLC!!!

[Momof1]

7. * has been untouchable

with him bringing "dignity" back to the oval office. :rolleyes:
And Gore brought that up today, which is the greenlight, for some dems to go after him about the lies heading up to the war. At least that is MHO.

[ferg]

3. that sounds right

Although the Arnie thing is unrelated. The deadline for the California circus is Saturday and he probably chose Wed to maximize the cheerleading from the Republican press.

[kainah]

6. Also think Gore really is concerned

He's been a public servant for a long time and think how horrendouse it must be to see the country in this kind of condition when you've spent most of your life trying to advance serious policy.

I think he's beginning to flex the "elder statesman" muscles, realizing that the fact taht he is not running does give him flexibility to say what he believes.

As for separation from Lieberman, that is certainly coming. It's been obvious since his earlier pre-war speech.

Frankly, I'm still not convinced that he may not be dreaming, just a little, of a how-can-you-turn-it-down draft at the convention.

[blm]

8. I'm with you on that, kainah...Gore cares.

I think that's what is compelling Andrew Young and even old journalists like Walter Cronkite to get back into the ring. For years they helped build this country's greatness and now are watching it flounder under thugs and robber barons.

[KoKo]

9. Yes, Kainah, and it also gives alot of publicity to Move On.org, too!

The fact that he chose that site now that I think about it (well, I can be clueless and most of you already picked up on that) but the fact that he chose it is more evidence of distance from DLC.

The DLC is going to be having BIG headaches........

[Cha]

10. I just saw Gore's Speech on c-span and Loved it!

I think it's kinda neat that he's not running for anything so he can get out there and give them the Truth which they think is Hell and he's like this elder statesman who is a young man!

We know he wrote his speech himself and he believes every word of it!

Poor United States! Something as significant as Gore's speech being ignored by arnie's blarney. arnie the joke.

And I would have been shocked if Gore had thrown his support to the dlc! But as you say, KOKO! Gore's with us! :kick:

[nbsmom]

13. And does anyone need reminding about who WON the moveon primary?

I think you smart people on the board have already figured out where this is going...

[quam]

19. Won?

Perhaps I am not one of the smart people, no one won the moveon primary. According to moveon.org, since no candidate received more than 50% of the vote, MoveOn.org PAC will not currently endorse any candidate.

[Cha]

22. We know who got the most votes anyway! I'm blown away by

Gore doing his speech at moveon.org! dlc must be shitless by now.

[LosinIt]

11. Gore can speak his mind because he ISN't running

the candidates with the exception of Dean, Al, and Kucinich are too busy dancing their little 'I'm a team player' dance. I was so proud of our true president tonight. I cried when it was over at the travesty that is Mr. Bu$h.

[Pepperbelly]

15. not true ...

Bob Graham is hammering Bush harder than any of the other candidates. He just does it quietly rather than stridently. Graham is the real deal. I think he is furious about what these bastards have done to America.

[stickdog]

47. Yep.

I've been impressed by the way Graham has been dishing it out.

[LosinIt]

49. You are correct about Graham

sorry, I meant to include him in the list of outspoken candidates. He is impressive.

[PROGRESSIVE1]

20. President Gore...

made me feel proud to an American!


:kick: Bush Out Next Year!!!!!

[Cha]

24. I was cryin' too! Not big blubbers but soft emotional tears!

[diplomats]

12. And he waited until Bush is vacationing in Crawford

to launch his assault. Probably not a bad idea timing-wise.

[Samantha]

14. Reading small quotes of the speech from the NYT and WP

that was my first thought. Gore is tacitly but publicly splitting with Lieberman. Lieberman and Clinton have always been close and they seem to be in agreement over the status of various issues. Lieberman is a DLC candidate; Clinton has the most influence within the DLC.

What we are witnessing, I believe, is a public display over the control of the party between those who agree with Gore, and he did publicly distance himself from the DLC before he announced he would not run, and those who agree with Clinton. The gauntlet has been thrown; pick a side.

[Pepperbelly]

16. disagree ...

I have a completely opposite view of what is unfolding before us. It has every appearance of a very clever, very well-timed strategy that is hammering Bush during his well-deserved vacation (Being President is HARD ... :eyes: for some anyway ... )

And Bush's numbers slip slowly to pre-9/11 levels with his disapprovals far higher than ever before.

[Samantha]

30. Okay, what exactly do you disagree with

I think it's been readily apparent that Clinton and Gore are on opposite ends of this "who controls the Democratic party" struggle." Is that what you disagree with?

Gore asked MoveOn to give this speech weeks ago. It wasn't that long ago Clinton called into Larry King Live (for Dole's birthday) and made his infamous remarks shoring up Bush. Even presidents make mistakes. Compare the word "mistake" with the words Gore used tonight, implying Bush* is simply a stranger to Truth. Gore hammered Bush* like no one else has. In that process, he nailed the lid on Liberman's political coffin shut. Lieberman stands with the Clinton political coterie.

I do think there has been some under the radar agreements between certain Dems as to the timing of attacks, but the Gore coterie of people are more likely to include people like Byrd and Graham. (I have ALWAYS thought that a few words from Gore prompted Byrd to give his speeches, no proof, just gut).

[Cha]

26. After lieman got up and denouced Clinton like a prick?

Clinton better wise up.

[xequals]

17. Oreilly had Dick Morris on

and he said that he's pretty sure that Cuomo wouldn't have made those statements without first calling Gore, and that this whole thing is very orchestrated trial baloon to test the waters for a possible Gore entry into the race. Morris also said that Gore was the one who requested to give the speech. Dick Morris is a rightwing whore, but he is an insider and knows politics.

Even if Gore isn't thinking about running, he does have some motivation here. It is very likely that all of this talk of him running can be traced back to Gore himself.

[Fleshdancer]

23. Yep, Gore contacted MoveOn

Here's the first paragraph in the email I received from MoveOn:

"Two weeks ago, we received a call from former Vice President Al Gore.
Mr. Gore explained that he was deeply concerned about the President's
pattern of misleading the public -- most recently on Iraq, but also on
the environment, the economy, and a host of other domestic issues. He
said he was working on a major policy speech, and he wanted to give it
to MoveOn members and with MoveOn's sponsorship. MoveOn was a good
partner, he said, because so many MoveOn members are engaging in the
national conversation about the direction of our country."

[Cha]

27. Wow! That Gore! Perfect! And what better an audience!

Wouldn't want to waste that speech on the wrong group.

[Lone_Wolf]

18. I wish he would run

How about 'Dean/Gore in 2004'? It rhymes.

[Psychoblues99]

21. Uh, could you better explain that "green" comment, KoKo01?

As you most certainly know by now, the "greens" are not complementary but an opposition party to the Democrats. Maybe I read too much into your post.

Psychoblues

Dems Gotta Keep On Truckin'.,.,.,..,.,.,,,,,,.,.,.,,.,.,.,..,,.,.,.,.,..,.,,.,.,.,.,.,,,.,.,.,,.,,.,.,.,.,,,.,.,.,,,.,.,,.,.,..,.,.,..,.,.,,,,..,..,

[KoKo]

29. PB, where did I mention "Green" in my post? You must be joking around....

:shrug:

[TahitiNut]

25. The word "false" occurred 11 times in Gore's speech.

The word "wrong" occurred 8 times in Gore's speech. The word "mistake" occurred 3 times in Gore's speech.

His speech was 4,645 words ... and in all those words stretched the truth far less than in Junior's "sixteen words".

Especially ...

The 2001 winner of the Nobel Prize for Economics, George Akerlof, went even further last week in Germany when he told Der Spiegel, "This is the worst government the US has ever had in its more than 200 years of history...This is not normal government policy." In describing the impact of the Bush policies on America's future, Akerloff added, "What we have here is a form of looting."

and

Robust debate in a democracy will almost always involve occasional rhetorical excesses and leaps of faith, and we're all used to that. I've even been guilty of it myself on occasion. But there is a big difference between that and a systematic effort to manipulate facts in service to a totalistic ideology that is felt to be more important than the mandates of basic honesty. Unfortunately, I think it is no longer possible to avoid the conclusion that what the country is dealing with in the Bush Presidency is the latter.

and

Two years ago yesterday, for example, according to the Wall Street Journal, the President was apparently advised in specific language that Al Qaeda was going to hijack some airplanes to conduct a terrorist strike inside the U.S.

and

We need to face the fact that our dangerous and unsustainable consumption of oil from a highly unstable part of the world is similar in its consequences to all other addictions. As it becomes worse, the consequences get more severe and you have to pay the dealer more.

and

And as for honor and integrity, let me say this: we know what that was all about, but hear me well, not as a candidate for any office, but as an American citizen who loves my country:

For eight years, the Clinton-Gore Administration gave this nation honest budget numbers; an economic plan with integrity that rescued the nation from debt and stagnation; honest advocacy for the environment; real compassion for the poor; a strengthening of our military -- as recently proven -- and a foreign policy whose purposes were elevated, candidly presented and courageously pursued, in the face of scorched-earth tactics by the opposition. That is also a form of honor and integrity, and not every administration in recent memory has displayed it.

So I would say to those who have found the issue of honor and integrity so useful as a political tool, that the people are also looking for these virtues in the execution of public policy on their behalf, and will judge whether they are present or absent.

[KoKo]

31. Thanks for the count, Tahiti. I watched the speech didn't read the text..

so it really stands out more when you quote how definte he was in well..........let me spit it out......calling Bush a "liar..."

He conveyed it in such a thoughtful way and point by point built his case against him that it was very clever, I thought.

[TahitiNut]

33. Gore moved the front-lines forward.

It remains to be seen whether Quisling Dems will advance with him or merely "fire short".

(FWIW, I merely downloaded the text and used Word on it. It's my typical "analytical" habit.)

[Samantha]

34. The use of the word looting was simply stunning

I know it was a quote, but the fact Gore repeated it verbatim so forcibly was incredible.

Beyond that, his comment about the pre-warning Bush* received prior to 9/11 was a bombshell. I cannot believe it has received next to no attention here at DU (maybe there's a thread I have overlooked....) It has to dawn on the American people at some point what we at DU have always suspected -- Bush knew and could not be bothered to alert the public, he simply covered his own flank and ultlimately, tucked tail and ran (classic Tennessean expression).

This was such an incredibly important speech, oh, and let's not overlook his tacit suggestion the war on Iraq was about oil. Blistering condemnation from this man Bush deemed "irrelevant."

Gore sat a new bar height for the others to hurdle -- will they take the challenge?

[Samantha]

35. PS Hung Condi out to dry very nicely too

who could have dreamed they would have used airplanes to hit buildings...

[TahitiNut]

37. The 2001 winner of the Nobel Prize for Economics, George Akerlof

That's not a bad source for a mere "quote". Akerlof nailed it.

I've been saying the exact same thing for nearly two years, but I haven't gotten the Nobel (yet). :silly:

The Ackerlof interview with Der Spiegel, in which he made this statement, can be read here or here.

Among other things he said (that I've also been saying) ...

The rich don't need the money and are a lot less likely to spend it - they will primarily increase their savings. Remember that wealthier families have done extremely well in the US in the past twenty years, whereas poorer ones have done quite badly. So the redistributive effects of this administration's tax policy are going in the exactly wrong direction. The worst and most indefensible of those cuts are those in dividend taxation - this overwhelmingly helps very wealthy people.

and

The government is not really telling the truth to the American people. Past administrations from the time of Alexander Hamilton have on the average run responsible budgetary policies. What we have here is a form of looting.

and

Future generations and even people in ten years are going to face massive public deficits and huge government debt. Then we have a choice. We can be like a very poor country with problems of threatening bankruptcy. Or we're going to have to cut back seriously on Medicare and Social Security. So the money that is going overwhelmingly to the wealthy is going to be paid by cutting services for the elderly.

and

I think this is the worst government the US has ever had in its more than 200 years of history. It has engaged in extraordinarily irresponsible policies not only in foreign and economic but also in social and environmental policy. This is not normal government policy. Now is the time for people to engage in civil disobedience.

It's some solace to hear a Nobel laureate say what I've been saying.

[KoKo]

41. Not only the Akerlof statements but Variable Rate Mortgages....

My worry has continued to be when the Housing Bubble Bursts. Gore's including that won big points with me because I don't think the person who has home equitied to 125% of the value of their house is going to survive when the interest rates tick up a point or two. And, if the interest rates don't get them the job losses which have financed the overmortgaging will.

We have serious trouble looming there and with consumer spending. The Supply Siders are idiots...always have been to keep thinking this is going to prop up the economy forever.

I live in an area where so much building of "mini-mansions" has been going on that we are going to be hit very hard when these folks find out life isn't a credit card and refinance.

And, the other folks who are just hanging on to a modest house are going to be the first to get hit.....but it will get everyone.

The banking system could teeter.......and the Saudi's might not be so inclined to keep financing our debt.

[TahitiNut]

44. Short-term interest rates won't be affected much ...

... but mid-term (e.g. auto loans) and long-term (e.g. mortgages) rates will be hammered, IMHO. That seems to also be confirmed by Ackerlof. We'll begin to really see these impacts next year, but maybe not big enough or long enough yet to have much effect on the election.

[aquart]

48. If oil dependency is like drug dependency...

And this nation has a War of Drugs....

What should we really be doing about oil?

[Hubert Flottz]

36. Bush was telling the truth!

He said he didn't have any itelligence!

Boy is that ever true!

I called everyone I knew and told them the times the replay was on cspan tonight! I thought it made Tony's speech sound like a second grader's fairy tale! My JuJu hand sez Gore in 4! I think he was casting out devils today like Joey L.! Gore is the UNITER this country needs to heal the rift and to fire the riff-raff that caused it!

Everybody called me back and said they loved it! Even a shithead that voted for Sir Shrubbie!

The way Gore started out kicking Bush's can point by point was brilliant! Gore read from a speech written down on paper, but you could feel that a lot of what he said came from the heart! Bush could NEVER speak from the heart, because he doesn't have one and the people are learning that more with every dirty deed!

If this nightmare has a happy ending we will be extremley lucky, but today gave me real hope for the first time in months!

[KoKo]

42. Yes, Hubert, there was hope in that speech. His timing was good for us...

glad you got so many folks to watch it.

[dusty64]

32. I'm very pleased to

have the President speak out again. I am certain that Lieberman is NOT going to be getting his endorsement and that will be the end of his campaign.

[Lost_Stash_Of_Dubya]

39. What do Naderites think now?

Is Gore still a corporate Whore?

Is Gore still the same as Bush?

Was Gore's speech full of nonsense?

I'd like to see some Greens who voted for Nader weigh in on this. Because I thought that was on of the greatest speeches I've seen by any politician in a long, long time. It's the true Gore, because he's not running for anything.

Every time I hear Al Gore speak, I get pissed off thinking about how Nader helped the corporate media blur the distinction between Gore and Dubya. Nader was a corporate tool in the 2000 election, he was corporate interest's little bitch. I hope Nader is proud of helping to smear Gore, a man who's done more for this country then Nader could ever dream of doing.

[kaitykaity]

40. I hope you're right . . . Dickie Toe Sucker Morris is saying

on the RW shows that Gore asked Cuomo to make
that statement last week about wanting Gore to run,
and the wingers are saying Gore is trying to fool
people into drafting him into the race. This is
what we're up against--they will look for anything
to attack us with. Anything.

Geez, Gore sounded good, though. And I wrote a piece
this morning saying he was damaged goods and I'm
rooting for Dean. I don't know . . . Al makes a great
VP. We need a hound dog pit bull for the alpha.

Rambling.

D

[w13rd0]

45. Look at some of the policies and speeches of several of the candidates...

...what makes you think Gore isn't already in the race? He's ALWAYS been more comfortable as the bookish policy wonk behind the scenes. It's where he seems most at home. Who says he isn't doing that now? And of the field of candidates, can we find one that has consistently given Gore props, whose statements and policies seem to parallel ones Gore has made? Interesting times these be...

[Hubert Flottz]

46. I don't blame Gore for laying back until the right time!

No sense wasting money and energy until he has to! If you were going to run would you want to listen to Tucker, dAnn, Novak and the rest of that trash a day longer than you had to? Bush is losing his job on his own, so why expend the wad too early and subject yourself and your family to the filth and lies that start the minute you say YES!

Gore can beat Bush and the Repubs know it and fear it! Carl Rove met with R-Null a couple of days ago and cooked up arnold's big show today to take the sting out of Al's speech! They don't do things so dynamic as that when Joe or Bob speak!

I'd laugh forever if Gore and Ms Clinton beat Bush! If we could pull that off and take back the Senate and some seats in the house in the landslide Bushco might just pay for their High Crimes! I might even be convinced that there really is a Gawd somewhere out there!

Gore is NO dummy like the ass we have in the WH now!

[punpirate]

50. There's something else in this, I think....

Gore's likely playing head games with the Repugs. On one hand, he's diverting their attention by making policy speeches, making them think he may renege on his decision not to run. That upsets their strategy a bit.

But, by not running, he can be a lightning rod for all the crap coming from the right, without being hurt a bit by it, while still putting out a simple message to Democrats everywhere, paraphrased as: "I think the President is the problem with this country, and he needs to be replaced in 2004."

None of the other candidates may feel it safe to speak so plainly with the polls as they are now. Gore, however, can slam-dunk Dubya from now until election day and never worry about backlash--no office to lose. Gore pushes, at intervals, the notion that Bush is a liar, indifferent the working man, an effete asshole in cowboy boots, a warmonger, and every Democratic candidate benefits. The Democrats will decide for themselves who ultimately runs against Bush; right now, though, they've all got Al Gore saying things they cannot. That can't but help on election day, 2004.

Cheers.