The fact that we're talking about Al Gore so much, as of late,

[mtnsnake]

tells you how desperate we are for a leader to surface. Nothing against Al Gore....I love the guy and he deserves to be considered, but all these threads of ours pertaining to him are indicative of how nobody but nobody has stepped up yet in our party to be our GREAT DEMOCRATIC HOPE for the future.

Wouldn't you think by now, considering how VULNERABLE this pathetic Bush administration is, that SOMEONE would've stepped up to the plate to hit a home run for our side? Someone to say the things we want to hear? Someone to say those things so WE don't have to say them all the time?

In my time, JFK did that for us and so did Bill Clinton. They were like heroes the way they emerged and took over. What's Obama up to these days? Geez he inspired for a brief time. Will he resurface?

Just who WILL the next Democratic hero be to take command of the situation? Will he or she be oozing with leadership and charisma like Kennedy....intelligence like Clinton? Will he or she come out of nowhere? Is there such a hero somewhere out there, ready to emerge from the mist?

Soon I hope. I'm ready to rally around that person. Jayeeezus, we need someone!

[1932]

1. I think it's a sign of astroturfing,

personally.

[whalerider55]

4. astroturfing?

man, i been outta the loop too long.

whalerider

[1932]

6. fake grass roots.

Like, maybe a lot of employees at his new cable channel feel like it's in their best interest to post nice things about their boss because they think it will get him out of the office if he gets elected which will give them more time to play Doom.

[LittleClarkie]

7. Yeah, that's plausable

:eyes:

[1932]

8. That it's not

is why it could be funny to some people.

[LittleClarkie]

11. So do you honestly allege astroturfing or are you just goofing around

that's a relatively serious comment to make if you're just spoofing.

[1932]

12. Oh, I do think there is some degree of astroturfing.

Just not in the form I described.

It seems like Gore has be rolled out over the last couple days accoroding to some kind of schedule.

I've seen a lot of stuff on the internet, but I've never seen anything quite like what's been going on with Gore. I can't believe that it's just a coincidence that, since 2000, this is the first time that so many people with such similar opinions about Gore suddenly found the internet, and that it happens to coincide with stuff people are saying in the media.

In Fall 2003 when Gore was actually, admittedly, putting out feelers about running that there was no similar spontaneous erruption of enthusiasm about Gore, and today he has receded even farther back in people's minds then he had receded in 2003.

Also, the character of these posts are different from your average post. This one's hard to describe, but it just seems to me that the Gore posts tend to be exclamation posts rather than dialogue posts. Interenet posts tend to be at least couched in a more converstational presentation, even when their points tends towards the promotional. The Gore posts have even less of that sense that the person wants to discuss issues, which might betray a lacke of core conviction regarding the subject matter.

I could be imagining this.

[LittleClarkie]

13. Even so, if I thought he went down to Louisiana to rescue people

so he could get back in the news so he could maybe be president, I'd puke. I dearly hope that ain't it.

[Raksha]

20. I don't think anyone planned it.

Re >>I've seen a lot of stuff on the internet, but I've never seen anything quite like what's been going on with Gore. I can't believe that it's just a coincidence that, since 2000, this is the first time that so many people with such similar opinions about Gore suddenly found the internet, and that it happens to coincide with stuff people are saying in the media.<<

I think the Al Gore snowball began rolling when Jimmy Carter stated (was it about a week ago?) that Gore won the 2000 election. That validated a lot of people's long-held beliefs, and gave them the confidence to publicly buck the conventional wisdom that proclaims: Once a loser, always a loser. Nobody get a second shot at it, even if he was clearly cheated the first time.

There's no basis in reality for that "Once a loser, always a loser" meme anyway, especially when you consider that Richard Nixon lost in 1960 but won in 1972. OKAY, he's not the example I would choose either, but he still proves it can be done.

Unless there was some politically-motivated timing behind Jimmy Carter's statement, I'd say this is a genuine grassroots movement. In fact, even if there *WAS* some kind of political calculation involved, his statement was the catalyst for something that was ready to happen anyway.

[Raksha]

21. Self-delete. Duplicate post. n/t

[whalerider55]

2. leadership and charisma

hmmm. they don't come any brighter than wes clark, al gore and hillary clinton.

leadership? clark has demonstrated it. you could say gore and and edwards have by being respectively out in front of isssues like the environment and the two americas before it was chic.

personally, after this hell-bound administration i'll take competence over charisma in a new york minute. i think charisma is over-rated- rove has none, and until the tower crumbles, he's on top of the world.

no one ever accused robert byrd of charisma, but he seems to do alright.
as for democrats, we may be years away from a saviour. but they are out there in the grassroots. Hackett, for example.

rally around the ideas, the vision. the leaders will emerge.

whalerider

[wurzel]

3. Gore did get more votes than Bush.

[ProudToBeLiberal]

5. ummm

you wouldn't be using that argument if kerry won ohio because that would mean Bush would have more votes, but kerry would of won the electoral votes.

[Awsi Dooger]

10. What if Kerry won Ohio by 3 million votes?

Then the argument holds.

[ProudToBeLiberal]

17. ???

but then that would mean you'd had to believe in conspiracy theories.

[Hawkowl]

19. WTF?

If the moon was made of green cheese then what? C'mon let's deal with our reality.

[DarkTirade]

22. No, then I'd blame the fact that people were lied to for four years.

[Kahuna]

9. Yep! Every time you think the bush team has topped themselves...

NOPE!!!! They sink even lower.

All those people who said that F911 wasn't true are seeing the real bush that MM portrayed in that movie. I want to hear the next person tell me that F911 was full of lies. I dare them.

[Adelante]

16. Some Gore guy was saying just today

that Michael Moore lied about the scene in the Senate. I couldn't quite figure it out since it's right there on film. Weird.

[Generator]

14. Personally I find it pathetic

Al Gore is not going to run for President. Unless voting schemes are fixed no Dem is every going to be president again. But I suppose it beats the threads trashing Cindy Sheehan or praising Iraqi's (any- I don't give a shit what you call them) that blow up people. Sad day on DU.

[AndyTiedye]

15. Nobody Thinks They Can Win Against...

[wisteria]

18. Kerry could be that leader if people would get over blaming

him for all that did not go right last year. The Dem party and their non-messages and lack of organization hurt Kerry too. The media sabotaged him and many of us could have fought harder for him and stopped others from portraying him as ABB. FYI, ABB is not a glowing endorsement. He deserved more respect than that title implied.

John Kerry can speak passionately about what he believes in.he is articulate and well informed. He is a caring politician, and one that does not condone the abuse of power. You may not always agree with him, but he makes you understand why he feels the way he does and you know that that opinion was well researched and thought-out. He is his own man. And since the election he has been a real powerhouse. Maybe he was always this way, but I never had an opportunity to notice. And finally, and the most important thing for me, is he believes in the power of the people. Government is here to work for us. Not the other way around.