|
I want to start off with another quote from Gore concerning the 2008 presidential election and then I'll give you my short answer and I'll also go through my reasoning of why you should not give up hope, if you want to see how I come to my conclusion.
"It’s 500 days off," Gore said of the Democrats' convention. "If I do my job, then all of them will make this their top issue. None of them have yet."
Short answer: He is the only one who willing to campaign on the one issue that needs to be addressed: global climate change. He is the one voice, above all others, that people trust on this issue. AIT makes it clear that he understands that the state of our environment is important to humanity's future. And, I believe, he will step in this fall to fight for our planet's future if the apparent front runner at that time isn't making it a central issue.
Remember that Bush took the issue off the table in the 2000 election by saying he would reduce CO2 levels if he was elected. Gore continued to talk about global climate change but the press saw it as a non-issue and spend more time talking about Gore's earth tones than the state of our earth.
Okay, now for the long answer: First, the interview you reference was done two days before the SOS/Climate Change concert. He was also having to fend off questions about his son's arrest.
He was doing publicity for the concert and if, by any chance, he had hinted (even slightly) about running the media would have had a field day with it. It would have been their opening to launch an attack on him saying (more or less) that he was using the concerts to promote himself and, worse, they would have tried to exploit Al III's arrest.
Or worse, they would have started ignoring the concert altogether. I still remember when he was giving the speech before a primarily MoveOn crowd back and the Maria Hinajosa was covering it for CNN. Once she got an advanced copy of the speech she mentioned that she had read through it and there was nothing in the text about him running for president. The talking head on CNN repeated that Gore was not declaring his intention to run and the coverage got cut short.
In truth, whenever Gore has made a speech to MoveOn crowds he has always stayed on topic. That's the way he rolls. Gore has continued this practice and he has made it clear to interviewers: when he's out talking about climate change, he's talking about climate change; When he's out promoting TAOR, he talks about
Secondly, as Gore points out, it is still early. For example, I remember what I was doing four years ago this week. I was working with the Dean campaign and was working to set up an informational table for our town's annual sidewalk sale. Every summer, on the third Thursday of July, our town has a huge sidewalk sale. It is primarily held downtown but all the stores around town will have some sort of sale on that day. A friend of mine, who owns a salon in a prime downtown location, allowed me to set up a table in his sidewalk space to hand out information on Dean and to register voters.
We set up the table and all day long I had people stopping by the table to tell me it was too early to be thinking about presidential politics. Naturally, I asked why they thought it was too early and I got a variety of responses. People were too busy worrying about things like school starting in a month, family vacations, taking their boat out to the lake, their gardens wilting in the summer heat or, because I live in Kansas, there were some people who were concerned about their crops and preparing their farm equipment for the next harvest. I told a few people about our meetups but they said they couldn't even think about getting involved until school started and their schedules became more stable, otherwise, they were spending summer evenings doing family things like sports (swimming, baseball, softball, tennis, etc.) and our town has weekly concerts in the park that are very well attended. (As an aside, one short year later, I was getting ready to depart to Boston for the convention.)
In short, the majority of people around here are busy doing "summer stuff" that they do every year. They aren't paying as much attention to politics right now. They know that next year is an election year but they are too busy worrying about what their kids are doing during the day while they're at work.
Granted, there are major differences between now and four years ago at this time. Bush and his war aren't popular. People are more awake and aware now than they were then but they still see the election as being too far away and some of them don't know what any of the top tier candidates from either party stand for. So, even though people are upset about the state of our country they still think the election is way off and aren't paying a lot of attention to it right now.
Finally, let's look again at the latter part of the quote above: "If I do my job, then all of them will make this their top issue. None of them have yet."
Gore understands the importance of global climate change. He understands that it has to be the primary issue for the next POTUS.
fwiw, I just checked the campaign sites of the top three Democratic candidates (per polling data), in order of their polling popularity and here's what I've found:
At the top of Hillary's page is a big headline: "Help make Hillary's new video"
At the top of Obama's page is a quote that begins, "The war in Iraq should never have been authorized...
At the top of the Edwards' page is an invitation to join him on "The One America Tour". To his credit, of the top three, Edwards is the only one of the three that mentions global climate change on the front page of his website.
My conclusion: they don't get it. They aren't making it the centerpiece of their campaigns and they need to. What good is pulling out of Iraq if we don't have a habitable planet? What good is waging a war on poverty if we don't have clean water to drink. We need them to start talking about it more and for them to make it the issue in the race. It isn't their number one priority and time is running out. People have already shown a willingness to listen to what Gore is saying and, as a result, the attitude of people is changing. Heck, even marketing strategies are changing. I got a solicitation from my bank the other day about 'going green' by using their online banking options and their bank debit card rather than writing checks.
Furthermore, a couple of days ago I took a tour of a new subdivision that a friend moved into (it was a Habitat for Humanity neighborhood project) and found that all the homes are using geothermal units and other energy efficient technology. In contrast, a few blocks over, at another Habitat for Humanity house that was built two years ago, there are far fewer such features. Yeah, they have the energy efficient windows, doors and appliances but they are using conventional heating and air conditioning systems. I would even wager that geothermal units weren't even considered a couple of years ago when the house was built. Far fewer people considered alternative energy ideas as practical or affordable.
So, imagine this, Gore steps in the race in the Sept./Oct. time-frame and makes the climate crisis the cornerstone of his campaign. He can say he's stepping in because he has to to save the planet. He's more than believable on this than almost anyone because he is so identified with the issue. It is something he has been doing for years and, more importantly, it is something that he knows needs action now, not later. And, if, no one else will step up to the plate, I believe Gore will feel compelled to run.
|
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
