IT HAS TO BE GORE-If He's Serious About Climate Change-He Has To Run For President (Guardian)

[kpete]

It has got to be Al Gore
If he is as serious about climate change as he says he is, he has to run for the US presidency

Peter Preston
Monday June 18, 2007
The Guardian

...Education, education, education? What the hell use is that if your school is under water? National health? Not in hospitals where the air conditioning has collapsed. Climates change, but the challenge doesn't. Which is where we reach the inconvenient truth about Al Gore. And why he needs to be the next man in the Oval Office.

........ Al Gore isn't over, and has not gone away. On the contrary - his profile and organisational structure still in place - he has become America's true prophet of climate change. In the beginning, that seemed like retirement or a move to some showbiz style of career, starting liberal radio stations, making earnest movies. But events, if we're honest, have reshaped all that.

How long have we got to take decisive action? Ten years at most, say the direst American voices (like Jim Hansen, Nasa's top man on climate change). And where does the heart of that action necessarily lie? In Washington DC, because that's where any fight against global pollution necessarily begins. Other politicians and nations can pressure and preach - but top-down decision-making starts in the Oval Office.

Is that possible when climate change is just one "normal" issue among many, to be ceremonially weighed against US jobs or gas prices or Chinese imports? It's not. But that, with inevitable shades of emphasis, is where every extant presidential candidate stands. Too timid, too slow. Global warming is an utterly abnormal issue that needs a leader all of its own. Gore has fashioned himself as that leader. He can't just sit there and pontificate. He has to run. And, when he does, the rest of us have to put inconvenient illusions aside and listen.

much more at:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,2105343,00.html

[zalinda]

1. LOL Al Gore is running the absolutely best campaign

I have ever seen. Whether or not he actually made the decision to run and he planned this or he stumbled upon this campaign run, he would be a fool to pass up this opportunity. The drum beat is getting so loud that is drowning out other candidates. And now other countries are chiming in, who would have thought.

zalinda

[malaise]

2. Run Al run!!

You have no choice.

[IndyOp]

3. I've long thought that other nations should get some kind of vote for our Pres -

When the U.S. catches cold the rest of the world sneezes. They should chime in and we should listen.

:hi:

[RestoreGore]

13. What opportunity?

To inherit Bush's dictatorial crap, a war that cannot be ended, and an ignorant electorate that cares more about Paris Hilton than reason? Yeah, some opportunity.

[Chico Man]

14. Might as well keep Bush in office

Keep Al on the sidelines, making docs.. whilst Bush destroys the world. Fantastic plan.

[RestoreGore]

20. It hasn't bothered the American people including this Congress for the last seven years

If WE continue to allow him to destroy it we have only ourselves to blame. Tell Congress to uphold their oaths and be a better citizen then. It isn't Al Gore's duty to clean up the mess we made. And if you think he is on the "sidelines" now you just haven't been paying attention.

[snappyturtle]

4. Sometimes I think the present time for Al Gore is even better than

seven years ago because of the global climate problem.

[OnionPatch]

5. Definitely better now!

And climate change is only the part of it. Here are some other reasons:

Gore's speeches against the war and torture in 2003 won the heart of many a Nader-voting liberal.

The country is swinging to the left now. When he ran before it was swinging right.

Americans love a come-back story. Al was cheated from his presidency and look what happened. We aren't the only ones thinking "If only America had chosen Al instead of the idiot we have now....how different things would be now." Retribution is the word I'm looking for here.

RUN, AL, RUN!!!

[slay]

6. I totally agree

Al will still get all the votes he got in 2000, plus the Nader votes will go to Gore this time I'm betting, and people who are pissed about Bush turning out to be a total idiotic manic and the Iraq war will also vote for Gore. Plus he's been away from politics for almost 8 years now and seems to really know what needs to be done. I've been very impressed with Gore. It HAS to be Gore. :)

Al Gore 2008!

[stubtoe]

7. Keeping my fingers and toes crossed.

n/t

[cassiepriam]

8. Are you feeling a draft yet President Gore?

[canetoad]

9. I hate conformity, but.....

wouldn't it be great if we had a 'Run, Al, Run' day here on DU and for say, 24 hours everyone used an Al Gore avatar.

[Uncle Joe]

10. Kicked and recommended

Thanks for the thread kpete.

[RestoreGore]

11. No he doesn't

And to even intimate that he is not serious about this crisis if he doesn't run in this BS system that ignored this crisis for thirty years is an absolute insult to him. Why the double standard for him? He doesn't HAVE to run or do anything, but it is obvious that many are still stuck in the mode wherein they dont't think they matter at all in the equation. His book becomes more timely every day I read one of these articles. He doesn't even have to be out here now doing all he is doing, but he is. How ungrateful can some people be?

[Chico Man]

15. You actually think writing books and making documentaries

Is going to make a bigger difference than if this man were given the opportunity to be the most powerful person in the world for 8 years?

8 years.. not a long time! Gore is a young man. He can go right back to making docs and writing books.

I know of several right wingers that want to give Gore a chance now that they have seen Bush's awful ways. We are talking about a true uniter here.. someone that could actually make a difference, and help bring peace to the world.. if given the chance to make decisions with impact.. decisions only a president can make.

[RestoreGore]

19. It's much more than that...

And excuse me, but had it not been for An Inconvenient Truth this crisis would in NO WAY be in the consciousness of the people globally as it is now, so I think you just proved yourself wrong on that. It wasn't just some documentary. How sad that his work which actually brought about the truth that this media and BS political system would never tell us is dismissed as unworthy. And he was already in the WH for eight years and the system STILL choked regarding this on all sides. He then can and is most definitely having a great influence on events from out here, but you have to have vision (and I don't mean tunnel) to understand that.

And last I checked, Martin Luther King Jr. was the catalyst for changing history with the civil rights movement and he was never president. Alice Paul and Susan B. Anthony got women the vote and they certainly were never presidents. I think some place entirely too much emphasis on being president as the ONLY way one can effect change as if the rest of us are insignificant.

You tell me what President in the last thirty years including Clinton did anything on this for all their talk now. And again, "the most powerful person in the world" doesn't sound like the leader of a Democratic country. It is absolutely arrogant in my view to think that anyone else in this country with the correct approach and resources, conviction, support, and heart can't have an even greater effect on historcial events. Have we become what we originally came here to get away from? People who put more trust in "Kings" than in ourselves?

[muriel_volestrangler]

21. "An Inconvenient Truth" may have changed the USA's attitude, but not Europe

Climate change was already accepted as a reality which had to be addressed, in Europe. I'm not knocking it - there really does seem to be a change in what the American media says because of it, and Kyoto and any future agreement was hobbled without American participation, but the message was already known elsewhere.

I'm surprised that with your username "RestoreGore", you're so sceptical of Gore running. Have you had second thoughts?

[RestoreGore]

22. I'm supporting him, not a political campaign

Personally, I think my name is now very aprapo (though it was actually from another place and time when I was more naive) since I believe he certainly has been restored to the man he always was and wished to be not under the thumb of a system that weighs importance of issues on polls and contributions. Restoration is not always about "politics." And I would say by his own words that he is also skeptical of "that", although those in the media who keep pushing him about it as well as other groups don't seem to think about anything else.

In all frankness, the current political system does not support his visionary ideas that actually are far outside what it would be willing to accomplish now so therefore, I do not support it. I support going around it to achieve goals and think his campaign for the planet is brilliant, sincere, and much needed in this country where a stifled political system has to this point done absolutely nothing to bring us forward on this issue as they still are not facing it with the urgency it needs to be faced NOW because people are too distracted by other things (as reiterated in The Assault On Reason)... therefore, that means that more pressure needs to be exerted by US, business leaders, states, and other countries, and that is where Mr. Gore is positioned to have the greatest effect now not only as an advocate but as a teacher, and I support that wholeheartedly.

He is moving forawrd now and proving that you do not need a "title" to effect great change for the future, and I support him 1000% in his endeavors, because it is new, exciting, not based on political sound bites, and it has empowered and motivated me as well. And I agree that in Europe climate change was being addressed already since they are usually ahead of theh curve on us on most issues that matter, although I do believe the movie did bring the urgency of the extent of the crisis and our part in it to more countries that still do not understand all the repercussions of it or how to deal with them. And as long as Mr. Gore chooses to devote his life to this most noble of causes, my thoughts are on that, and there is no second thought about it.

[Forkboy]

12. To suggest he isn't serious about the issue is laughable.

[proud patriot]

16. Run Al Run

:woohoo:

[Kurovski]

17. K&R. (nt)

[necso]

18. If Vice President Gore is going to enter the race,

my guess is that he shouldn't wait much longer.

Moreover, waiting until "someone falters" strikes me as a risky idea (for any potential candidate).

("The only unforgivable sin is bad timing." (...???) An oversimplification, of course; but bad timing is often avoidable if it's given some thought.)

And if he needs a little encouragement (it's a big, consequenceful* step), then here's mine:

Go for it, Al.

*: Some things are; some aren't.