OK, so you're Gore's campaign manager. Your assignment is--

[Jackpine Radical]

Pick the perfect time & place for him to announce his candidacy. Explain the considerations that are going into your choice.

Here's mine:
The Chicago Economic Club on Wednesday.

The topic of his speech will no doubt be Green Economics, and it's a perfect venue to launch his four-point platform:
1) End the war
2) Universal, single-payer Healthcare
3) Restoring civil rights to all Americans
4) Restoring the environment.

[LSparkle]

1. December, after the Nobel ceremony

Probably around the same time he conceded so eloquently in 2000 (he could even make mention of it in the announcement, that he feels he has successfully "mended those fences" and is now time to get back into the fight).

[toadzilla]

15. i cant wait that long!!!!

this suspense is driving me craaaaazy.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

2. ASAP. As in yesterday.

If he's going to get in the race, now's the time. No more waiting around.

[bryant69]

3. I suppose doing it late would be better - on the other hand, he has to get on the ballot

I'm not sure what the rules are on that (and am pretty certain they are different for each state).

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[lildreamer316]

4. October 23– Filing Deadline for Michigan Primary

Dunno what the rules are...does he have to be on every primary ballot?
DUH if so, school was years ago; sorry.

[Jackpine Radical]

7. He only has to win enough primaries to get the nomination.

Historically, people have sat out 1 or 2 early primaries & then got in the race & won.

[lildreamer316]

8. Aha! Thanks.

I know they got juggled around this year. Are certain ones considered necessary anymore, or has that changed with the moving around? I'm assuming conventional politicking is not as applicable here as it usually would be.

[Jackpine Radical]

10. My head is spinning from all that stuff.

Some candidates were talking about sitting out FL to punish them for jumping the gun.

[bryant69]

12. Well the DNC is sort of requiring them to

They are allowed to fund raise here in private events but they aren't allowed to talk to reporters.

It's goofy as hell.

Bryant

[Jackpine Radical]

14. Doing it late has the obvious advantage of sheltering him from the full season

of smearing & attacks in the media. However, that seems to have already begun in earnest with the awarding of the Nobel, like they're all pouring it on to discourage him from entering, so my sense of it is that he has nothing to lose by going in now instead of later. He's gonna get slimed whatever he does.

[DefenseLawyer]

5. Chicago would be fine

With Chicago's own Barack Obama there to introduce him and endorse his candidacy and the Gore/Obama ticket.

[grasswire]

6. mine is this...

...Solve unemployment, sagging economy, oil dependency, national morale, and global warming by a total change in energy policy.

See this book by Dr. Eban Goldstein, professor of economics and author -- a man who has been meeting with Al Gore, I've been told.

Fighting for Love In the Century of Extinction: How Passion and Politics Can Stop Global Warming. ISBN: 9781584656579

"The central idea in this book is simple: Unchecked, global warming threatens to destroy one of every two animals, birds, plants, reptiles, forests, fish and other creatures alive today on the earth. This looming ecological collapse will only be arrested if we can articulate and embrace what the natural world means to each of us, and then fight a series of hard political battles to preserve creation. On a subject about which it is easy to feel despair, Goodstein offers a realistic, ambitious, and hopeful political solution to avoid a century of mass extinction: a vision grounded in a moral view that embraces the interconnection of all life forms on the planet."

Goldstein spoke to a group last week that included teenagers. A person in the audience told me that she observed their reaction to Goldstein as surprised and energized by his zeal and message. He told them that THEY were the greatest generation; that THEY would have to solve the world's most dangerous problem ever.

So I think if Al wants to run, he will run on a bold new program to address warming.

[Jackpine Radical]

9. I'm aware of the idea of a new green industrial revolution

and its potential; in my fantasy, I was assuming that this theme would lie behind Gore's announcement in Chicago.

[grasswire]

13. the idea gives me goosebumps

It's right there, waiting to be plucked and implemented. Hope for the world. A sense of purpose. Of international cooperation. Of progress.

Wow.

[Jackpine Radical]

16. Oh, yeah, me too.

Truly a Brave New World, without the Huxleian ironic undertones.

[Bennyboy]

11. Cram as mush TV exposure between now and announcement.

as possible. Daily Show, Letterman, Oprah...all of them on his Nobel prize win. Really the longer he can stay out of the race the better.

Then Novemeber sometime...enter. But play it up while you can so you don't have to deal with equal time or the stupid debates.

[MrCoffee]

17. file for unemployment?

[Jackpine Radical]

18. Tsk. You're not playing the game.

Nice, concise way to make your point, though. :rofl:

[T Wolf]

19. The longer he waits, the longer he can avoid some of the restrictions ala

Freddie Thompson. That in itself would drive the pukes crazy.

It could also make a statement that our multi-year system of campaigning is dysfunctional to effective governing.

A two-fer, or more-fer.