Al Gore Is Coming 'Round the Mountain
Huge speculation about the possibility of Gore entering the race over the last few days. I still haven't ruled it out as a possibility, though there are signs both for and against. The main sign for his stepping into the race is the carefully laid out press events over the past few months. First the movie, now the book and, coming in July, the massive concert to Save The Earth.
Live Earth may be a bit of an exercise in stupidity and self-promotion — after all, it's not as though we need to raise awareness of global climate change — but it should be good at what it does. Which is to say, while everyone's already aware of global climate change, most people aren't thinking too heavily about our former vice president. If Gore jumps into the race, then, it will be after July 7.
And if we here in Florida have our way, that will not leave him much time.
Charlie Crist signed the bill yesterday to move the Florida primary up to January 29. If Gore hops in about a month after Live Earth, that gives him just about five months to run roughshod over Clinton, Obama, Edwards and the other would-be kings of the Democratic primary. Generally speaking, Gore will probably be capable of beating most of them within an inch of their lives after July.
But Gore only seems to reap publicity in short bouts. For example, while the whole conservative media world was tearing Jimmy Carter apart yesterday for having the temerity to suggest that Bush's presidency may be the worst we've seen (hardly the first time that dark possibility has been raised), Gore's speech from yesterday promoting his book went largely unnoticed, which was shocking given that said speech more or less called for Bush's impeachment, and in no uncertain terms called the president a lying, lawbreaking, malicious swine. But then, Gore's book apparently casts Bush in the same light. And why not? The president's lawbreaking, lying and malignant ways are all well-documented matters of public record at this point. The fact that he and his whole motley crew haven't been dragged through the streets of Washington to the Capitol to be impeached, then strapped to a train's cow catcher and ridden down the rails to Crawford can only be explained by a sort of collective spinelessness on the part of Congress. A willful ignorance of the mood of the people, a fear of the unknown.
And Al? Well, Al knows better than that. He's seen impeachment up close. Right, Al?
Yup
So don't worry about Al for now, ace. But keep a check on him as that book stays on the bestseller list and bandfuls of rockstar weirdos sign up to "give something back" "for the children" at the Live Earth event. When all's said and done, Al Gore may be running the presidential campaign of the future — we don't need traditional political campaigns anymore. We need only a series of media events. A movie, a book, a concert, a man, a plan, a canal. Panama.