Why Pine for Al? – Why do so many still want Gore to run?
October 18, 2007

 
Share

Please REGISTER to post comments or be notified by e-mail every time this Blog is updated! Firefox/IE7 users can use RSS for a browser link that lists the latest posts!

I happened across this story online while searching for a story on Hillary Clinton’s lead in the polls (a factoid I highly question because the support just is not there). The author asks, mystified, “why are so many still clamoring for an Al Gore candidacy?”, he asks. “Even if you don’t like her, there is a long list of capable, highly electable candidates behind her.”

Based upon the author’s lack of familiarity with both candidates, I suspect the author is/was a Republican, who chalked support for Gore up to sour grapes over the 2000 election. So unable was he to think of any other reason beyond the VP’s sudden embarrassment of riches following his Oscar, Emmy and Nobel Peace Prize wins, I decided to set him straight on just why so many of us still dream of a Gore Presidency.

Here is my response to his column:

Hello Mr. Clooney,
  After reading your 10/17 story on why support for Al Gore persists despite Hillary’s wide lead, I felt compelled to explain why.

Despite what these polls say, Hillary is not as beloved as it seems to suggest. In fact, her lead is a total mystery to me as that none of my fellow Democrats support her. Her support in the online community couldn’t be worse, and she always does poorly in online polls. Her “negatives” are every bit as high as her “positives”, and most Democrats like myself fear no one can mobilize Republican voters like a Hillary candidacy.

Hillary has raised a huge sum of campaign cash, but most of that is from corporate donors, not small individual donors like those trailing behind her. And in this country, we have a bad habit of equating “cash” with “broad support”, so the more money you have, the more people think others support you, and they too join in as supporters assuming that they are part of a ground-swell of support… a vicious circle.

The support for Al Gore has little, if anything, to do with sour grapes over the 2000 election. While the Clinton Presidency was astoundingly successful, far more credit goes to VP Gore than Hillary, and I think many Americans recognize that fact. Where the Reagan and Bush-I Administrations’ repeatedly rejected opening up the valuable defense asset… a global computer network called ARPAnet… to the general public, VP Gore saw the value in it, pushed for opening it up to the public, and the Internet was born… along with the economic boom that came with it, fueling the fantastic economy of the Clinton Administration.

VP Gore held the first hearings on “Global Warming” when most people still lumped it in with “palm reading” and “astrology”. Today, “Global Warming” is mainstream. The fact that it is now a global concern on everyone’s lips is why he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

And what is Hillary’s big claim to fame? She was married to Bill Clinton and pushed for a failed national heathcare system that… in its failure, may have delayed our getting national healthcare for more than a decade.

Of the Democrats running for President, Hillary is the most hawkish, voting to call part of Iran’s military a “terrorist organization”… the first time any country has so labeled part of another governments military… talks about Iran’s interference in Iraq, has not rejected using force against them expanding this ridiculous war, and has not committed to removing U.S. troops from Iraq by the end of even her second term.

Meanwhile, candidates running below her have problems of their own. The top three candidates have a grand total of 12 years political experience between them. And you must look to #4 candidate Bill Richardson before you find one committed to pulling our troops out of Iraq within his first year. To get to a candidate similar in position to Gore, you would need to look to Dennis Kucinich, who has about as much chance of winning as I do.

Is the clarion call for a Gore Presidency really that hard to understand?

I suspect you agree, but any additional reasons you can think of would be most appreciated in your Comments.

(Is a vote for Hillary a vote for war with Iran? A little something to consider when pondering support for Hillary:)

Another example of Hillary’s saber-rattling on Iran:

Share

October 18, 2007 · Admin Mugsy · No Comments - Add
Posted in: Politics

Leave a Reply