By Libby
Of course now that Gore completed his award trifecta with the Nobel Peace prize, speculation about a late entry into the 08 race has resurged. Me, I've never been a huge fan of Gore or the Clinton administration. Their drug war policies were atrocious and I foresaw the disaster that would come of NAFTA from the beginning. Still, I always thought we would be better off with Gore as president and often rue that I wasn't more active in promoting his candidacy at the time. I simply never believed so many would be fooled by the blustering Bush and I was living on the farm then so other than casting my ballot, I sort of sat out that election.
I wish I could pin my hopes for the future on his late entry now, but I find I can't muster up any enthusiasm. Avedon puts my thoughts into focus in a post that should be read in full but here's the money quote.
But I'm not so sure, now. He needs to repudiate NAFTA in a big way, and I'm not even sure he's prepared to do that. There's no doubt in my mind that he's been transformed by his bath of fire - his statement on single-payer is proof of that - but he may still feel too wedded to NAFTA to openly treat it as the mistake it was.
For the last seven and a half years, my support for Gore has owed a lot to the fact that he should be president - not in 2008, but right now. Because we elected him. And because eight years of George Walker Bush and Richard Bruce Cheney could never be anything but a disaster.
But right now... I'm feeling twitchy.
The bottom line is, Gore is doing really well at keeping climate disruption in the forefront and at this point, a run for the presidency would only dilute his work on that and muddy the debate. Not to mention the media elite who hate him already have a playbook of old slurs they would love to recycle. A Gore run now would eliminate any slim chance we have for an issue dominated campaign in the general. Better that Gore keeps his mo' for trying to save the planet. I think we're going to have to save our country some other way. |
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