It's A Dirty Job But You Have To Run, Mr. Gore

[marmar]

From the Huffington Post:


By Bob Cesca

It's A Dirty Job But You Have To Run, Mr. Gore (44 comments )

Probably I should not consciously and deliberately forsake my particular calling to do the good which society demands of me, to save the universe from annihilation; and I believe that a like but infinitely greater steadfastness elsewhere is all that now preserves it.
-Henry David Thoreau, Walden Or, Life In The Woods

In a recent interview, former Vice President Al Gore reiterated that he has no intention to run for president. In a way, I don't blame him. At this stage in history, running for the presidency as the successor to George W. Bush is not unlike willingly applying to be Rush Limbaugh's lone detox custodian. Big, big stinky messes to clean up. Nevertheless, Al Gore is absolutely the right man at the right time to "save the universe from annihilation."

Back in the early '90s, after Jay Leno had been hosting The Tonight Show for a year or two, NBC made an offer to David Letterman to take over the show after Leno's contract expired. It's all famously documented in Bill Carter's book The Late Shift.

NBC offered, but thankfully Peter Lassally, the former Tonight Show producer and Letterman's consigliere at that time, stepped in and recommended that Letterman pass. The reason? It wasn't Johnny's Tonight Show anymore. That golden age had passed and someone else had made the show his own. Letterman, it seems, wouldn't have inherited Johnny's Tonight Show, but, instead, Jay Leno's Tonight Show: a vanishing shadow of its former prestige.

Similarly, the presidency Al Gore would inherit isn't the one to which he would've ascended in 2001; the 2009 presidency will be wrought with chaos. I have to hand it to the present field of candidates for their Herculean level of fortitude and their near-suicidal degree of masochism in wanting to dedicate their lives to cleaning up President Bush's erupting dunghill of malfeasance. Whoever wins qualifies as a subject for that Dirty Jobs show on Discovery Channel, with a permanent spot between the rat puckers and septic sludge divers. .....(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bob-cesca/its-a-dirty-job-but-you-_b_41616.html

[buddysmellgood]

1. I disagree. It's true there is a great mess, but Gore was not passed over for the

job...it was stolen from him.

[MasonJar]

2. We Gore supporters are to blame for the current state of US; we

did not take to the streets to protest the lying and thieving pugs as we should have done. We were lax and let Al struggle alone. I am so chagrined that I did not do more. I am heartbroken for the world and all the innocent Iraqis who have suffered and died because I did not do more. I apologize to the families who have lost their children here and abroad because a truly evil axis of evil was allowed to prevail. I pray that no other species dies for my retarded assertion and that no more criminals go unpunished for the crimes against humanity perpetrated by the cruelest administration ever to infect the halls of the WH.

[Rydz777]

3. Instant results

If Al Gore were (re)elected President, it would instantly restore American prestige. He is respected throughout the world, and the Bush follies would be forgiven in a burst of hope and optimism.

[kster]

4. Absolutely, this message has to get

out to AL Gore, We know what We did wrong, give us another chance, this time you (AL GORE) will not be fighting alone to get the votes counted .

We can put together "Vote Counting Security Teams" The numbers guys can give us an idea of what states may try and fudge the numbers, and the people in the teams that can afford it, can buy airplane tickets to the most vulnerable states.

Then We can show up in that state or states, in short order, en masse, to SEE TO IT that all the ballots get counted (PERIOD)

[OneBlueSky]

5. my ambivalence about -- and confidence in -- Al Gore . . .

I've been saying, to anyone who would listen, that the only way this country is going to change course and attack our myriad of critical issues with REAL solutions is to elect as president a true populist who will stand up to the corporations that control our government, our nation, and the planet . . .

I don't know who that person is -- but I hope it might be Al Gore . . .

now, on its face, the proposition seems ridiculous . . . here is a man who was literally raised in government . . . his father was a prominent senator, and he himself embarked on a political career that took him all the way to the vice presidency -- as a representative of the Democratic Leadership Council, the notorious DLC . . . the ultimate insider all his adult life, Al Gore would seem to be the LEAST likely candidate for populists and progressives to rally behind . . .

unless . . .

unless . . .

unless he has somehow overcome his background and actually changed at a very fundamental, a very personal level . . . changed politically, changed psychologically, changed spiritually . . . and I, for one, believe it quite possible that he has . . .

for the past several years, Al Gore has devoted his life to educating the public about global warming, and in doing so has become something of an expert on the issue . . . as such, he has to KNOW that the primary cause of global warming -- and a host of other critical environmental issues -- is US corporations . . . their actions, both in conducting their businesses and in influencing/controlling the US government, constitute THE single most significant cause of the environmental devastation that has been visited upon us . . . and Al Gore knows it . . .

so . . . if Al Gore is serious about the critical nature of the problem and the need to address it at its root -- and I believe that he is -- he will have no choice but to take on the corporations which pollute our air, land and water, which write the "regulations" that allow them to do so, and which are the primary vehicles for the massive (and increasing) transfer of wealth from the middle and lower classes to the ruling class -- and the crippling poverty and despair that this transfer has caused . . . as an expert on the environment who truly wants to make a difference, he KNOWS that the only way that can happen is if he politically (and psychologically) changes sides and becomes a true servant of the people who is willing to speak truth to power . . .

I believe that, should he decide to run, Al Gore is prepared to do just that . . . I believe that the transformation we have seen in the past several years is real -- as it MUST be for anyone seriously studying the environment and what humankind has done and is doing to it . . . I believe Al Gore has the ethics, the morality, and the integrity to do what's right, even if it puts him at odds with the very forces who supported him throughout his rise to one of the nation's highest offices . . . among the things that convinced me was his evacuating critically ill patients from New Orleans following Katrina, at his own expense and seeking no publicity . . . while politicians at all levels resorted to pointing fingers and sitting on their hands, Al Gore got his hands dirty and actually DID something . . .

and that is precisely who we need in the White House -- someone who will actually DO something . . . I believe Al Gore may be that someone . . .

now I could be wrong, of course . . . we could elect Al Gore only to find that he, too, is nothing more than a protector of the status quo that got us into this ungodly mess in the first place . . . but of all the presidential candidates, announced and unannounced, I believe that Al Gore offers the most real promise for fundamentally altering the status quo and initiating REAL, meaningful change across the board . . .

I sure do hope I'm right about that . . . because if I'm not, I'm afraid we, and the planet, are fucked beyond any hope of redemption . . .

thanks for reading . . .

[FogerRox]

6. If the people demand you serve, Mr Gore.........

Then you must.