Joe Scarborough has either been moving further left, or Bu$hCo is pissing him off so much, he doesn't mind looking like one at this point. On Thursday, he and Tweety got together and talked about Albert Gore getting back into the race, and both were somewhat positive about his chances and also discussed the potential strength of the anti-Hilary democrats.
If this has been posted elsewhere, my apologies, but I didn't see anyone else doing this. Also, all the bolding is mine, as are any comments in italics.
SCARBOROUGH: "Great Gatsby" author F. Scott Fitzgerald once famously observed that there are no second acts in American life. But the expat`s insights don`t seem to apply to modern American political life, since eventual presidents like Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and Bill Clinton all survived crushing political blows in their careers, only to later achieve the pinnacle of power.
Will Al Gore return from the political grave and once again prove Fitzgerald wrong by making a White House run in 2008? Not if his old White House nemesis, Hillary Clinton, has her way.
Now, Hillary supporters just announced the launching of their Draft Hillary movement in Nashville, Tennessee, which just happens to be Al Gore`s backyard. Ouch.
Now, if the Democratic left is lukewarm about Hillary, some party activists believe Al Gore, Jr., may once again be there waiting in the wings.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SCARBOROUGH (voice-over): Everybody`s waiting for Hillary. But if the junior senator from New York falters, some Democratic leaders and political pundits are openly wondering whether Albert Gore, Jr., should be the next president to prove Fitzgerald wrong.
AL GORE, FORMER VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I`m not going to dance around it, though I am known for my dancing skills.
...SCARBOROUGH: But that didn`t stop him from winning the popular vote or giving a spellbinding concession speech in the end.
GORE: While I strongly disagree with the court`s decision, I accept it.
SCARBOROUGH: Gore re-appeared two years later with a beard and a fiery style.
GORE: Donald Rumsfeld ought to resign immediately as the chief architect of this plan.
(APPLAUSE)
SCARBOROUGH: He attacked George W. Bush before it was the politically safe thing to do...
GORE: The president of the United States has been breaking the law repeatedly and insistently. (and everybody labeled him a "kook" for it.)
(APPLAUSE)
SCARBOROUGH: ... making him the darling of the Democratic left.
HOWARD DEAN, DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN: It`s great to have Al Gore back in Iowa!
(APPLAUSE)
SCARBOROUGH: Where the old Gore was stiff and calculating, the new Gore is mad as hell, and he`s not going to take it anymore. But is he mad enough to take on the late night comics and the Republican attack machine one more time?
SCARBOROUGH: The answer to that may depend on Hillary Clinton`s next move.
SEN. HILLARY CLINTON (D), NEW YORK: We will have the next president of the United States be a Democrat!
SCARBOROUGH: But if his old White House nemesis decides she can`t win the White House in 2008, expect Al Gore, Jr., to once again to step in from the wings and try to take the prize that his party still believes was stolen from him six years ago.
SCARBOROUGH: I`m joined now by "HARDBALL`s" Chris Matthews.
Chris, I see that the Draft Hillary movement in starting in Nashville, Tennessee, which, also, of course, happens to be in Al Gore`s backyard. Do you think there may be a little bit of back and forth between these two people that were rivals at the beginning of the Clinton administration?
CHRIS MATTHEWS, MSNBC HOST: Well, I think it`s very active. I think Al Gore resents Hillary Clinton`s ascension, if you will, because --let`s face it-- it wasn`t Al Gore who got in trouble with Monica Lewinsky, it was Bill Clinton. And he gets stuck with all the responsibility for all of that goo, politically, back in 2000 when he loss that heart-breaker. (correct, although he didn't lose he just got outmanuvered)
I`m sure he blames the whole thing on Clinton and the mess he put the country in with regard to the embarrassment in the Oval Office. And I`m sure he`s got a grudge against Hillary Clinton, who just whizzed by it by saying "vast right-wing conspiracy," blaming it on the political enemies of the president, then getting elected senator from New York.
SCARBOROUGH: Isn`t it fascinating that Al Gore was seen as this boring, technocrat in 2000 that didn`t have heart or soul, and Hillary Clinton was the hero of the left? But if you talk to party activists, if you talk to, you know, the Hollywood-types and big money people, (well, it's not just them thank you very much) it seems like Al Gore is getting in fairly well with the left, while Hillary Clinton is now seen as the sellout centrist.
MATTHEWS: Well, there`s only one issue to a lot of people: Four out of five Democrats think the war in Iraq was wrong, it was a mistake, it was worse than a blunder, because it was carried out for ideological reasons. They don`t like this war. Hillary Clinton supports the war to this day. Al Gore--it took awhile, but he finally came out against the war, dramatically. I think that`s the issue. That`s the issue, the war, which defines Democratic passions right now.
SCARBOROUGH: And Al Gore actually started attacking George W. Bush before most of the Democratic Party establishment did, right?
MATTHEWS: Well, freedom is just another word for nothing else to lose, right?
(LAUGHTER)
You know it`s true. I think the problem with Al Gore is, for whatever psychological reason, he took that loss as a personal rejection. Even though he defeated George Bush in the popular vote, he took it as some real failure. He went off and grew that beard and got weird. (Since when does growing a beard make one "weird"?)
And I think that really hurt him in his chance of coming back in 2004. I think if he had stayed in the action, given speeches, toured the country as the guy that did really well, who got more votes than George W. Bush, and acted like the most popular kid on campus, which he was, instead of acting like a man who`d been marooned, or cast away, or banished, I think that was a psychological problem he had.
(No..he..sigh..see below)
I wish he had some brothers or friends who would have gone up to him and said, "Al Gore, you just got more votes than anybody else ever got for president. You got more votes than the next president. Act like you`re proud. Be a good American. Smile, and you can come back again someday."
Of course I understand your reasoning. You now realize Bush is corrupt and stupid -- a dangerous combination. You REALLY don't like Hilary. And perhaps most of all you're desparate for something interesting to happen in 2008, rather than the much predicted McCain-Hilary showdown. Still, I guess I have to applaud your willingness to cast the rightful winner of the 2000 Election in a more favorable light. Better late than never.
And while Scarborough's is hardly a high-rated show, it could this be the beginning of a sea change in Gore's constituency? Could he actually bring back the South and moderate conservatives over to the Dems? As I posted in another diary, I believe we need a general as veep. If he does that, if he comes back with the fire and brimstone that he had at the Move on meeting and at the Dem meeting, brings in some fresh blood to head his campaign, if he reminds people that he was against Bush, Rummy and even Powell, when it wasn't cool, and throws everything but the kitchen sink at Bush in a de facto tribunal, I believe he defeat Hilary in the primaries and win the election.