Seriously, folks. I'm watching Al Gore blow everyone else to smithereens in Meteor Blades' Gore-inclusive straw poll, and as much as I admire and like Al Gore, I'm afraid I don't understand the fascination, presidentially speaking.
I'm serious when I say I like him. I liked him even more after An Inconvenient Truth. It's just that aside from the environment and global warming, I've not heard a policy-related issue come out of his mouth. So I'm wondering what it is 60% of us are so enthralled with.
I have a theory.
Now be honest.
How many of you Gore-ites cheer for him because you think he was robbed in 2000? How many of you still harbor some ancient sense of entitlement on his behalf? How many of you root for Al Gore today because you want him to have what was rightfully his 6+ years ago?
I'm no psychologist, and I don't play one on TV, but I can't think of anything else that might cause us to put "Gore" and "President" in the same sentence. So I'm asking.
Is it his foreign policy expertise? His economic prowess? His plan to provide health care to the poor?
Or is it pity?
Maybe it's just a Kossack bandwagon that everyone wants to hop on.
Maybe Al Gore is the closest thing to a Clinton without being a Clinton.
Maybe it's a little underdog mentality.
But none of that would make Al Gore "presidential." And Al Gore himself has said he doesn't want to be president. Yet we hold on.
I've read the comments in Meteor Blades' diary, but I've not seen anyone answer to the elephant in the room.
Why Al Gore for president?