I've been a huge proponent of Al Gore for a while now. I think he's learned a lot since his defeat in 2000 and, more importantly, has become a person who transcends himself and truly represents an entire issue as a singular person. Who's the last time someone to do that? Martin Luther King, Jr?
The issue Al Gore just happens to be championing is something the entire planet - and human race that inhabits it - depends on: the environment. For years, environmentalists have been chided, called a bunch of looney hippies... and no one has taken them seriously. That was, of course, until Al Gore. Suddenly, he's presenting awards at the Grammies, up for an Oscar nod with his documentary and a Nobel Peace Prize for his work on Global Warming. Most importantly, he's convinced closet-conservatives like my father - who thought scientists "claiming" global warming was real were a buch of nutcases - that the Earth really is dying and humanity is largely to blame. If Al Gore can do that, he deserves to be President.
My idea below the fold:
I haven't become a big part of the Draft Al Gore movement. I'll be honest, I've been busy. With college, blogging and rehearsals for shows that I've done, my time is rather limited. However, here's one thing that I'm not sure a lot of the Draft Al Gore folks have thought about doing: promising to vote for him in the primary, regardless of whether or not he decides to run. What happens if all these people promising to "Draft Al Gore" were also promising to vote for Al Gore - even if it meant writing him in. If a million people signed that kind of a petition, you'd think Al Gore would almost have to declare.
So, let's do it. From this moment, I promise that I'm going to vote for Al Gore - no matter what - come primary day. We need Al Gore. We need the environment to become THE issue again. We need our country to take a leadership role on this issue - because we're the only ones capable of getting the rest of the world involved. We need to rebuild our respect around the world and advancing environmental protection, with someone like Al Gore behind it, would go a long way toward that. We also need Al's voice of clarity on Iraq; he's long been speaking out against President Bush's disastrous plans. Al Gore's already won a plurality of the population's vote once before - and that was when people didn't even like the guy. Now he's a rock star with a really important cause. Let's get him in office, whether he likes it or not!
Update: Alice has a great idea, find out how to get Al Gore on your state's ballot and start collecting signatures. That way, he'll either have to eventually embrace it or back away from it.
Update #2:
If you want to draft Al Gore and live in California, check out this reply. You need 500 signatures per congressional district, which isn't nearly as hard as it sounds. 2-3 dedicated people could do that per district, so get to it =)