Al may not run, but he can still win my vote
Tue Jun 05, 2007 at 06:27:49 AM PDT
I don’t think Al Gore is running for President. No, I have no inside information. I didn’t talk to any of his "people". I just believe Gore when he tells reporters he isn’t running because he can do more for the issues he cares about without being President. But, that doesn’t mean Al Gore can’t be working in the White House in 2009 and it doesn’t mean he won’t have a lot to say about who the next President will be.
Bob Herbert has a piece in the NYTimes today (behind the wall, but free if you have a .edu email). In it, he pines for Al Gore as do a lot of us. He goes through that all too painful exercise of imagining a world where the winner of the 2000 election actually became President. The discussion then led to the inevitable question:
So where does that leave Mr. Gore? If the republic is in such deep trouble and the former vice president knows what to do about it, why doesn’t he have an obligation to run for president? I asked him if he didn’t owe that to his fellow citizens.
If the country needs you, how can you not answer the call?
That’s the question we’re all asking. Al Gore is in a unique position with his intelligence, experience and abilities to help this nation tackle some of the incredible challenges we face. Naturally, it would seem, he should be doing that as President of the United States. So, when Herbert asked that question of Al directly, Al responded:
"You know," he said, "I don’t really think I’m that good at politics, to tell you the truth." He smiled. "Some people find out important things about themselves early in life. Others take a long time."
He burst into a loud laugh as he added, "I think I’m breaking through my denial."
I noted that he had at least been good enough to attract more votes than George W. Bush.
"Well, there was that," he said, laughing again. "But what politics has become requires a level of tolerance for triviality and artifice and nonsense that I find I have in short supply."
And, as is often the case, Al is right. He really isn’t very good at politics and isn’t that great of a candidate. As much as I want to ignore that fact, even Al reminds me of it. I think this article, combined with a conversation I had yesterday with a very intelligent, and very big D Democrat at work yesterday, brought this point home. My colleague at work basically told me, as hard as he tries, he doesn’t really like Al Gore as a candidate. I pointed out that Al has changed quite a bit since 2000 and has made some of the best speeches of anyone on the planet in the past six years. True, my colleague answered, but still, as he goes from interview show to interview show, you can see some of the things that bothered people in 2000. He still has that monotone drone as he gives long-drawn out answers. He has a certain level of pompousness as he lectures his interviewer. I know my colleague is right, but dammit, I like that about Al! I want an intelligent President who can give complex answers. I want someone who can give us a lecture on current problems and potential solutions. But, am I in the minority on this one?
Thinking about all this, I have decided that I still want Al to enter the race. But, perhaps there is a plan B that could work. What if one of the candidates today talked with Al and made it clear that their administration would hold a central position for Al Gore. It doesn’t have to be a cabinet position – perhaps just as a trusted advisor. George W. Bush had that 36 year old idiot that just left who was his longest-serving, most trusted advisor. (And no knock on 36 year-olds. I’m 36. But for crying out loud, there is still a lot about life that I have to learn at 36.) The next President could have Al Gore!
So, that brings me back to the primaries. I can’t seem to settle on any of these candidates. I generally like them all, but I generally don’t as well. I’ll be thrilled when any one of them take over in 2009 (Hillary included), but right now I can’t find one that I back over any of the others. I can’t quite get the love affair here with John Edwards. I certainly don’t get the following for Obama here at all. He just doesn’t seem like a ‘netroots’ kind of candidate. But again, I like enough about all of them, that I would happily donate, volunteer, vote for any of them in 2008. But, if Al Gore came out in December of this year and threw his support behind one of them and then announced that he would be working in that administration.... Damn! That would be a pretty good plan B. Al doesn’t have to do the trivial ‘cheerleading’ aspect of running for President, yet we get the benefit of his gifts in helping this nation from the most powerful office in the world. That’s an arrangement that I could live with. That would tip the scales for me.
So, if Al continues to say he doesn't want to run and it starts to really look that way, then I say we let Al and all the candidates know that we still want Al Gore in the White House in 2009.
Of course, now that I’ve posted this, Al will announce tomorrow!
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