Al Gore was the most recent in a long list of political celebrities to make a visit to Georgia and chime in on the upcoming runoff election. For someone who claims to have fallen out of love with politics, there are few within the party who have done more campaigning, fundraising, and promoting for Democratic candidates in recent memory. Ironically, perhaps the election Gore has been most vested in this cycle, outside of the presidential race of course, is also in overtime in Minnesota. Today, however, was all about Saxby Chambliss and the need to replace him with Jim Martin.
First and foremost, there's a simple yet effective thing you can do to help out the good guy in this race: click this link to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution story and tell your friends to do the same in order to drive it up to the top of the "Most Popular" list and get as much attention as possible. Remember, in such a low-turnout race, as this is expected to be, visibility - especially positive visibility like this - is crucial.
Gore knows just as well as everyone here the nastiness Chambliss slung at war-hero Max Cleland six years ago, and as such, had this to say of Georgia's Senator:
"It’s time for him to go," Gore said of the GOP senator from Moultrie. "The Bush-Cheney-Chambliss philosophy has been tried and has not only found out to be wanting, it has been found out to be a catastrophe."
Revving up those in attendance, Gore echoed a common theme from Barack Obama's campaign:
"Yes we can! Yes we can!" the crowd shouted back as Gore intoned from the podium: "Change is coming! Change is coming to Georgia! Change is coming to America!"
He finished his ten minute speech with these poignant words:
"The eyes of the nation are on this race here in Georgia," Gore said.
The simple facts remain: Saxby Chambliss will not only vote against President Obama's legislative agenda, he will join Minority Leader McConnell in filibustering everything that moves in the chamber. That includes health care, stem cell research, bills to withdraw from Iraq, fair trade, climate change, taxes, workplace and labor bills, and on, and on, and on. Jim Martin will be a voice of reason and a strong progressive senator worthy of both Georgia and of praise from us. We don't want to look back upon losing a close filibuster by one vote and say "if only we had done more..." Click the link. Make some calls. Donate what you can. This is the homestretch until 2010 - leave it all on the road.