Posts with the tag 'Al Gore'
After Al Gore’s embarrassing endorsement of failed Democrat presidential candidate Howard Dean, this year, he took the safe route and endorsed Obama only after he clinched the nomination.
Al Gore announced his endorsement of Barack Obama Monday and promised to help the Democrat achieve what eluded him — the presidency.
“I present to you the next president of the United States junior senator from Illinois, Barack Obama!” Gore said in a brief introduction of Obama at a Detroit fundraiser. He planned a later appearance with Obama at a 20,000-person rally at the Joe Louis Arena.
[…]
“Over the past 18 months, Barack Obama has united a movement. He knows change does not come from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue or Capitol Hill. It begins when people stand up and take action,” Gore wrote. “With the help of millions of supporters like you, Barack Obama will bring the change we so desperately need in order to solve our country’s most pressing problems.”
Yeah, Barack united a big movement all the while dividing the Democratic Party. D’oh!
But really, Al Gore thinks global warming is a more serious threat than terrorism… If Barack wants that endorsement he can have it.
Tags: Al Gore, Barack Obama
June 17th, 2008
Lets see if the Goron has any guts at all:
Washington - Czech President Vaclav Klaus said Tuesday he is ready to debate Al Gore about global warming, as he presented the English version of his latest book that argues environmentalism poses a threat to basic human freedoms. “I many times tried to talk to have a public exchange of views with him, and he’s not too much willing to make such a conversation,” Klaus said. “So I’m ready to do it.”
Klaus was speaking a the National Press Building in Washington to present his new book, Blue Planet in Green Shackles - What Is Endangered: Climate or Freedom?, before meeting with Vice President Dick Cheney Wednesday.
“My answer is it is our freedom and, I might add, and our prosperity,” he said.
Gore a former US vice president who has become a leading international voice in the cause against global warming, was co-winner of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize. Gore’s effort was highlighted by his Oscar winning documentary film An Inconvienent Truth.
Klaus, an economist, said he opposed the “climate alarmism” perpetuated by environmentalism trying to impose their ideals, comparing it to the decades of communist rule he experienced growing up in Soviet-dominated Czechoslovakia.
“Like their (communist) predecessors, they will be certain that they have the right to sacrifice man and his freedom to make their idea reality,” he said.
“In the past, it was in the name of the Marxists or of the proletariat - this time, in the name of the planet,” he added.
Klaus said a free market should be used to address environmental concerns and said he oppposed as unrealistic regulations or greenhouse gas capping systems designed to reduce the impact of climate change.
“It could be even true that we are now at a stage where mere facts, reason and truths are powerless in the face of the global warming propaganda,” he said.
Klaus alleged that the global warming was being championed by scientists and other environmentalists whose careers and funding requires selling the public on global warming.
That pretty much says it all about the motivations behind global warming alarmism - just another attempt at making a utopia on earth, and the only thing we have to sacrifice is the Common Man…’cause the elites, once again, have need of his blood and treasure for one more attempt at getting it right.
I think, though, that Klaus is right about facts and reason having no place here - it is my view that we have utterly lost the global warming debate; not on facts and reason, but because of relentless, alarmist propaganda, all too often joined in by politicians on the make and grant-mongering institutions and individuals. But if Gore has the courage of his convictions - if he really thinks that the truths of global warming are so solid - then he’ll take Klaus up on his challenge…and if he doesn’t, then just what are we to make of such an act of cowardice?
Tags: Al Gore, Climate Change, global warming, liberal lies, Vaclav Klaus
May 28th, 2008
I wonder how many super delegates are starting to think along these lines?
Therefore, if the Democrats want to have their best chance to win an election in November that six months ago it looked like they couldn’t lose, they may have only one option at this point: they can turn to Al Gore.
In truth, Gore would be a stronger candidate in November than the two front-runners. He knows what it’s like to run in a tough presidential campaign, which, as we’re finding out with Obama, is a huge advantage. He is, after all, a Nobel Prize winner; he has the advantage of now running from outside Washington even though he’s as experienced as John McCain; and he might be able to pick off a Southern state or two. He’s already won once - with an asterisk. And he could put the electoral focus back on the economy and the Republican record of the past eight years - which it will rarely be as long as Clinton or Obama is the nominee.
Sure, Gore’s entry would obviously not be greeted with waves of enthusiasm by Obama supporters. Still, he is quite popular with one of the Illinois senator’s principal constituencies: the young.
If Obama is to be denied the Democratic nomination, it might be that the only way to secure their support for the Democratic nominee is to have it be someone other than Hillary - there is much bad blood between the Hillary and Obama camps, and the selection of either one of them will dispirit a large section of the Democratic electorate. Democrats, in short, need someone that all Democrats can agree on - and Al Gore might well be their man.
That Al Gore has plenty of his own flaws is not the point - he is neither Hillary nor Obama, has offended no one in the Democratic ranks in years, is felt by the Democratic electorate to have been cheated in 2000, is considered an intellectual titan due to his global warming documentary and Nobel Prize and, most importantly, electing Gore to replace Bush would mean a lot to a party determined to run against President Bush in 2008 (out here in Nevada we’ve already got ads running tying Republican congressmen to President Bush). And, in the end, Gore might be the most electable Democrat in 2008 - he’s almost certain to win nearly all the States he won in 2000, and would have an even money shot of poaching a State or two from the GOP ranks.
It’ll only happen if this goes to the floor of the convention - if neither Democrat in the race can be forced out before the conven tion, then it will come down a floor fight, and in can stride Al Gore to save the day, as it were. It may get very interesting in the 2008 race.
Tags: Al Gore, HillBama
April 24th, 2008
John Derbyshire, after surveying the rather pathetic Democratic candidates, talks up Gore:
It’s August in Denver. You have a convention hall full of party activists, nervous and weary from months of watching the party’s two candidates clawing and scratching at each other. Both those candidates are looking pretty tattered. Bill Clinton’s mistress has spilled the beans on O’Reilly, and Michelle Obama’s senior sociology thesis has come to light — the one where she let loose on the “ineradicable racism of white Americans” and called the U.S.A. “a nation founded in crime and hatred.” McCain is looking stronger than ever. The Turks are advancing on Kirkuk. Iran has lobbed a ballistic test missile far out over the Indian Ocean. The Chinese are mad as hell following the collapse of the summer Olympics the week before, as athletes refused to compete in gritty smog, and are making new threats against Taiwan. It’s a dangerous world out there, and community organizing and ed-biz wonkery are being marked down as presidential qualifications.
What to do? What to do? The party bosses are slumped in their seats, staring blankly into space, or doing job searches on their Blackberries. All is gloom and despondency.
Then … A fanfare of trumpets! A shaft of light! Into the hall rides a man on a white stallion! Stirred from their lethargy, the delegates begin rising from their seats. They start cheering and applauding. The rider reaches the podium, dismounts, and strides to the dais. The applause is deafening now. Cheers ring round the hall! Women are weeping; men are hugging each other.
Broad-shouldered and confident, his sternocleidomastoid muscle flexing and rippling, the Rescuer sweeps his powerful gaze around the hall. A hush falls. He begins to speak. As he speaks, the same though settles on every listener simultaneously: This is the one. He has always been the one. What fools we have been!
Don’t think it couldn’t happen. Don’t, in fact, think it isn’t going to happen.
Keep in mind - once the first ballot is cast at the Democratic convention, the delegates (pledged and super) are free to vote for whomever they wish. Naturally, Obama and Hillary delegates will tend to cling to their candidate, at least for a while, but if it goes more than two or three ballots with no winner, then the whole thing becomes wide open…and Gore could, indeed, be nominated from the floor and garner the nomination.
Personally, I’m not as sure as Derbyshire is about it - but given the manifest weaknesses of Obama and Hillary for the fall, Gore would be the logical choice as a far more experienced compromise candidate.
Tags: Al Gore, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton
February 21st, 2008
I’ve been talking ’bout this for a loooong time…now even lefty Clift is:
Al Gore on the second ballot: A scenario that a few weeks ago seemed preposterous is beginning to look plausible to some nervous Democrats looking for a way out of the deadlock between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. It goes like this: We love them both, but neither is a sure bet when it comes to electability. It’s not about gender and race, each has more mundane vulnerabilities. Hillary’s negatives will drive white men to John McCain; Obama’s inexperience will require a gut check on the part of voters. What if the super delegates decide not to decide, denying either candidate the requisite number of delegates to secure the party’s nomination. Democrats want to win. The new rallying cry: Gore on the second ballot.
Not at all impossible - especially if the Obama/Hillary contest degenerates into a political knife-fight. The Goron probably stayed out to begin with because he thought that Hillary would be unstoppable - he’s gotta be kicking himself for not realising that Hillary was tremendously vulnerable to a lefty political rock star (such as Gore long has been, and Obama swiftly became). Now Gore’s refusal to endorse either of them looms large, as does his failure to entirely take himself out of the running with a Shermanesque “if nominated, I won’t run; if elected, I won’t serve” denial of Presidential ambitions.
We shall have to see…
UPDATE: Thinking about it further, a Goronic campaign might be the only thing which could be acceptable to both the Obama and Hillary wings of the Democratic party…Hillary wins, Obama-ites hate her for taking it away; Obama wins, Hillary-ites sabotage Obama…give it to Gore, and things can be patched up between the sides.
Anyways, here is more Gore speculation.
Tags: Al Gore, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton
February 17th, 2008
I mean, seriously, who advocates (publicly) for the slowing down of the economy?
Former President Bill Clinton was in Denver, Colorado, stumping for his wife yesterday.
In a long, and interesting speech, he characterized what the U.S. and other industrialized nations need to do to combat global warming this way: “We just have to slow down our economy and cut back our greenhouse gas emissions ’cause we have to save the planet for our grandchildren.”
At a time that the nation is worried about a recession is that really the characterization his wife would want him making? “Slow down our economy”?
It’s pretty sad that a strong economy takes the backseat to fighting so-called global warming. Clinton’s explanation for his comments was pretty weak as well. I believe, however, that this attitude is not shared by a majority of our representatives in Congress. There’s a reason why the Senate overwhelmingly rejected the Kyoto Protocol — because it was obvious that the treaty would have devastated our economy. But, then again… that was before Bush was elected, before Al Gore made global warming the Democrats’ number one issue… Perhaps Democrats are much more likely to appease radical environmental special interests…
Tags: Al Gore, Bill Clinton, global warming
January 31st, 2008
I honestly didn’t see this coming.
Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee, endorsed Sen. Barack Obama for the White House Thursday in a timely slap at Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton as well as his own vice presidential running mate.
Quoting a black American hero in endorsing the man who hopes to be the first black president, Kerry declared, “Martin Luther King Jr. said the time is always right to do what is right. And I’m here in South Carolina because this is the right time to share with you, to make sure that we know that I have the confidence … and that Barack Obama can be, will be and should be the next president of the United States.”
Kerry delivered his endorsement in South Carolina at a time, two weeks before that state’s primary, when Clinton is riding a wave of enthusiasm following her victory over Obama in the New Hampshire primary.
The obvious question to ask is “Why?” Why would Kerry endorse Obama over Hillary Clinton, whose husband helped him significantly in 2004; and John Edwards, who was his running mate in 2004.
After Al Gore’s embarrassing pre-implosion endorsement of Howard Dean, it’s obvious that politicians now are going to look before they leap when it comes to making an endorsement. So, one has to ask why Kerry endorsed Obama now, instead of after Iowa. Endorsing Obama immediately following Iowa could have helped him secure victory in New Hampshire — a state Kerry won in 2004. But he didn’t.
Here’s how I see it. Barack Obama, despite the enthusiasm for his campaign, is unelectable in the general election. John Kerry, who didn’t seek the presidency this time despite wanting to, is sure to want one more go at it. Endorsing Barack Obama helps him on a couple fronts… First, he can conceivably give Obama enough of a boost in the primaries to help him win and secure the nomination, and second, he gets to align himself with Obama’s anti-Iraq war position, which he might see as vital for a potential run in 2012. Would Kerry have endorsed Obama if he won New Hampshire? Probably not, it wouldn’t have been necessary. Had Obama won New Hampshire, he’d most certainly have been a shoo-in for the nomination. But now, Kerry sees he needs to do what he can to ensure Obama gets the nomination … if deep in his heart, he really wants to run for president again in 2012.
Tags: Al Gore, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Iraq, John Edwards, John Kerry, New Hampshire, Primaries
January 10th, 2008
According to this Senate report, over 400 prominent scientists disputed man-made global warming claims this year.
From the introduction:
Over 400 prominent scientists from more than two dozen countries recently voiced significant objections to major aspects of the so-called “consensus” on man-made global warming. These scientists, many of whom are current and former participants in the UN IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), criticized the climate claims made by the UN IPCC and former Vice President Al Gore.
The new report issued by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee’s office of the GOP Ranking Member details the views of the scientists, the overwhelming majority of whom spoke out in 2007.
Meanwhile, Democrats have been using the politics of fear to increase regulations of all kinds in the name of the environment, like banning incandescent light bulbs.
Tags: Al Gore, Climate Change, global warming, IPCC
December 20th, 2007
While the Truth shall, indeed, set you free, our leftwing leaders have decided that a fat paycheck is worth a lot of lies and arrogance:
Al Gore has come under fire for making personal gain from his mission to save the planet – after charging £3,300 a minute to deliver a poorly received speech.
The former American Vice-President was also accused of being “precious” at the London event, demanding his own VIP room and ejecting journalists, despite hopes the star-studded gathering would generate publicity for the fight against global warming.
Many of the audience at last month’s Fortune Forum summit were restless as Mr Gore, who has won both a Nobel Peace Prize and an Oscar for his campaigning work this year, delivered the half-hour speech that netted him £100,000.
The glittering fundraiser was held in The Royal Courts of Justice and attracted world leaders, entrepreneurs and celebrity activists including Bob Geldof, Darryl Hannah and Jerry Hall, who was there as “a Special Ambassador of The Alliance for a New Humanity”. Guests had paid between £1,000 and £50,000 to attend.
But a source told The Mail on Sunday: “Many guests looked tired and began to talk among themselves during his speech. Heads began to twitch with tiredness.
“Al uses his position for great personal gain. He goes from event to event delivering a similar speech, earning a large fee, and a lot of the time he doesn’t actually inform the audience.
I wonder how long it will take before the rank and file lefties realise that each of their icons has been a con artist living a high life off of them? As I’ve noted before, if I were a man willing to be quite dishonest I could gain wealth and fame if I were to merely change my blogging name and, by using fictitious reports and studies, were to start writing anti-Bush/anti-American/anti-Christian polemics. It wouldn’t matter what I said provided I blamed Bush/America/Christianity - no lefty would actually examine anything I asserted as fact and when conservative bloggers and writers would start to demonstrate conclusively that I’m lying, the lefties who bought my initial BS would rise to my defense rather than admit they were fooled.
One of the greatest ironies of modern times is that our lefties stoutly assert that they are part of the “reality based community” - this a sly dig at both religious believers and the supposed lack of intellectual curiosity on the right in general. It is easy to make a list of BS the left believed - Mumia, Farenheit 911, Tawana Brawley, Joe Wilson, October Surprise, Florida 2000, torture at Gitmo…as each and every leftwing story is proven not just false, but laughably false, the left just ignores the facts - the reality - and MovesOn as if nothing had changed. A constant refrain of mine here on the blog is my asking of lefty critics to think about things. Just think - consider everything in context and ask the question: Is there anyone advocating this who is gaining personally from it?
As to why Gore got into environmentalism, I don’t know - and for all I know, he got into it with the purest of motives. Whatever the initial motivation - and whatever Gore tells himself when he looks at himself in the mirror these days - the plain fact of the matter is that he’s milking the issue of global warming for personal gain. And, beyond that, he’s either been convinced or convinced himself that he’s a superior being on the strength of his advocacy of the theory of catastrophic, anthropogenic global warming. While he still might have interesting things to say on the subject, anyone with any sense at all knows that anything he says must be taken with a grain of salt - his whole public persona and a very large amount of his yearly paycheck is dependent upon his being right about what he advocates. This means he’s unlikely to even listen to anyone who has a contrarian point of view - Gore, unless he’s a man of extraordinarily strong character, is unlikely to ever admit he’s wrong on global warming; he owns “doom and gloom” on it, and a reversal would be humiliating and only a man who has freed himself entirely from the sin of pride could bear to admit he’s wrong - and demanding a special VIP room is not the act of a humble man.
You know, I know - the guy down the street knows. Our lefty friends, however, don’t know - and they don’t want to know. Since Gore says what they want to hear about the isse of global warming and just so long as he keep singing out of the lefty hymnal on the subject, the leftwing rank and file will defend him against all comers. Not only conned, but quite happily conned; that is our modern left. Its easier than thinking, I guess.
Tags: Al Gore, Environmentalism, global warming, Lefting Ideology
December 10th, 2007
I’m still betting on a late arriving Gore campaign (keeping in mind that I always have said that he’d announce late - even as late as the first week of January, 2008) - but, be that as it may, Seth Swirsky lays out a rational case for a Gore campaign:
When you really think about the crop of Democratic candidates for president, it’s clear that their best hope to win in 2008, is not even on the playing field. That current, non-candidate is Al Gore. He’s the only one who can match the experience, accomplishments and gravitas of Rudy Giuliani and yet, the left ignores him.
Do Democrats think that nostalgia for the Clinton years will propel Hillary to the presidency? More likely, when voters remember the scandal-plagued, triangulating double-talk of both Clintons, they will be less likely to want to return to those years.
Barack Obama? In a world that has become more difficult to navigate, does the left think that a not-even-one term senator is the right person for the job? Against a person with Giuliani’s credentials, it wouldn’t even be close.
John Edwards? The one-term senator known more for the price of his haircuts, couldn’t even carry his home state of North Carolina as the Vice Presidential nominee in 2004. But, somehow, in ‘08, he’s going to beat Giuliani? I don’t think so.
And then, there’s Al Gore.
He served in the House of Representatives for eight years, followed by eight years as a U.S. senator, followed by eight years as Vice President of the United States. In 2000, as the Democratic nominee for president, he won the popular vote by a plurality. Oh yeah, in 2007, his movie won an Academy Award and he also won the Nobel Peace Prize.
Seems to me, his resume is more formidable than the top three current democratic candidates combined.
Swirsky is not just a little bit right, he’s dead on. Keeping in mind that I think Gore’s political positions contemptible and his lust for fame and public affirmation disturbing, the plain fact of the matter is that the top three Democratic contenders are complete political zeros when it compared to somone like Al Gore. They are even moreso when compared with the top five GOP contenders - heck, even Ron Paul is miles ahead of the three Democrat in terms of experience and intellectual weight. If by some chance any one of the three were to get elected, then the immediate task of the GOP would be to calculate how many House and Senate seats we’d win in 2010. It is really rather sad that the Democrats are reduced - thus far - to a man with less than three years in the Senate, a man who had six years in the Senate, and a woman who is just finishing up her 7th year in the Senate; and none of these Senators has to their credit even one minor bit of national legislation. At least when Bob Dole ran in 1996, there were some accomplishments in the legislative field for him to point to.
Now, will Gore do it? Depends on how much of a slave to his own ambition he is. He would, after all, get beaten if he ran for President and secured the Democratic nomination (its my view that getting a Democrat to 270 electoral votes is a nearly impossible task unless the GOP vote is split, and there’s no sign at this point such a thing will happen) - anyone with a bit of political knowledge knows this, and that means that Gore knows it, too…but as Lincoln observed, once the Presidential grub gets in a man, its hard to get out. I’m still betting he’ll get in - as a late-entrant, “come to save the day” candidate who will wow the kook left which is actually in control of the early part of the nominating process for the Democrats.
Tags: Al Gore, Barack Obama, Democratic Nomination, Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, Kook Left
December 2nd, 2007
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