August 07, 2003
The Gore Speech
It does amaze me how, approaching an event they have deemed newsworthy, reporters and pundits can predict, pontificate, and perfect a story that simply isn’t there.
The story with Al Gore’s speech today was he would run for President, that he would run as alternative to Howard Dean, that he would run as an alternative to the Democratic Leadership Council.
Nothing could have been further from the truth. The stories were, in the parlance of our time, pure Yellowcake.
First, until the speech was made, no one bothered to mention who it was made to. Every reporter knew this, but none told us. Telling us would have told us quite a bit.
It was made to Moveon.Org. Founded to defend Clinton against impeachment, Moveon has since become the institutional form for what Dean calls "the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party." Dean won their primary, and nearly their endorsement, some months ago.
Second, read the speech. Here's a summary. "George W. Bush is a congenital liar. His party has become as ideologically rigid as the Communists. Big money interests have bought themselves exemptions and favors. No one is looking at this. Democracy is being systematically subverted. The world is going to hell in a handbasket and if the American people don't wake up soon they're going to look like 1930s Germans one of these days."
Please, don't take my word for the paragraph above. Like I said, read the speech.
Now here's the best part. Gore is absolutely, totally, 100% right. This is an Alice in Wonderland Administration. George W. Bush is the Mad Hatter, the Red Queen, and the Cheshire Cat.
Want to know what I think? We need to get out of this story or we're going to be stuck here until we die. And that death will be nasty, it will be brutish, it will be final. And it will be the death of democracy, the death of freedom. America is slowly being transformed into everything our forefathers fought against.
But I'm not a great writer. Paddy Chayefsky, now there was a great writer. I think he summarized me better than I could, using as his instrument the mythical newsman Harold Beale, in the movie "Network." Mr. Beale:
"I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window, open it, and stick your head out, and yell, "I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!" I want you to get up right now. Get up. Go to your windows, open your windows, and stick your head out, and yell, "I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore!" Things have got to change my friends. You've got to get mad. You've got to say, "I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore!" Then we'll figure out what to do about the depression and the inflation and the oil crisis. But first get up out of your chairs, open your window, stick your head out and yell, "I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore!"
But, as I said with Gore, read the whole speech.
It would have been nice if he endorsed Dean or Kerry right then and there. It would push the other one out of the race.
I still love good old Al Gore but the Democrats will have a better chance than some one with no close ties to Clinton so the whole blow job in the white house thing can’t be “Drudged Up” again.
I think that Al Gore should run for the Senate again. Or head up the EPA or FCC in the Dean or Kerry Administration.
Posted by: Jake of 8bitjoystick.com at August 7, 2003 05:45 PMI’m glad someone else realized the Alice in Wonderland connection, however I would disagree that Bush is also Mad Hatter and Cheshire cat as well. I think those roles are reserved for Ashcroft and Bin Laden respectively.
Posted by: Stephen VanDyke at August 7, 2003 05:45 PMI’ve always admired Gore’s rhetoric and writing, and this speech is one of his finest and best reasoned. Too bad he didn’t have more time to deliver these kinds of speeches on the 2000 campaign. Actually, although Gore delivers specific criticisms, the speech is not particularly partisan.
Posted by: Robert Nagle at August 7, 2003 05:47 PMI’m rather taken aback. That’s an awfully good speech, covering a lot of ground quickly. I wouldn’t think any politican would have the guts to say it - but then, Gore is unlikely to run, so something like this can only be positive for him - and particularly for his name recognition.
(Of course, the cynical part of me wonders who actually wrote the speech, but never mind.)
Posted by: Thomas Scott at August 7, 2003 05:49 PMGore was trained in journalism. Many of his ex-staffers are working for Kerry. If he does endorse Kerry, it proves he is, at heart, politically inept.
Dean is going to be the nominee. The number of his supporters, 265k active and growing every day, is not going to go down. The number of people attending Meetups, 79k and growing, is not going to go down. He will make some mistakes, but no “major gaffe.” There is nothing in his closet, no bimbos, nothing in his past to disqualify him.
The latest meme to go around is that Dean raised taxes in Vermont. In fact, he signed a property tax equalization program, modeled on one proposed in Texas by Gov. George W. Bush. Recently, Republicans reversed it — can’t have rich neighborhoods helping poor kids learn, can we?
Posted by: Dana Blankenhorn at August 7, 2003 06:02 PMWell I think that the big things that people are going to attack Dean on is they are going to call him a “Tax and Spend Liberal” and his health care plan is “Pandering to Class Warfare” and “Soft on Security” Because thought that the Iraq was based on lies. Dean also potentially faked a bad back to get a medical deferment to get out of the draft in Nam. That is not going to help against Kerry but Bush being AWOL from the Texas Air National guard looks worse than Dean’s bad back.
I still think that he is going to get the ticket and that he is going to win.
Posted by: Jake of 8bitjoystick.com at August 7, 2003 06:14 PM“Dean also potentially faked a bad back to get a medical deferment to get out of the draft in Nam.”
Faked a bad back? Dean has a fused vertabra. Had he enlisted he would have been turned down. Why do you think he looks so stiff and sits so straight — or haven’t you noticed?
The rest is name-calling, the same-old same-old. And you can’t win forever with the same-old same-old.
Whoever the Democrats nominate, the election will hinge on how we feel about Bush in November 2004. If the election were held today he would win. But it’s not being held today.
Posted by: Dana Blankenhorn at August 7, 2003 07:31 PMWhy is Gore stealing headlines if he’s not going to run? What’s the point in overshadowing the real candidates? He’s filling a serious void here. The Democrats have been unable to find someone who can take the reins. If they’re not too far to one side (Dean) or the other (Lieberman), they’ve got virtually no name recognition. Gore didn’t say anything new here, so breaking new ground certainly wasn’t his purpose. Why take the spotlight off the real candidates?
Posted by: CJ at August 8, 2003 04:03 AMI agree that the speech is a breath of fresh air, and it bodes ill for Lieberman if his former running mate is positioning himself closer to Dean.
But I fail to see, as the initial poster alleges, that the media misinterpreted the story as “Gore is running for president”, of that they failed to mention Moveon.org. I read about five different articles about the event, including the AP article which is pretty much what 90% of people are reading, and all of them explicitly mention Moveon and they all explicitly point out that Gore denied he’s running for office.
Maybe I’ve got a skewed perspective insofar as I hardly ever watch TV.
Posted by: chris fahey at August 8, 2003 10:50 AMGore is putting this out because the Bush administration needs to be hit from a number of positions, someone besides lefty bloggers or democratic candidates for president. With Gore not in the race, he can make more pointed criticisms and offer the perspective of someone who’s been in the executive office.
It really is a well written speech.
“Potentially faked a bad back” is about as negative a spin as one could put on the situation and is practically libel, unless there is some evidence to back up that claim.
Posted by: citizen Able at August 8, 2003 11:06 AMHey that is just what i read it could be wrong. What I heard is that there are pictures of him skiing after he got the medical deferment. But I have not seen them and they might not exist. Dean is an pretty scandle free politician it is not like he is an AWOL coke head who had gotten several DUI and faked foreign intel reports.
Posted by: Jake of 8bitjoystick.com at August 8, 2003 12:57 PMQuote:
“If they’re not too far to one side (Dean) …”
Which side is that? The budget-balancing side? The pro-gun side? The pro-Israel side? The Wall Street side? The only-approved-three-out-of-five-wars side? (And that’s counting Viet Nam, which almost no one in his generation approved of.)
Or the anti-Bush side?
Whichever it is, Dean is not a lefty, even by Democratic Party standards.
Quote:
“What I heard is that there are pictures of him skiing after he got the medical deferment.”
So he did. So what? He didn’t fake the unfused vertebra. He didn’t pull strings to get a deferment out of a condition that wouldn’t normally be grounds for one. The story has no legs. It will be mentioned, but it will mostly highlight the fact that they don’t have anything better to attack him with.
Posted by: Dan Wylie-Sears at August 8, 2003 03:16 PMok I am sorry I brought up the Vietnam thing I just wanted to make sure he was not going to get torpedoed when the race gets nasty
Posted by: Jake of 8bitjoystick.com at August 8, 2003 05:07 PMNothing wrong with that. I checked it out on opposition sites for the same reason.
Posted by: Dan Wylie-Sears at August 8, 2003 05:10 PMI’m not upset at all that Gore spoke, nor should you be.
The current candidates could not get that kind of press coverage, because they are candidates and expected to criticize.
Gore is the last Presidential candidate of the party, he got the most votes in the election (one of only 4 to lose that way — the others were Andrew Jackson, Samuel Tilden and Grover Cleveland), so he has assumed gravitas.
And given that he made the same criticisms Dean made long ago, it helps.
Democrats have two choices among their Presidential candidates. (Kucinich remains but he’s not going anywhere.) You can have Dean or you can have Dean Lite.
Posted by: Dana Blankenhorn at August 8, 2003 06:27 PMQuote:
“Democrats have two choices among their Presidential candidates. … You can have Dean or you can have Dean Lite.”
Unfortunately, the most plausible flavors of Dean Lite miss the point of full-strength bona-fide Dean: he’s a blatant centrist, ready to claim for the Democrats the mantle of “Party of Fiscal Responsibility”, and take our economy back from the voodoo-economics fanatics who currently run the show. The other Democrats were all debating what version of the unaffordable tax-cuts-in-the-face-of-deficits to go with. They can all readily be tarred as Supply-Side Lite.
Posted by: Dan Wylie-Sears at August 8, 2003 07:59 PMthere’s several movements sprouting about to Draft All Gore for the Dem candidacy and they’re incredibly organized…..
Draft Gore: http://www.draftgore.com/
Newspaper Article: “Draft Gore’ efforts step up across New Hampshire”
PORTSMOUTH - The field of potential Democratic nominees could increase by one shortly.
http://www.seacoastonline.com/news/0808200…/news/43747.htm
The Draft Gore 2004 Committee officially launched its activities in New Hampshire Thursday, by mailing letters to 147 town party chairmen across the state and announcing a write-in campaign for the former vice president.”
the following url’s are as well Draft Gore sites…..
AL Gore 04: http://www.algore04.com/news/
Elect Al Gore 04: http://www.electgore04.com/
Al Gore Support Center: http://www.algoresupportcenter.com/
Gore 2004: http://www.gore2004us.com/
and then there’s the petition……
Al Gore 2004 petition: http://www.petitiononline.com/Gore04/petition.html
as well continued speculation on whether he’ll run….
“Despite his blanket denials, Al Gore may yet challenge George Bush. The former concluded his speech by encapsulating the Clinton-Gore administration’s successes — exactly, come to think of it, what so many urged him to do back in 2000. Once again, you don’t need to be a history junkie to read between those lines.”
from; 8-11-03: News at Home
Column: Why We Should Pay Attention to Al Gore
By P.M. Carpenter http://hnn.us/articles/1627.html
What part of “Al Gore has repeatedly said that he will not run in 2004” don’t you understand.
Dean or Kerry. Pick one because this is it.
Posted by: Jake of 8bitjoystick.com at August 12, 2003 07:39 PM“not run”
Draft movements have never been about a candidate declaring that he/she won’t run…that’s why it’s called a draft….
Should you know of anyone interested in the following, please feel free to forward the info.
—Gore 2004 Meetup: http://gore2004.meetup.com/
-WHAT Meetup with other local Gore supporters to talk about his prospects for the 2004 presidential race.
-WHO Gore Supporters Worldwide.
-WHEN 1st Monday of every month.
(for more info see below)
—DRAFT GORE: http://www.draftgore.com/
—Al Gore Support Center: http://www.algoresupportcenter.com/
-MAINE VOICES: RAYMOND J. BLAIR
It’s time: Democrats, turn to Gore
http://www.pressherald.com/viewpoin…draftgore.shtml
-‘Draft Gore’ efforts step up across state
PORTSMOUTH - The field of potential Democratic
nominees could increase by one shortly.
http://www.seacoastonline.com/news/…/news/43747.htm
***NOTE ON MEET UP:
The ABC plan:
If you’re not a member in the Gore Meetup, please sign up: http://gore2004.meetup.com and follow the simple instructions. If you want details before signing or if you want to volunteer, please read on.
The Draft Gore movement has now begun a Gore Meetup membership drive. What is Meetup.com? A place on the Internet where people get to meet other people who share their interest. But signing up is not a commitment. By signing up you are under no obligation whatsoever. Once you sign up you will automatically be contacted each month by email about the monthly meeting.
If you don’t want to attend, simply ignore the email message.
Who should sign up for the Gore Meetup?
1) any current Gore booster;
2) anybody who would support Gore if he entered the race (especially people who are supporting other candidates right now);
3) anybody willing to support him if he gets the nomination;
4) anybody who wants to disempower the DNC, DLC and the money boys;
5) anybody who wants a pure populist candidate;
6) anybody who is an ABBA voter (Anybody But Bush Again!); or
7) any reason not listed.
**Please note that you do not have to be an American to sign up. Europeans and everyone else are encouraged to sign up. You must be 14 years old and you must have a valid email address.
“OK, how do I sign up?”
WE REPEAT: If you’re not a member in the Gore Meetup, please sign up:
http://gore2004.meetup.com and follow the simple instructions. If you have any technical problems, feel free to contact me at steverobinson@sunflower.com.
If you have now signed up and that is all you want to do, thank you! However,if you want to know why we back Al Gore, or want to understand the power of joining, or, if you want to volunteer, please read on at the following url; http://earth.he.net/cgi-bin/suid/~a…;num=1062233048
Posted by: alison at August 30, 2003 11:42 AM
