It’s reasonable to assume Gore is not running

May 26, 2007

Guest Post by Morbo

I’m no fan of Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne, an alleged progressive who normally offers pretty weak tea, but I do think his column this week on Al Gore is on the money: Gore has no intention of running for president.

Dionne interviewed Gore and wrote:

It’s entertaining to talk to Gore these days because he’s so clearly enjoying himself. (That’s probably why he won’t run for president.) During a 40-minute telephone interview yesterday, he did not speak as if there were focus-grouped sentences dancing around in his head. Nor did he worry about saying things that some consultant would fret about for weeks afterward.

I’m inclined to agree. I also think Gore’s new book, “The Assault on Reason,” is his de facto announcement that he won’t run. I’ve read some excerpts online, probably the same ones some of you have seen. The piece in Time magazine is what convinced me that Gore is through with politics.

In this book, Gore does two things no politician in America is ever allowed to do: one, he extols reason as a superior way of gathering and processing information. Here in ‘Murica, many people are certain that faith and sometimes even just feelings are really the way to go.

The second thing Gore does is more serious. He has the temerity to point out that we watch way too much television.

He writes:

According to an authoritative global study, Americans now watch television an average of 4 hours and 35 minutes every day — 90 minutes more than the world average. When you assume eight hours of work a day, six to eight hours of sleep and a couple of hours to bathe, dress, eat and commute, that is almost three-quarters of all the discretionary time the average American has.

Criticizing our TV-watching habit makes Gore an elitist. I guess he’d rather we be reading some egghead book instead — perhaps some pretentious thing written by a Frenchman. You can hear the Republican attacks right now as they kowtow to the know-nothings. I doubt Gore wants to put up with that again.

Assuming Gore is out of the race, he’s now free to speak his mind and chide the country when he believes we need that. This will be an interesting role for Gore to play. His manner these days is more relaxed and nuanced. He seems to be enjoying himself.

Gore would have been a great president, but he was robbed of that opportunity. We can now see that the nation was robbed as well, as we have suffered much since January of 2001. Gore still has much to offer our country. I believe Gore’s new book is a type of announcement. It’s his retirement from politics. He will offer his skills to the country and indeed the world – just outside the sphere of elective politics.

Good analysis. I think you’re right, but I hope you’re wrong.

  • I think that Gore is running for President the same way that Newt Gingrich is running and, maybe, even the way Mike Bloomberg is running for President.

    Newt will probably end up running because people are not happy with any of the Republicans running. It may turn out that Newt will have a fairly easy time getting the nomination.

    Gore is probably not running because people are generally happy with the top 3 choices and, if all of them stumble, Richardson, Dodd or Biden would probably catch fire. If it turns out that all 7 major Democrats collapse then Gore would be able to pick up the pieces. It is unlikely that they will all stumble so it will probably mean that Gore doesn’t run.

    Bloomberg will run if, in mid-February, after the nominees have been decided, that Bloomberg thinks that he can squeeze in the middle.

    For example, if Edwards wins by running far left and Newt wins by being Newt, then Bloomberg probably will run because it will leave a huge opening in the center.

    Of course, I could be completely off base.

  • Gore would make a fine president–the kind that (no laughing) Bartlett played on the West Wing. You know, a smart man, a curious man, one who has the best interests (Iargely) of the country in mind in making decisions. But he was robbed–as were we–in 2000. I often wonder, as I’m sure do many others, what and where we would be as a nation today had he ‘won’ instead of our national embarassment.

    That being said, wouldn’t he make a fine VP? I know, I know. But he would.

  • Gore is smart enough to see that whoever takes office after Bush will have an enormous mess to clean up. And not just in foreign policy and domestic incompetency. Bush/Rove have polarized this country so thoroughly that anyone trying to reach compromise and save the planet from our pollutants will have a nearly impossible task. Trust of government is gone.

  • I watched Charlie Rose interview Al Gore late last night on television (PBS) as I clean up the kitchen. One of my reactions to the interview was: “Please Al, don’t run.” He was certainly in the “sell the new book” mode—NOT the political mode. Whether he has consciously made the choice, his time has passed (which is regrettable). For me, I’m moving on the Democrats that are running.

  • Haha, that’s a bit ironic–posting a video link to Al Gore talking about how we watch too much tv!

    Seriously though, Al Gore is an honorable man, in fact he’s probably too good for American politics, just like Jimmy Carter. It’s always interesting to see the contrast between what Republicans and Democrats do once they’re out of office.

    Roll call: Clinton, fighting AIDS in Africa and bringing attention to other inequalities in the developing world; Carter, Nobel peace prize, Habitat for Humanity, and countless humanitarian efforts; Gore, leading a heroic fight against global climate change. Reagan, went back to his ranch; Bush I, went skydiving; Cheney (prior to Bush II) enriched himself by steering crooked gov’t contracts to Haliburton.

    It just shows, which party talks about morality, and which party actually lives and breathes real compassion for other human beings.

  • David @9 – great “roll call” comment – please excuse me if I quote that to others liberally (ahem) but alas, without attribution…..

  • Sorry, Gore’s the only guy I’m certain about. If he throws his hat into the ring, I’m there with both feet.

    Failing that, I’m looking at Dodd or Richardson…

  • I do think there will be a “Buyer’s Remorse Primary”–especially if Hillary and any of McGiuliomney come out of Feb. 5 with the nominations locked up, but maybe in other scenarios too. When 60 percent of the public looks at the choices and expresses frustration, there will be a big opening. At least one candidate will step in to go after the middle, and I also think it’s possible you’ll see far-right and far-left spoilers as well.

    I’m a huge Bloomberg fan, and in all but one scenario–an almost unimaginable three-way race between her, Giuliani, and Bloomberg, in which NY’s electoral votes were in question and she had a chance to win the Electoral College but Bloomberg did not–I’d certainly support him over Hillary. But I’ve become a huge Gore supporter as well, and I’d love to see him as President. I just don’t see how he gets there, between being overweight (don’t laugh–the electorate is easily that shallow) and having said some of the things he’s said.

  • I think the compressed primary schedule is likely to produce a good old-fashioned brokered convention. Possibly that’s a scenario where Gore would be a compromise candidate that might garner a majority. Still way long shot.

  • David @ #9- I’m no Republican, nor am I a Republican sympathizer. But I think it should be noted that Bush Sr. has been working with Clinton on the Katrina Fund if nothing else. We should give the man credit for that at least. http://www.bushclintonkatrinafund.org/.

    • Comments are closed.