Gore accepts his Nobel prize, casually reignites campaign interest

December 10, 2007

Al Gore was in Oslo, Norway, this morning to pick up his Nobel Peace Prize. If you have a minute, his acceptance speech is well worth reading.

For example, I didn’t realize it, but this week is the seventh anniversary of Gore’s concessions speech after the 2000 race.

Seven years ago tomorrow, I read my own political obituary in a judgment that seemed to me harsh and mistaken – if not premature. But that unwelcome verdict also brought a precious if painful gift: an opportunity to search for fresh new ways to serve my purpose.

Unexpectedly, that quest has brought me here. Even though I fear my words cannot match this moment, I pray what I am feeling in my heart will be communicated clearly enough that those who hear me will say, “We must act.”

The distinguished scientists with whom it is the greatest honor of my life to share this award have laid before us a choice between two different futures – a choice that to my ears echoes the words of an ancient prophet: “Life or death, blessings or curses. Therefore, choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live.”

We, the human species, are confronting a planetary emergency – a threat to the survival of our civilization that is gathering ominous and destructive potential even as we gather here. But there is hopeful news as well: we have the ability to solve this crisis and avoid the worst – though not all – of its consequences, if we act boldly, decisively and quickly.

However, despite a growing number of honorable exceptions, too many of the world’s leaders are still best described in the words Winston Churchill applied to those who ignored Adolf Hitler’s threat: “They go on in strange paradox, decided only to be undecided, resolved to be irresolute, adamant for drift, solid for fluidity, all powerful to be impotent.”

He didn’t mention any names, but we could probably could come up with a few suspects.

What’s likely to get nearly as much attention as today’s award, though, was Gore commenting briefly after the ceremony on future political plans.

CNN, predictably, is playing up this story quite a bit.

Former Vice President Al Gore denied again that there were any campaign plans in his immediate future, but told CNN Monday that he hadn’t “ruled out getting back into the political process at some point” — and that if he did return to political life, it would be to take another shot at the White House.

The Nobel Peace Prize laureate, speaking from the Oslo site of Monday’s awards ceremony, told CNN’s Jonathan Mann that he didn’t expect to ever get back in the political process, but that “if I did get back, it would be as a candidate for president.”

He did not endorse any of the current Democratic candidates for president, and did not respond directly to a question about his view of New York Sen. Hillary Clinton’s environmental policy proposals.

He added that “the political system as it now operates makes it very difficult” for any of the current crop of candidates to make climate change issues a top priority.

Gore’s political future has been the object of intense speculation since he received an Academy Award earlier this year for his documentary, “An Inconvenient Truth.” Another White House bid would be the third for the former vice president, who also ran in 1988 and 2000.

Actually, it’s been the “object of intense speculation” because news outlets like CNN find it more interesting to talk about Gore’s non-existent campaign than his efforts to combat global warming.

Regardless, kudos to the former Vice President for a well-deserved honor.

Previous coverage of Gore and the Nobel Peace Prize here, here, and here.

I don’t know if Al will read it…but I sent this in reply to his letter:

Dear Al,

To implement these changes it will take more than the
“will” of the people: it requires the “will” of the
governments. They are no longer synonymous.

Our own government is now ruled by corporate interests
thanks to the deregulation that their sincecured
corporate cronies have instituted. Most of all thanks
to deregulated corporate media monoliths that now
force feed us propaganda, fear and doubt and limit the
information given to us. Without an informed
citizenry we have no chance to save our earth. Will is
only as good as the information it is based upon.

America needs a president who recognizes the
underlieing problem of runaway corporate greed that is
destroying our earth and our democracy. America needs
you…now.

Please run for president.

LL, A grandma in CA

  • A while back, I heard or read somewhere that if Al Gore starts losing weight, he’s going to run for president.

    Well, Al is starting to look pretty svelte these days, at least by comparison. And considering how hard it is to take the pounds off for most of us, he must have a reason for putting in that much effort.

    What a delicious speculation……

  • …”the political system as it now operates makes it very difficult” for any of the current crop of candidates to make climate change issues a top priority…

    Yeah, I can see that. Having stooges like Pelosi and Reid backing you up would make you want to go postal. And today’s media is nothing if not abjectly worthless. Nothing would make me happier than to see the headline “Al Gore: I am running for president”, but Pelosi and Reid and all the other Dem enablers would be so hard to work with, I can understand if Gore thinks working the outside of the system is the way to go.

  • I love his use of the Churchill quote. I bet smoke is shooting from the Prezidont’s ears. “Hey, Churchillquotes ’bout Hitler iz mine dagnabbit! Heh.”

    I’m sure your analysis of CNN playing up his comments about running is accurate CB, but I’d like to think it’s making the ReThugs chew their nails.

  • It may well be—once the entire tale plays itself out, allowing us all to see the complete picture—that the likes of CNN and their ilk have much more to fear from Gore’s “inconvenient truth” than they have from Gore’s making a third run at the Oval Office. If Gore is in the WH, he can be corralled by the Congress and its lobbyist entourage. They can control what he says, where he says it, and how he says it—all through the fine art of cherry-picking. They can turn “yes” into “no” in the twinkling of an eye—but when “all the world’s a stage”, the domestic MSM becomes “merely players.”*

    *with honored reference to William “Willy the Shake” Shakespeare for the quote….

  • You know, Al Gore raining on his own parade today is probably the best reason why he should not run for president. Here he is getting one of the most prestigious prizes for significant and critical work on an issue that needs all the attention it can get, and what does he do? Drops the little bomb in his interview that he might one day run for president.

    Stop the presses! What Nobel Peace Prize? Huh? Why are we in Oslo, for crying out loud?

    Don’t get me wrong, please. I would love for Al Gore to have been our president since January, 2001 (do you think Lieberman would be the Lieberman he is today? That I would have a problem with), because I wonder how much of what has happened in the world and in this country would never have happened. We’ve been trying for years to get over the theft of the will of the people, and with a crop of Democratic contenders this year who are miles above anything the Republicans can offer, we have mostly felt like the long national nightmare was almost over. None of the choices is perfect, but come on, folks – neither is Al Gore.

    With less than a month until the Iowa caucuses, and with a slew of primaries to follow in short order, it’s my feeling that the window has closed. It closed not only on the logistical and structural aspects, it closed on Gore being able to give the American people the opportunity to reassess him as a potential president, by going through the debate process, so that Americans can know whether Al Gore is a candidate whose persona has been romanticized over the last 8 years, or if he is the Al Gore we actually remember. I know as sure as I’m sitting here that the first moment he uttered the phrase “lock box” it would be downhill.

    For all the bitching and moaning about the election being stolen, the truth is that had Al Gore been able to win more states, Florida would not have been an issue. As in a football game, you don’t lose a game in the last seconds, you lose it in how you played in the entire 60 minutes – and that is also true of Al Gore.

    At this late date – and it is late, even if the election isn’t for another 11 months – Al should have soaked up the experience of winning the Peace Prize, and not teased the American people with something we all know is not going to happen.

  • despite a growing number of honorable exceptions, too many of the world’s leaders are still best described in the words Winston Churchill applied to those who ignored Adolf Hitler’s threat: “They go on in strange paradox, decided only to be undecided, resolved to be irresolute, adamant for drift, solid for fluidity, all powerful to be impotent.”

    Undecided? Like when people who could easily win elections won’t tell anyone if they’re running?

    I wonder what the hell he’s thinking. He would absolutely tower over Hillary and Barak. He would crush the Republicans and usher in a generation of progressives into political activism. He could use his presidency to remake the world, and have a legacy far greater than anyone in recent memory. But there he is, making speeches from the sidelines. I just don’t understand what it is that keeps him there, maybe the “Dems suck” issue does it, maybe something else. I wish I knew.

  • I don’t know. But, I have a feeling that Al Gore has been able to accomplish a great deal on his own over the last seven years because he hasn’t been president. And it hasn’t hurt that the person who is president is a complete idiot.

    As for 2008, I think he sees the upcoming election as an opportunity for the electorate to break a barrier or two, like a woman president or African-American president. And I don’t think he wants to get in the way of that. Whether or not that’s the right thing to do is beyond me. I wish with everything I have that he’d run. I see him as the only hope we have at bridging the divide and leading with reason and truth and wisdom instead of greed and fear and apocalyptic fantasy.

  • I’m going to be guilty here of what I generally detest and do a solely horse-race post , adding only that Anne’s comment @7 is an excellent summary of what’s going on here in terms of substance.

    I still see a Gore ’08 scenario: Clinton loses, but none of Obama, Edwards or anyone else wins.

    It’s unlikely but possible. InevitaBillary is starting to look pretty vulnerable, and I think if either Edwards or Obama were to withdraw today, the other probably would be the solid favorite tomorrow. Even as things are, though, it wouldn’t be a total shock to see three winners in the first four primaries, and if Clinton only wins Nevada–where I think she has the best shot to hang on–and Obama doesn’t win convincingly anywhere, the Feb. 5 super-primary probably won’t be decisive. Clinton in that scenario would win most of the big states, but with pluralities, not majorities or even, likely, near-majorities.

    She might get close to numerically clinching the nomination, but I don’t see a second wind getting her across the finish line: the way the campaign is likely to unfold will reinforce, not undermine, all those negative perceptions of the Clintons. But her supporters could dig in too, and the thing could drag into spring/summer.

    At that point, desperate not only for victory but for anyone who can get us past a miserable fight, Gore could start to look very good. And the drama of him getting it at the convention would be THE story of the decade.

  • Okay, Anne and dijafi, let’s get technical here. I think Anne is right – damn it – about Gore not getting into the race, but, IF the primary winners are scattered, with not one having the delegates to clinch the nomination on the first ballot, are the delegates OBLIGATED by either law or party procedure, to vote for their candidates on second, third, fourth, etc ballots?

    And, on the Republican side, if none of this team of losers can clinch the nomination before their convention, can delegates vote for other candidates?

    I’m asking this because the last few days CB has published some speculations about “None of the Above” and other convention dramas. Having no nominees garner enough primary delegates and some “miracle worker”, ie. Newt or Jeb for the Republicans and Gore for the Democrats, snatch the nomination at the convention.

    Also, Gore IS looking thinner. Maybe I’ll put my Gore/Obama 2008 sticker back on my bumper…

  • Al Gore is the smartest and most noble public servant I have witnessed in my 51 years. If he doesn’t want to run, I understand. If he does want to run, I’m quitting the day job.

  • Anne@7

    The more he runs for president, the less he speaks out for the stuff that makes us think he might be worthy.

    Stop drafting him, people. He’s busy with more important things.
    Someone feed him a friggin’ pizza and a box o’ Krispy Kremes, stat!

  • I listened to most of Al’s speech from the beginning and I was really pleased to hear him speak of ’00 as a difficult experience but one which got him on an alternate path that had lead to great accomplishments in very unexpected ways. Everything he was saying, the world desperately needs to hear and he sounded every bit like the guy to deliver the message. I didn’t catch any of the later stuff that raised the specter of the return of Al ’00.

    If he was going to do this thing he should have been in the fray. If he has knock out punches he should have been in there swinging. This is one of the most critical election periods in American history and the players have been in the maze, making moves, making missteps, throwing punches, taking hits. But they’re toughing it out and showing us what they’re made of.

    The top three are close not because folks have to hold their nose and pick one, they’re close because they each have a pull that’s making it hard to decide. That’s great. And they’re getting up every morning and hauling themselves out and saying, “I want this thing G.D. it”. And I want one of them to get it.

    Al’s cool. He’s in the zone with a world class issue. He took his shot and it missed in ’00 but he’s come back in a way that he should be incredibly proud of. The top tier Dems have earned their opportunity to grab the ring. And Al still strikes me as a rather laid back guy. We aren’t living in a laid back world.

    And if had picked someone better than butthead Joe Liebermann as a running mate he probably would have been president all this time.

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