Gore Gains Power as Well as Prize

[DeepModem Mom]

NYT: Gore Gains Power as Well as Prize
By ELISABETH BUMILLER and JIM RUTENBERG
Published: October 13, 2007

WASHINGTON, Oct. 12 — Al Gore’s seven-year journey from loser to laureate began in bitterness, settled for a time into self-imposed exile and led him in the end to rediscover his voice on climate change. The question now is what he will do with the prestige and attention that comes to him with the Nobel Peace Prize. The answer appears to be that he will neither embrace nor reject another quest for the presidency, but harness the speculation about his intentions to become a more formidable force on environmental policy and a power within the Democratic party.

Mr. Gore’s close friends and advisers said Friday that he had no desire to be drawn into the race for the presidency but that he saw the clear advantage of leveraging the acclaim. The clearest expression of his true feelings, they said, was his brief statement of thanks for the prize in an appearance in Palo Alto, Calif., where he talked about planetary politics and uttered not a word about the kind unfolding in Iowa and New Hampshire....

Democrats also said Mr. Gore’s entry into the messy world of politics would undermine the stature that comes with the prize and his role as a wise man and conscience among many liberals....Michael Feldman, a Gore strategist who was meeting with him on Friday near San Francisco Bay, also said that Mr. Gore was not entering the 2008 race. “He’s focused on trying to solve the climate crisis,” Mr. Feldman said....

***

There is a sense of vindication among Mr. Gore’s close associates, who in interviews remembered the days when Mr. Gore’s devotion to the environment earned him the derisive nickname Ozone Man from George Bush during the 1992 campaign. His advisers also remembered the lonely days after the Supreme Court decided in favor of Mr. Bush’s son in 2000, and Mr. Gore, WHO WON THE POPULAR VOTE, was derided by many Democrats for running what they said was a lackluster race....

“Nobody wanted to pay attention to him anymore,” said Donna Brazile, who managed Mr. Gore’s campaign. “But they’ll pay attention to him now.”...

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/13/us/politics/13gore.html?hp=&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1192248133-oplAm6IsgpFz9WS0ZDoyuw

[travelingtypist]

1. It had to positively kill Bumiller

to not be able to bring up all of her vaunted invented the Internet,
discovered Love Canal, was the inspiration for Love Story nonsense.

This woman should be writing for FreakRepublic, not the NYT.

[Cronopio]

2. Correction to Bumiller.

Al Gore was *never* a loser, because he never accepted being defined by gossipmongers like you. To people who saw through the media bullshit to the real man, he has proven himself a person strong enough to define himself.

Bumiller should reflect on the negativity she's accomplished over the last seven years compared to the positivity Gore has accomplished. Then she would start to understand who the real loser is. Unfortunately, I'm sure she's too well paid to face that fact.

"The question now is what he will do with the prestige and attention that comes to him with the Nobel Peace Prize."

Media hacks like Bumiller won't understand that Gore doesn't have to stoop to making his life a tactic just to be understandable to the media. He doesn't have to run for president, he doesn't have to change direction, he enjoys the stature he has precisely because he doesn't kowtow to the decrepit state of the current political game that brings down everyone. It's sad to watch Bumiller reflexively struggle to bring Gore's image back down to the level of a petty political operative, but in her career she's probably not allowed to perceive people any differently.

Too bad for her.

[grasswire]

3. go to hell, Bumiller

She did as much as anyone to ruin Gore. Yeah, those Yalies stick together. Her husband is a classmate of George W. Bush.