Rooting for Al Gore is a sentimental self-indulgence

[T_i_B]

Article in the UK Guardian, which is a bit on the pro-Hilary/Hilary is inevitable side. I'll let you lot make of this what you will.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,2190369,00.html

First things first. Gore deserves the prize. It is a tremendous personal vindication. Ever since he read Rachel Carson as a young man, the environmental cause has shaped Gore's life. For this, like Carson, he has been regularly smeared as a dangerous subversive. George Bush Sr, running for re-election in 1992, mocked Gore as a wacky "ozone man". Rush Limbaugh continues to tell his millions of listeners that climate change is a hoax and that Gore is its snake-oil salesman. Yet even the current Bush has had to admit now that human beings are causing global warming - the very principle that the Nobel committee cited yesterday. In spite of everything they throw at him, Gore is relentlessly winning the argument.

Inevitably there was a flurry of speculation yesterday that the award would propel Gore into the contest. A week ago supporters at draftgore.com took out a full-page advertisement in the New York Times in an effort to summon him into the fray. Being a canny operator, of course, Gore has an interest in not closing the door entirely on this possibility. It helps keep his cause prominent, and it inflates the significance of the endorsement that he has said he will offer to one of the candidates.

But that is not the same thing as seriously weighing a run for the White House, a subject he studiously avoided in his comments in California last night. That would only happen if the Democratic party was in crisis and was calling out to Gore to save it. That is the exact opposite of the case. The Democrats are on a roll. Money is pouring in for the campaign. They expect big wins in the House and Senate next November. They are confident they will capture the White House too. And there is no sign that they are dissatisfied with the choice of candidates already on offer.

On the contrary. It is too late for Gore. With the first primaries now only weeks away, it increasingly looks as if the Democrats are coalescing around a candidate they like, whose campaign is going well, and whose name is Hillary Rodham Clinton. It is true that if Gore endorsed Barack Obama or John Edwards, as in the 2004 race he endorsed Howard Dean, he could still boost one of Clinton's opponents. But it is also true that waves of pro-Gore speculation like yesterday's serve to diminish Obama and Edwards - by implying they are not good enough - and thus to strengthen Clinton. Gore isn't a fool. He may yet endorse Clinton.

[Stuckinthebush]

1. Sadly, I do believe it is now too late for Al

I do wish he would say either that he definitely will not run for the 2008 nomination, or that he endorses one of the candidates.

I would like to believe that Al would like to run because the platform of the President of the United States is the best to enact serious, immediate changes in our country and around the world. I think that Al is unnerved by Clinton's machine (as he should be). She's a tough candidate and has a well oiled machine that has been running for a few years now. Al would have to start from scratch and it would be an uphill battle in a short period of time.

[IndyOp]

2. Rooting for Al Gore -- I do it because I believe, strongly, that with him in the

oval office -- what we want and need will not be ignored. The man listens. He has immense respect for the people and for democracy. He is the smartest guy in any room.

The appearance that Democrats are coalescing around a candidate they like - Clinton - is a result of ignoring the huge proportion who are undecided because they don't see any acceptable candidate in the race. They may lean toward Obama or Edward's policies but believe that Clinton can "hit the ground running" -- a load of crap.

I am angry about AGAIN being force fed THE candidate by moneyed interests that use the U.S. corporate media to manufacture consent and it just makes me angrier to see this crap being swallowed whole and regurgitated by the British corporate media.

I keep working to keep the perspective I will need in case of the worst case scenario -- if Hillary Clinton or a Republican wind up in the White House because our democracy is bankrupt -- we, the people, have to demand the change we need to see.

I want someone in the White House who will make a real break with the past few nightmarish decades -- if the Dems don't put someone up for office who will make that break then the Republicans could win. Hillary Clinton is not a break with the past and the Republicans will win -- by controlling the media, the political debate, the voter rolls, and the voting machines, and the courts -- by any means necessary.

If Hillary or a Republican wind up int he White House we still have to fight on.

What breathtaking stupidity. What cowardice. We, adults in the U.S., will suffer the fate we deserve if Hillary or a Republican win - what makes me ANGRY is that innocent people in this nation and many other people and animals and ecosystems around the world will also suffer.