Gore needs to follow up his speech

[geiger]

with appearances on tv, radio, whereever.

I can't believe that the national discussion which should have been going on today has already been diverted into chocolate and plantation nonsense that doesnt matter a hill of beans.

Why do we always let ourselves get beat? This only took the Republicans a day this time--to move meaningful dialogue off the page and divert energy into beating ourselves up again because people are finally speaking their mind. I dont even care if Nagin has "lost" it; he's earned it, frankly. Hillary Clinton is a strong person; she can say whatever she wants as far as I'm concerned, because she can handle it.

But can we, can we as a Party HANDLE IT?

I called Al Gore's office to offer praise and to encourage follow-up. I was told there would be "no follow up; the speech stands only."

That's bullshit. He needs to follow up and keep the conversation where it needs to be. Call; there is no public email.

The Office of the Honorable Al Gore
2100 West End Avenue
Nashville, TN 37203
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]

[BlueJac]

1. Neo-Cons own the media

Just look who CNN hired.

[demosincebirth]

2. He ought to give one of 'em every 4 month till election day.

[OzarkDem]

3. Good idea

I'll call too.

[Flabbergasted]

4. Faxing a letter today

[missouri dem 2]

5. Welcome to DU. Al Gore gave a great speech. We need to follow up.

Neither CBS or PPS covered the speech. Write them. Write letters to the editor. Write Congress and demand action. The ball is in our court. Democracy is not a spectator sport.

[leanin_green]

20. Exactly, WE need to follow-up. Can't say it any better than that.

Why should Al have to follow-up anything? He isn't running for anything. If what he said so poignantly doesn't get people busy then
what's the point of him setting himself up to be knocked down by BushCo? Hell, most Dems are distancing themselves from him. If that isn't proof enough about the truth of what he said, then we're all asleep and deserve to have our country taken from us. I say, "Throw all the bums out!"

[ladjf]

6. I believe that Mrs. Clinton's idea was to dilute the impact of

Gore's important speech. She needs to shut up and be a Senator.

Gore needs to continue with a sequence of enlightening speeches and papers.

The Dems need to disregard the distractions of Mr. and Mrs. Clinton, the Republican snipers and most of the members of the DLC and focus on what our best leaders are saying.

[geiger]

7. On the other hand...

...maybe on any other day the "left-wing" media wouldn't have seized on it as a convenient distraction.

I just want Gore to follow up, because his is the more important, the most important message to get out right now.

The way Republicans get people to believe lies is just to repeat them over and over again.

We need to get people to hear the TRUTH by repeating it over and over again.

[ladjf]

8. I agree with your good logic.

[radio4progressives]

9. Can you Guess who Dissed Gore on PBS tonight.?

(excerpt from transcript)


NSA surveillance

JIM LEHRER: The NSA surveillance story, do you agree with what Al Gore said yesterday, that the President of the United States violated the laws of the United States?

SEN. HARRY REID: I have the greatest respect for Al Gore, but I won't direct my remarks about Al Gore, but I will to Bob Graham. Bob Graham is an expert on --


read full transcript

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=post&forum=132&topic_id=2377274&mesg_id=2377274

[radio4progressives]

10. K&R & BK'd Thanks!

:kick: :applause: :toast:

[radio4progressives]

11. Gore just moved here to the Bay Area in San Francisco

so i figure he must have an office here too.. Would you happen to have that address and contact number?

[geiger]

12. What is he doing in SF?

You might want to go to the Al Gore 2008 website and ask for it there. I dont have it.

[radio4progressives]

15. He just moved to San Francisco a week or two ago....

Penthouse in one of the Hotels, I think the Ritz Carlton but I forget now. I just figured he'd have an office there too...

maybe it's a suite, but it would still have business number i think.

[AlGore-08.com]

17. Gore's business address is in Nashville

If you want to contact him, you need to contact his Nashville office:

http://www.algore.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=142&Itemid=156

[kentuck]

16. Good question... Why would he move to San Francisco ??

Does he plan on establishing residence? Then perhaps running for Governor next election?? Why would he take a gamble and run from a state like Tennessee with a possibility of losing? Why not move to a more "Democratic" state?? Just ruminating...

[AlGore-08.com]

19. His TV network has its headquarters in San Francisco

So when he's in SF working on the network, he lives in SF.

[geiger]

22. Interesting

I read about the "current" situation with his radio show. Missed that the station is hq'd in San Francisco. Why there instead of Tennessee.

[AlGore-08.com]

31. Probably because people with experience in TV will not live in Nashville

My day job is in the entertainment industry, I know this. People with enough experience to do the important creative work on the station would only live in LA, New York or San Francisco. Those are really the only three cities where you can network enough to be able to find the next job you need. Moving to Nashville (or Chicago or Dallas or Boston or any other major city you could name) would cut you off from day to day contact with others in the industry.

If you work in the theater, you have to live in New York. If you work in country music, you have to live in Nashville.

[kentuck]

13. I don't think so...

Familiarity breeds contempt. Al knows that he can be most effective by timely and planned statements at opportune times. I would love to see him out there every day, but unfortunately, the Repubs and the media would devour him - as they would anyone that was out there all the time. Al is a leader but we all have to fight this battle.

[radio4progressives]

14. that's a fair point kentuck .. NT

:hi:

[geiger]

23. Naah, they'll just continue to change the subject by bashing Hillary

She's a better and more convenient target.

[AlGore-08.com]

18. It's taken care of: MoveOn is following up on his speech

http://www.moveonpac.org/ruleoflaw/

[geiger]

21. Al Gore has more credibility himself than MoveOn.org

He shouldn't just walk away; he jump-started the discussion.
But thanks for the information.

[AlGore-08.com]

25. The flip side is that if Al Gore is the only one pushing this issue

It becomes all about Al Gore.

It becomes all about 2008.

The press will stop covering it as a call to investigate Bush's illegal wiretapping - - they'll get into a "Bush said/Gore said" storyline, focusing on personalities, ignoring the issue. They started doing that the minute Gore issued his reply to Gonzales' smears.

And certain Dems who might sign on to the idea of an independent investigation will at least hesitate, wondering if they want Gore to be the nominee, wonder what the odds are the Gore will win the nomination. A lot of them will decide they don't want to appear to be taking sides in the 2008 primary yet, so they'll avoid endorsing the idea of a special prosecutor. (IMNSHO this is already happening.) Others will decide that Al Gore is one of those scary grassroots populist type guys, and the last thing they want is somebody outside the machine actually winning the nomination, so they will work against it.

What really needs to happen is the grassroots needs to push this idea to the people who could - - and should do something about it: the Congresspeople and Senators who actually have the power and the duty to investigate the wiretapping. It's time for them, in Gore's words to "Start acting like the independent and co-equal branch of government (they're) supposed to be".

[geiger]

27. Not saying that it needs to be all Gore

Our Congressional leaders need to stand behind what he said, too, instead of continuing to pussy-foot around the issue, as if that is going to get them anywhere.

[AlGore-08.com]

29. I really think the next round has to be the Dems in office

They have to investigate the wiretapping, which is what the petition's about. The petition is the start of the lobbying of Congress.

[geiger]

32. That is definitely true

the petition link you provided is not working?

[AlGore-08.com]

34. Here's the link again...

http://www.moveonpac.org/ruleoflaw/

[geiger]

36. Thanks, I placed it on the Ohio discussion group page

after sending in my own letter....

[kentuck]

33. Yep.

You are right.

[Uncle Joe]

39. I agree, my thoughts exactly. n/t

[cyberia]

24. Don't expect miracles

Al Gore is not a fighter. We found that out in 2000. He'll prance out and say some nice words once in a while, but that's about all you can expect from him. Don't get me wrong, it was a helluva speech. It's not the opening rounds of a war Gore's going to fight, though.

[geiger]

26. Fatal flaw?

That occurred to me this morning, too.

[AlGore-08.com]

28. Not a fighter? Let's see, he started his campaign 20 points behind

By the time of the 2000 convention, he had cut that in half, but he was still 10 points behind.

The conventional wisdom, up until the last week of 2000, was that Gore was going to loose by a hefty margin. In the last three days of the race, it looked like he might win the electoral vote but lose the popular vote.

He was outspent by almost 2 to 1 (because Gore accepted campaign spending limits and rejected PAC money, but Bush refused to accept spending limits and took PAC money hand over fist.)

Gore had a divided party, most of whom were convinced he could not win, so they spent their time fighting over who was going to run the party after Gore was defeated.

Gore had to contend with the most hostile press in a century, possibly in American history.

He still went on to win the election by over half a million votes. He won it by a larger margin than Kennedy won in 1960 or Nixon in 1968.

After the election was over, Gore spent over a month fighting lawsuits in Florida, trying to get all the votes counted. On Nov. 12th, he asked the FBI to investigate the allegations of vote fraud in Florida. He fought all the way to the Supreme Court. When they ruled against him, he had no legal way to continue the challenge. Senators and Congressmen were the only ones who could have continued the challenge, and only 14 Congressmen did.

The only thing Gore could have done to become President after Bush v. Gore shut down the vote count, was to start a civil war. And if you think we really would be better off having a civil war, I suggest you take a vacation to Iraq or the Ivory Coast and discover what a civil war is like first hand.

[geiger]

30. Hey, we're on your side

but if Gore nods, then his supporters will act

[kentuck]

35. What the hell are you talking about??

What world were you living in in 2000? It wasn't Al Gore. He fought his heart out. It was us - the people that let him down.

[Apollo11]

37. Strongly agree with AlGore-08.com !!

To suggest that Al Gore is not a fighter is to buy into the false image of Gore that has been created by his political enemies and pushed through the corporate media - including NY Times and Wash Post - since way before BushCo stole the 2000 election.

But 51 million people did not buy it and they voted for Gore in 2000 - and those are just the votes they counted!!!

Since 2000 Gore has grown in self-confidence and he is, if anything, a stronger fighter than he was before.

About follow-up, next week Gore will be at the Sundance Film Festival to premiere his movie about global warming "An Inconvenient Truth". This movie will help Gore bring the truth to millions of people around the world, about how human activity is harming our global environment and what we can do about it. So it's not like the guy is sitting back, doing nothing.

But it's not Al Gore's job to stop Bush grabbing power and undermining the Constitution.

It's not Gore's job to stop Alito getting appointed to the Supreme Court.

It's the job of our elected Democrats in Congress. Gore can't do it for them!

All he can do is stand up and speak out, tell the truth and call on Congress to do it's job.

This is what Gore did on Monday. Now it's up to all of us who care to follow it up.

In Gore We Trust
www.algore.org
:)

[Uncle Joe]

40. Well said Apollo and I am getting excited about this movie. n/t

[Steve A Play]

38. No Sir, bullsh*t is when people

place unreasonable 'demands' on someone like Al Gore who has already gone above and beyond the call in making such an eloquent speech in the first place, and then followed it up by issuing a statement refuting the 'official' Whitehouse response delivered by Scott McClellan. You make an unsupportable assertion that you were 'told there would be "no follow up; the speech stands only."' Kind of laughable considering that Al has already issued a followup statement. Who am I to believe, you or my own lying eyes?

Maybe the reason you allow yourself to "get beat" is because you focus your anger and attention on the wrong areas as you are in this instance. Mr. Gore has just handed every patriotic American a gift with that speech and his followup statement. He's opened the door for anyone to echo his statements and call the Administration on their own lies and hypocrisy. Your placing his contact information out there framed in such a manner as to make it appear that he has not done enough, and needs people to demand more of him, is both short sighted and detrimental to your own cause in my opinion. How many more speeches like that would you deliver if the response you received was hundreds of angry calls calling your actions "bullshit" and demanding more from you?

Perhaps a better alternative would be to encourage your legislators to get with the program and use the opening Al gave them to speak out about the fragile state of our union in the framework that he provided. A lone voice crying out with a message that speaks the truth may be portrayed as that of a mere lone malcontent and thus be ignored. A thousand voices crying out with a message that speaks the truth can hardly be ignored. Al's voice has been heard loud and clear. It's time for us all to place our representatives on notice and demand from them action. One person does not a conversation make. Al started the conversation and for that we should all call and thank him. We should also call our representatives and demand that they engage in the conversation at every available opportunity. :-)

Steven P. :kick:

[geiger]

41. He still needs to stand along side everyone else; and we will stand by him

I agree with everything you are saying, but Al Gore still can't just walk away. That would be the height of arrogance.

[Uncle Joe]

42. Well said Steve A Play, Al just blocked a hole big enough to drive

a truck through for both parties to save our Constitution, now it's up to the elected legislators to run with the ball. Or they can continue to harp on trivial shit as if squabbling over who will get the best deck chair on the Titanic.

[geiger]

43. yep

true