Look Back in Anger …. at What we Lost When we Lost President Gore.

[puebloknot]

Edited to add link: http://www.consortiumnews.com/2007/082607.html


A new book by Robert Parry

Neck Deep Secret: Gore Was Right
By Robert Parry
August 27, 2007

Having written several books that span periods of years, I’m often surprised how patterns emerge that aren’t apparent to me in day-to-day news coverage. In Neck Deep, our new book about George W. Bush’s presidency, one of those surprises was how often former Vice President Al Gore turned up making tragically prescient comments.

Gore, whose admirers sometimes call him “the Goracle,” comes across more as a Cassandra, warning the nation of looming disasters and finding himself either ignored or mocked by the dominant politicians and media pundits.

Time and again – from Campaign 2000 to the post-9/11 “war on terror” to the invasion of Iraq to Bush’s expansion of presidential powers – Gore pointed to grave dangers when nearly all other national political leaders and media bigwigs were either running with the herd or keeping silent.

*********

Indeed, a poignant aspect of Neck Deep is the recognition that a less hostile press treatment of Gore during Campaign 2000 or a full-and-fair recount of votes in Florida after Election 2000 might have put the United States on a very different track.

Read it and weep! And then vow to make it right, no matter how long it takes.

[warrior1]

1. linkage please

[puebloknot]

2. Link added. Thanks!

[ramapo]

3. There's also a dark side

Had Gore prevailed in the recount, Republicans would've been after his ass from Day 1. No honeymoon, no respect, no nothing.

If 9/11 had taken place (no sure thing certainly but if...), Gore would've been crucified.

Republicans had the House and nominally the Senate, give or take a vote.

Gore wouldn't have gotten us into Iraq, Gore might've wanted to address climate change and energy.

The Republicans would've made what they did to Clinton look like a pre-game warmup.

[puebloknot]

10. If I had married the poet, instead of the engineer.... :)

I hear you. It may be that Gore's prescience is the reason he didn't fight harder for his presidency. That, and the fact that mobs were demonstrating outside his house.

Your right that if Gore had been inaugurated, nothing very positive would have gotten done because of Repub recalcitrance. But if he had just managed to hold space and keep the war from happening, and avoid all the loss of life...

Hindsight, and all that, eh?

[Ian David]

4. And to think that I was concerned that Al Gore's "Clipper Chip" plan was a gross invasion of privacy

Bush's pResidency puts it all into perspective.

Al Gore won.

Al Gore should be President RIGHT NOW.

But fuck... Lieberman 2008?

Do you think LIEberman would have still turned evil, if he'd become Vice President?

That's the only thing that would trouble me.

Having to choose between Lieberman and Romney, or Lieberman and Ghouliani.

[puebloknot]

11. I could never understand why Lieberman was chosen as a running mate...

...in the first place.

Looking back is speculative, but he's shown his true colors now.

[Ian David]

18. Did losing the Vice Presidency turn him evil? Or was he always that way?

I remember that some people referred to Lieberman as "Bush Lite."

But now, Lieberman has proved himself to be more like "Extra-Murdery Bush."

[puebloknot]

26. The leopard doesn't change its "stripes"! :) nt

Hard to know what kind of blended animal Lieberman is!

[Ian David]

5. THERE WOULD HAVE BEEN NO FLAG-DRAPED COFFINS IN THE WAR ON CARBON. N/T

[Hissyspit]

6. No surprise to us here at DU:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=1130244

[puebloknot]

8. Thanks. I bookmarked that piece of work. I read it when you first posted!

I guess there's always the possibility that we're only preaching to the choir here, but new people show up, and things get forwarded outside of DU.

[madrchsod]

7. i`m figuring at least 16 years to get back to 2000

that is if the next bunch understand what he is talking about....

[frogcycle]

9. If the next bunch is a bunch of pussyfooting triangulators

it'll take that and more.

If a real leader is in charge, a lot can be fixed pretty damned quick.

Some things will take that long, but some can be rectified in a hurry. And in many areas we can be better off than 2000 in short order.

But I am not holding my breath. Too few understand what has happened. The smokescreen is too pervasive.

[puebloknot]

13. I vote for "pretty damned quick."

I am...ahem...not a spring chicken. I have a daughter who is. I want to know she'll have a decent world to live in. I want the rest of my days to not be overshadowed with worry, for myself and for my beloved child. I want what everyone wants!

"Too few understand" haunts my days. Educating the masses is good on paper, but it will take so long.

[madrchsod]

28. yes neither am i and i feel the same

what are my kids and grandkids going to inherit?

[puebloknot]

14. I may be reincarnated and "enjoying" another life by then! :)

[porphyrian]

12. For a refresher course on how it happened, see Unprecedented: The 2000 Election.

http://imdb.com/title/tt0346091/

[puebloknot]

15. Thanks. I saw it, but will order the DVD and see it again.

[porphyrian]

20. It's invaluable in understanding what happened here in Florida.

Be ready for renewed outrage.

[puebloknot]

21. It's a good thing I "suffer" with low blood pressure. When it rises...

... as it often does these days, I'm within normal range!

[porphyrian]

25. Heh, that's useful. - n/t

[Initech]

16. I'm convinced the last six years are a result of deregulated capitalism.

Which itself is a joke. Everything - war profiteering, Halliburton, the voting machines, Fox News, all of it is a result of that crap. And we would definitely have Al Gore in office making some real progress and the WTC would still be standing if it weren't for that.

[frogcycle]

17. ding ding ding

[puebloknot]

22. Freedom isn't free! nt

[leftofthedial]

19. it may have been the end of us

[puebloknot]

23. I often think that. Try not to, but can't help it, having two neurons firing...

...and all that.

[Imagevision]

24. At least we lost Lieberman!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! what was Gore thinking???

[puebloknot]

27. Did Gore, personally, pick Lieberman? I've often wondered. nt

[Kurovski]

29. K&R. (nt)