Tuesday, October 11, 2005

More Buzz on Al Gore Running in '08


The buzz remains strong in Washington political and media circles over a potential Al Gore campaign for the presidency in '08. Insiders say that the climate is perfect for a Gore candidacy, underscored by President Bush's and the Republican Party's mounting troubles over the war in Iraq, the economy and the deficit, Hurricane Katrina and the wave of political scandals rattling the GOP core. "The Comeback Kid" has momentum, and has been turning up the heat in speech after speech loaded with the kind of passion, conviction and charisma that was missing in his 2000 campaign. He's starting to excite Democrats inside and outside the Beltway.

A blurb in U.S. News & World Report's Washington Whispers this week cites a former Bush 41 aide who's now seeking to lure Gore into the race: "It's Gore Time," says the political strategist and fundraiser. Gore's been building up an impressive donor base and constituency through his new venture, the Current TV network. And with his rock-solid anti-war and environmental/conservation positions--both of which are critical issues to Americans today--Gore's overall message could resonate quite well with a nation that's grown extremely frustrated and dissatisfied with the current Republican leadership. Possible running-mates being discussed include Fmr. Gen Wesley Clark and Illinois Sen. Barack Obama. Andy

40 comments:

Anonymous said...

halleluja!

Anonymous said...

Who would you like to see run as Vice President? Maybe Wesley Clark? His military record may appeal to Red Staters who lean that way. He's been straight forward on talk shows recently(within the last year) and has good command of issues and offers solutions. Now that would be a change from Bush Co. What do you think?

Anonymous said...

I'd love to see a Gore/Clark ticket. That excites me almost as much as the prospect of seeing Karl Rove in handcuffs.

Anonymous said...

I would love the chance to see Al Gore in his rightful place as leader of the free world!

Hillary leaves me cold and I'm glad Lieberman is not in the mix this time.

I would donate to his campaign and I would definitely vote for him AGAIN.

It's time to set this country back on the right track and the high road.

Anonymous said...

A successful Gore campaign requires just one thing. That the majority of voters reject the trash the MSM will hurl at a man of integrity.

Anonymous said...

I too would give my left (you know what) to see President Gore re-elected. I'd like to see a Gore/Dean ticket myself but 2008 is a long time away and in politics that's a light year.

Anonymous said...

If Gore runs for President, I will be the happiest person on this planet. I truly love Mr. Gore and his speeches he has made over the past several years have been an inspiration to me and a ray of hope.
But Gore/Dean is not good. Dean is doing a wonderful job as Chair of the DNC. We need him there.
I agree with someone up there in the post who said Gore/Clark. That would be sweet.
But someone needs to start an email campaign to Mr. Gore. A draft if you will.
We need to beg Mr. Gore, just like we begged Howard Dean to be our leader. And we need to do it now so that he can start preparing.
How about it? Let's start a draft Gore campaign!!!

Anonymous said...

Are you guys nuts? I like Gore: I voted for him when he won the election in 2000, but he was not willing to do what was needed to get elected (IMHO embracing Pres Clinton and standing on eight years of peace and prosperity).

He would be a great president, but does he have enough guts to overcome?

Anonymous said...

President Gore won in '00 and he will be sworn-in, January 2009.

Anonymous said...

Yes, he has the guts.

Bill Clinton didn't want him to win.

Hillary Clinton is not a Democrat and I refuse to vote for her.

And would everybody stop talking about Clark?! He was a total DUD the last time around. LOSER.

What if Al Gore chose John Edwards for a running mate? I like Obama, but his voting record has been disappointing. That might not mean anything as far as the kind of VP he would make, but it still bothers me.

Anonymous said...

Gore's a changed man in a changed world. The U.S. is not what it was 5 1/2 years ago. The time is here for Al.

There are plenty of Al Gore websites and draft movements. Start with http://www.algore-08.com/

Anonymous said...

Al Gore handed the 2000 election to Bush when he forbid Senators to sign the Congressional objection. See Fahrenheit 9-11. He did it to preserve his "electibility" just as Kerry did lieaving Edwards twisting in the wind.

Screw both of them. I want a president who will fight for the good of the Nation. These guys bear a share of the responsibility for all that has happened in the last five years.

Anonymous said...

Gore didn't "forbid" Senators to sign the CBC petition. Gore made what he considered a principled concession only after the case was decided by the Supreme Court.

Gore should absolutely run, and has these advantages over the other Democratic potentials.

1) He has already been slimed by the lies of the Right to the point that the MSM have all admitted that he wasn't treated fairly. I think it would be much harder for the Repugs to trot out the same old smears without looking desparate.

2) Read any of Gore's speeches about Iraq and then tell me of any politician who was more accurate and prescient.

3) Earth in the Balance is an important work on climate change and could morph into a blueprint for our future.

4) He already defeated Bush in 2000 and has the comeback kid thing going for him.

Hillary would be plucked like a chicken... even by her own party.

Anonymous said...

Aaargh, Big Bummer. Just read a news thingee out of Yahoo that Mr. Al stated he had no intention of running in '08. Who could blame him, but with all the recent nattering away, I thoughtm well....just maybe. Somebody tell me this is just a ploy to test deeper waters. And be convincing, OK?

Anonymous said...

Dean Clark or Babama would be alright .But not Joe he fooled me once but not again.

Anonymous said...

Anon writes..."Aaargh, Big Bummer. Just read a news thingee out of Yahoo that Mr. Al stated he had no intention of running in '08."

Keep in mind that Jeb Bush, John McCain, Condi Rice, Hillary Clinton, Wes Clark, John Kerry, John Edwards and just about everyone else at one point or another say they have no "intention" of running. It's a tactic to make you want them more.

BTW, here's another site: www.electgore2008.com

Anonymous said...

Gore: I Don't Plan to Run for President
STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) - Former Vice President Al Gore said Wednesday he had no intention of ever running for president again, but he said the United States would be "a different country" if he had won the 2000 election, launching into a scathing attack of the Bush administration.
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20051012/D8D6KHMGA.html

:-( Caro

Anonymous said...

For my first comment to a blog-GO GORE!. On the day of Bush's inauguration in 2001 I made a pin that I wore on my black shirt that said, "Al Gore-the President the people elected." That's how I still feel. I've been contemplating a Gore/Edwards ticket but Gore/Clark could work for me too. I want someone who wasn't afraid to take a stand against the war. Also Edwards stump speech about "Two Americas" has really hit home after the Katrina FEMA fiasco.

Anonymous said...

Re: the Gore article from Sweden today...Gore says about another run for office: "I don't completely rule out some future interest, but I don't expect to have that."

If he was anymore coy he'd have tits!

Anonymous said...

Meh, I think Democrats need to move on past the Clinton era and go with someone new. No Al, no Hillary.

I mean, I love 90s nostalgia as much as anyone, but I can't imagine either Gore or Hillary Clinton re-capturing the national imagination. To me, it would look like the Democrats have only one tried and true approach to solving problems...someone call the Clintons!

Plus, I think we have a real opportunity here to woo a lot of disenchanted voters, and so many "average Americans" have such a knee-jerk dislike of the Clintons.

So I say, "Next!"

Anonymous said...

You peopel crack me up. President Gore? Are you kidding me? Are you ever going to get some new blood in your party or just keep running the same tired losers? Quick, someone find Dukakis and Tsongas! And get McGovern while you're at it! Hell, maybe you guys should dig up Nixon... he's not as stiff as Gore.

Floyd M. Orr said...

Absolutely right! Gore's the man in '08! Now let's get Edwards or Obama as VP. Clark, like Hillary, is a nice person, but both are too centrist for what America so desperately needs: serious change! Either Obama or Edwards would be superior to most of the competition simply because they are inexperienced. A stint as VP would prepare either for the presidency in 2012 or 2016. We need to take back America - and keep it!

Anonymous said...

It is not possible to wipe out the Bush years--if only we could. The closest we could come to starting over would be to put Al Gore in as president with a Congress to support him. Now that is worth working for.

Anonymous said...

I firmly believe Gore could easily win again. I don't know how likely it actually is at this point, but I am all for it. I see Wesley Clark as an ideal candidate for something like Secretary of State, although I think he's someone who would make an ideal VP as well.

I hope the ticket for the Democrats in '08 will represent not only a return to more populist domestic policies, but will also seek to overhaul our cancerous, illogical, and dangerous foreign policies, particularly with respect to the Middle East. Merely maintaining the status quo, as we have done in our entire post-WWII foreign policy thus far, serves only the interest of extremists the world over.
Can't we find more constructive uses for 51% of our federal budget than nurturing our already obese military-industrial complex? Show me a Democratic Party platform with real plans to put our defense, energy, and auto industries to work on projects not designed to murder people.

Avoiding our real national crises is not going to fly anymore. An 8-years-the-wiser Gore ticket might just bring about some actual change. Who knows? What I do know is this: nobody wants to eat a pumpkin pie with an AK-47 inside. Capische?

Anonymous said...

Reading this gives me happy feelings. Just think, we could elect the guy that rightfully won the 2000 election. He didn't get caught up in stupidly backing Bush's insane war like the 2004 candidates had. He is clean! I truly wish we had him as a president on 9/11. Go for it Al!

Anonymous said...

Lets start a DRAFT GORE movemnet. Please post a petition for us to sign. The Democratic part needs him but the USA needs him even more.

Alyce Bowers

Anonymous said...

why wait? lets put him in now..... after the others are in orange coveralls....

Anonymous said...

I think there is alot of guilt in the media over the raw deal they gave Gore in 2000 and this will help him in 2008.

All_I_Can_Stands said...

I wish Gore would run just to see the primary fight between Gore, Hillary, Clark, Kerry and Edwards. It would be hard to be a love fest against Bush like '04 so they would need to actually compete against each other. I guess a possible slogan would be "oh, yeah well the others have even less ideas than me"

On another note I am seeing a common thread regarding '08. Something like nobody can fix the mess Bush left. Is this some kind of attempt at lowering the bar of expectations in the off chance a Democrat actually wins in '08? "Yeah, don't expect too much out of us. It may take 50 years of Democrat presidents to clean up the mess Bush left" LOL

Anonymous said...

Why wait? Many reports have been made with solid factual evidence showing Gore actually won Florida in 2000. I do not want to stand around waiting for the next incompetent decision Bush/Cheney make. That next decision could mean life or death for someone in my family. Do we really want to keep playing roulette with people's lives and the national security of our country?

Anonymous said...

"Any more coy and he'd have tits" That is really funny!! However, what ain't funny is how meagre is the field when I look out for who IS going to have to clean up this mess. I'm a realist when it comes to politics, have been for years---and Gore is probably the only possible candidate with the stones, the background, and the INTELLIGENCE to move us forward. Because, dear hearts, one of the things that got us in this mess is the unfathomable stupidity, personal, moral and political, of the Repugs. And who do you think let their party be kidnapped by the NeoCons, hmmm? And aren't they doing well, everybody???

I wouldn't blame Gore if he laughed his ass off at the idea. But I hope he doesn't. He's so far ahead of most everybody else in his bonafides that he's practically a blur.

Anonymous said...

Keep your fingers dancing on Google, because there are several Gore sites popping up---don't know their veracity or seriousness, but they're there. Daily Kos is also getting some heavy traffic on the threads about Gore.

Anonymous said...

I've been telling my husband this for months. Gore is the right man for the time. The only other person with strong credentials and passions is Gary Hart. The big question is can Gore behave in an authentic,direct and strong manner without all the Alpha male/Communication Consultant garbage.

Anonymous said...

All Al needs to do is repeat the same slogan they used in the 90's, "Are you better off now then you were 4 (or 8) years ago"? The Dems need to get on the bandwagon and start pounding home simple slogans for the "simple" minded people we have in this country.

I thought that Kerry and Edwards should have been telling the people, "You like what's happening to you with Bush, vote for him for 4 more years". They NEVER had a catchy slogan and there could have been so many. What really pisses me off about the Kerry/Edwards team was there constant belief that Bush would not play dirty. They should have remembered, "Fool me once shame on you but fool twice shame on me". It was their own fault they lost and especially Kerry saying he'd still vote for the war even knowing what he knew now, that killed it for him.

Gouda said...

Gore gave one great speech on democracy last week ... and its demise brought about by television. I'm sure everyone read it. If not:

http://www.breitbart.com/news/2005/10/06/D8D2IU703.html

Anonymous said...

Gary Hart....that's an interesting thought, and you are right, he's extremely with it and enormously smart, experienced. I just don't know if his profile (ugh---hateful concept) is "high" enough. I'm not discounting Clark, either. Guess I just never "got over it", folks. It's hard not to regret the 2000 election theft. Real hard. I seriously doubt if that caca would have blown THRU the fan---

Anonymous said...

This is the content of a speech Al Gore made on the 12th of this month.

By Mattias Karen, Associated Press Writer | October 12, 2005

STOCKHOLM, Sweden --Former Vice President Al Gore said Wednesday he had no intention of ever running for president again, but he said the United States would be "a different country" if he had won the 2000 election, launching into a scathing attack of the Bush administration.

"I have absolutely no plans and no expectations of ever being a candidate again," Gore told reporters after giving a speech at an economic forum in Sweden.

When asked how the United States would have been different if he had become president, though, he had harsh criticism for Bush's policies.

"We would not have invaded a country that didn't attack us," he said, referring to Iraq. "We would not have taken money from the working families and given it to the most wealthy families."

"We would not be trying to control and intimidate the news media. We would not be routinely torturing people," Gore said. "We would be a different country."

Gore did not elaborate. But last year, he blamed Bush administration policies for the inmate abuse scandal at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

Mike Feldman, Gore's spokesman, did not immediately comment on Gore's remark when reached by phone in Washington.

Tracey Schmitt, spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee, called Gore's comments "fictitious rants that border on dangerous."

"To accuse Americans of participating in 'routine torture' is absurd and reveals that while Al Gore may no longer be a leader in his party, he still embodies the maniacal anger that guides Democrat leaders in Washington today," Schmitt wrote in an e-mail to The Associated Press.

Gore also reiterated his criticism that the Bush administration was too slow in responding to the crisis in New Orleans after the city's levees failed during Hurricane Katrina. He said that should have been predicted.

"There were specific warnings that the levees might break," he said. "But for whatever reason those warnings were not acted upon in a timely way."

He said the United States and other countries are similarly ignoring the threats that global warning pose to the environment.

"My country is extremely attentive to the slightest increase in a risk from terror, and that's appropriate," he said. "But why should we be so tolerant of risk where the future habitability of our planet is concerned?"

Gore, who now runs a cable TV channel and is the chairman of an investment company, did not completely shut the door to future political endeavors.

"I don't completely rule out some future interest, but I don't expect to have that," Gore said.

He declined to comment on New York Sen. Hillary Clinton's possible run for the White House in 2008, but he said he believes the country is ready for a female president.

"Of course a woman could get elected president," he said. "I am not going to make any comment on individual candidates. It's quite premature."

------

Anonymous said...

If Gore is drafted by the people and decides to answer the call, I hope Gore will be Gore and not allow his handlers to handle him.

The Rethugs always say that anyone is insane and dangerous when they are afraid of them.

I like Gore's passion these days. We need that.

No wonder so many Americans just don't get it when the Democrats go on, day in and day out, acting as if this nightmare is just politics as usual. It isn't. It is a coup and it is high time someone said so, out loud.

The Republican majority has ruined this country and it will take a long time to restore it. A good start would be impeachment, trails, prison time and fines out the wazoo. The next step is having a Democrat to run for president who will tell the truth about the last 5 years and lay out a plan for a New Deal.

I, for one, am damned sick and tired of the Raw Deal and the Ordeal!

Anonymous said...

Like it or not, It took a Clinton to clean up the mess left over by the Republican pResidents Reagan and Bush I. Now we have Reagan era inflation! Why not look to the number 2 guy on Clinton's team to clean up the mess that Bush II is leaving. He's got a great chance to improve things since he's already been there! Why is it that the Dems have to clean up after the Republicans? And I agree, the sooner the better! I'll be popping the champagne when even one of Bush II's cronies is convicted.

Anonymous said...

go AL

well i wasnt old enough to vote in '00 but in 08 Gore will have my vote.We need a man that can clean up the mess the Bush has made and we need a man who can fix the 8 trillion dollor debt we are in.The bush tax cuts do not work

GO GORE