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RSS icon Comments on Al Gore, Nobel Laureate

1

Yay for Freaky Friday! Yay for Al Gore!

Posted by Michigan Matt | October 12, 2007 8:06 AM
2

No sooner did CNN's home page put the Gore Nobel Prize story on its featured spot than they bumped it. For what? "Prosecutor: Mom bought assault rifle for boy."

Why the hell do I even bother checking CNN's Web site?

Posted by cressona | October 12, 2007 8:06 AM
3

I was just reading the candidates response to the news... and it dawned on me. Are they setting up Clinton/Gore 08? That would be really freaking hard to beat.

Posted by jkjk | October 12, 2007 8:09 AM
4

Anyway, here's an interesting passage from the CNN story on the Nobel:

A source involved in Gore's past political runs told CNN that he definitely has the ambition to use the peace prize as a springboard to run for president.
But he will not run, because he won't take on the political machine assembled by Sen. Hillary Clinton, said the source. If the senator from New York had faltered at all, Gore would take a serious look at entering the race, the source said. But Gore has calculated that Clinton is unstoppable, according to the source.

I believe Al Gore is a great man, the way Gandhi was a great man. I believe Al Gore would make a great president, the way Abraham Lincoln was a great president. But I also agree with Gore's calculation, according to this source: running for president now would be a fool's errand.

Just as well. He can probably do more good pushing the politicians and the public on climate change outside of office than he could in office. Elected officials can't lead if the public won't follow; they can only get so far out ahead of the public.

***

The vast majority of Americans today are concerned about climate change. But they're not concerned enough about climate change to muster the political will for any sort of pain, sacrifice, or even just change. One Newsweek columnist summed up the current state of affairs perfectly as Prius politics.

The master of Prius politics today is Arnold Schwarzenegger. But we have our own local purveyors of Prius politics in Ron Sims and Greg Nickels, politicians who are able to garner national media attention for signing meaningless pledges at the same time they fight mass transit. Sims, grandstanding opportunist that he is, is worse. Or Maria Cantwell, who can talk about protecting Alaska's wilderness at the same time she stands up for Americans' God-given right to cheap gas.

Then again, can we really blame these people? Sims's and Nickels's and Cantwell's vapid hypocrisy on climate change is a pitch-perfect response to public opinion on climate change. They're giving the people what they want: the feel-good feeling that they're doing something about global warming without actually doing something about global warming.

This is the fundamental problem today. It's political. But it can't be solved only by politicians. It's what Gore refers to when he said recently:

"The central challenge is to expand the limits of what's now considered politically possible. The outer boundary of what's considered plausible today still falls far short of the near boundary of what would actually solve the crisis."

This is why I believe Al Gore can do more good by not seeking elective office. I'm not holding out any hope, though, for CNN.com.

Posted by cressona | October 12, 2007 8:09 AM
5

Gore will have to make an announcement one way or another very soon. The first primaries are 12 weeks out. All of the CW seems to be that Clinton is unstoppable, but I think he could take some wind out of her sails quite quickly.

Posted by Gabriel | October 12, 2007 8:09 AM
6

jkjk @3, there is no way that Al Gore would be willing to be VP again, and especially not under a Clinton.

Posted by Gabriel | October 12, 2007 8:14 AM
7

This is great for Al, great for the movement. What he needs to do is continue being the statesman he is and continue making the impact that he can't or couldn't make as President. If he decides to run on his Nobel Prize win, he will wreck the Dem's chances. The Dems don't need this confusion at this point.

Posted by Brad | October 12, 2007 8:16 AM
8

There is one possibility that stops Hillary dead in her tracks, and that's Gore/Obama together. If Gore announced and if Obama realizes that he's a long shot for the top of the ticket, the two of them would do well to begin getting chummy.

Posted by Gabriel | October 12, 2007 8:16 AM
9

Where's Morning News? I'm sitting here in the Stranger offices all by myself, idly fixing the dubious HTML of Freaky Friday participants--and I have to find my own freaking news? Bah.

Posted by annie | October 12, 2007 8:17 AM
10

@ Cressona, I fret you are correct. Currently, Gore is the only Democrat who seems to "get" the problems with the environment as well as the illegal powers that Bush has added to the executive branch and the list goes on. (What has Hillary or Obama said about stripping away the added Presidential powers Bush as taken? That is right, nothing at all)

The terrifying thing is that if Gore were to run this is his last chance. If he waits until 2012, he will run against the incumbent which rarely leads to unseating a sitting President. (Carter, Bush Sr and Hoover being the only examples in the last 100 years, Truman was not running in 1952 for you history buffs) AND by 2016 he is going to be pushing 70 years old and I find it unlikely that we would elect someone of his age at that point.

Al Gore is this generations FDR, the right person at the right time with the right ideas. BUT, our culture of politics simply will not have him. This really is the beginning of the fall of America. It is Dusk in America....darker days are coming.

Posted by Just Me | October 12, 2007 8:17 AM
11

Al Gore, congratulations on having been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Now it is time to announce your wish to become America's president, take your seat in the White House, and be the leader we have all been waiting for to move beyond the corrupt system of Empire and towards Earth community. Kudos to the Nobel Committee for realizing that sustainability is peace.

Posted by Erol | October 12, 2007 8:21 AM
12

Good for Gore, but calling giant magnetoresistance "iPod technology" is like crediting Abraham Gesner for inventing jet travel by virtue of his being the first to distill kerosene. Jonny Ive didn't win a Nobel.

Posted by Nat | October 12, 2007 8:22 AM
13

Cressona, I know it's tough living on a Sound Transit salary, but to call Ron Sims anti-transit is nothing short of crazy.

Building 182 miles of new highways makes global warming worse, There's no amount of transit in our region that makes up for 152 miles of general purpose lanes. Unless you'd like to start opening a bunch of coal plants in SoDo, this is about the worst thing we can do to set back global warming.

Posted by Ryan | October 12, 2007 8:24 AM
14

Email from Al Gore's website email list:

I am deeply honored to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. This award is even more meaningful because I have the honor of sharing it with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change--the world's pre-eminent scientific body devoted to improving our understanding of the climate crisis--a group whose members have worked tirelessly and selflessly for many years. We face a true planetary emergency. The climate crisis is not a political issue, it is a moral and spiritual challenge to all of humanity. It is also our greatest opportunity to lift global consciousness to a higher level.

My wife, Tipper, and I will donate 100 percent of the proceeds of the award to the Alliance for Climate Protection, a bipartisan non-profit organization that is devoted to changing public opinion in the U.S. and around the world about the urgency of solving the climate crisis.

Thank you,

Al Gore

Posted by FreakyFriday | October 12, 2007 8:26 AM
15

Gurldoggie has delivered this news with great insight -- indeed, it was widely predicted, and I appreciate being reminded of the recent Nobel Prize in Physics. I'm also quite gratified by the several insightful points of view expressed by the commenters. Certainly a lot of interesting ideas to think about!

Posted by elenchos | October 12, 2007 8:27 AM
16

Everyone wants Gore to run, except Gore. He loves the attention he is getting by not running. I think he would be crazy to run. The day he announces his candidancy, the smear campaign would begin.

Posted by Mike in MO | October 12, 2007 8:28 AM
17

Zzzzzzz.

Posted by Mr. Poe | October 12, 2007 8:29 AM
18

News please!

Posted by smiles | October 12, 2007 8:29 AM
19

Gabriel @8, yes, Gore/Obama makes some sense. Obama's got to realize at this point that he's not stopping the Hillary juggernaut. He's got to realize that he's being typecast into the usual Bill Bradley, Paul Tsongas "loved by the intellectuals" role.

Even so, it just sounds a little too revolutionary, a little too much like throwing over the chessboard. Since when do we ever see a prez+VP ticket before the first primary? And how are all those establishment Dems going to look when they're forced to reconsider their support for Hillary?

Al has better uses for his energy. And I hate to say, the United States of America circa 2000s doesn't deserve Al Gore.

Just Me @10:

Al Gore is this generations FDR, the right person at the right time with the right ideas. BUT, our culture of politics simply will not have him. This really is the beginning of the fall of America. It is Dusk in America....darker days are coming.

It's bad enough we missed out on this generation's FDR or Abe Lincoln. But think about what we got instead. Think about what ensued over the next eight years. And think how this generation's FDR/Lincoln actually won the popular vote. And how if it weren't for Monica Lewinsky and Linda Tripp... It's hard not to feel sad even on a day like today.

Posted by cressona | October 12, 2007 8:31 AM
20

@12 sure it's not actually 100% about it being ipod technology, more like 40%
But try saying guy who researched giant magentoresistance and you'll get a bunch blank stares and calls of wtf is that

Posted by Tan | October 12, 2007 8:31 AM
21

While I would love to see Gore run for president, I respect him more for sticking with what he's repeatedly said and (so far) not running. It'd be nice to see the idea of sticking by what you've promised become more popular in politics.

Posted by Jessica | October 12, 2007 8:33 AM
22

Ryan @13:

Cressona, I know it's tough living on a Sound Transit salary, but to call Ron Sims anti-transit is nothing short of crazy.

Sorry to ruin your self-serving fantasy, Ryan, but I don't work for Sound Transit. My work doesn't have anything to do with transportation or any of that stuff.

I'm supporting a tough compromise like Prop. 1 for the same reason Al Gore is supporting tough changes like a revenue-neutral carbon tax--because unlike Ron Sims I actually care about something other than my own self-aggrandizement.

As for Ron Sims, he fought the monorail. Now he's fighting regional light rail. And for what? His so-called "bus rapid transit?" Ron's idea of BRT is taking his usual lousy conventional bus service and slapping a BRT label on it. Or some kamikaze congestion pricing plan that's sure to get so soundly defeated it sets back the cause of congestion pricing for a generation?

Posted by cressona | October 12, 2007 8:38 AM
23

I didn't think it was possible for this prize to lose any more credibility after they gave it to Arafat, but I stand corrected.

Posted by Brad | October 12, 2007 9:14 AM
24

Cressona - RTID/ST2 is not even GHG neutral. The construction GHG won't be made up in the ST portion for years after the projected completion date in 2027 which likely will not be on time.

Please refer us to any data that shows that ST2 will reduce GHG in the next 43 years. Even ST own site only claims 74,000 additional transit riders by 2030.

Posted by whatever | October 12, 2007 9:15 AM
25

@19: at least we avoided having the odious Joe Lieberman in the whitehouse. He'd probably be on his way to the presidency right now if Gore made it through 2 terms. I know, I know: look what we got instead. But at least Cheney doesn't pretend to be something other than he is.

Posted by spencer | October 12, 2007 9:25 AM
26

It's not iPod technology at all. It's hard drive technology. It may have made devices like the iPod possible, but as Nat points out above, it's iPod technology like tires are Prius technology.

Posted by Anthony Hecht | October 12, 2007 9:29 AM
27

The great thing about Bush is that he is far more a reflection of the average American than most of us will EVER admit. Think about it; he is greedy, self-centered, selfish, lacking in intellegence, crude and a bully.

Our leaders DO reflect what the nation as a whole is like and America, Bush is EXACTLY what we deserved. So Cresona is right, we do not deserve Al Gore. America does not want to take responsibility for itself either collectively or indivudually. Our mind set is spend, waste and consume. And none of the Democrats currently running are going to do much to change that mind set.

Do you honestly see Hillary Clinton asking Americans to SACRAFICE? Do you honestly see Barak Obama asking Americans to pay two or three dollars more for gasoline to invest in clean burning options or to deter us from driving when we could just as easily walk/bus?

I like Gore and wish he would run, but that wish is based on what he has recently written/said under the assumption he would not run. In my heart of hearts I question if even he would ask Americans to make such sacrafices. Humanity rises to an occasion when the stakes are high AND we have the vision to see beyond today and look into tommorow. And what we have are manufactured politicians, the statesman/stateswomen have long since left public service.

Enjoy your fall. We are the St. Augustines of our day. We watch as the barbarians sack Rome. We watch as our humanity is whored out on Wall Street and our futures are gambled away in hopes of buying one more yacht.

We look to Al Gore not for what he would probably do, but for the promise of what some of us dearly want for ourselves. We are in love with a fantasy that died years ago and even then probably never existed.

Posted by Just Me | October 12, 2007 9:55 AM
28

Imagine if Gore had already been running... what's better than a Nobel Peace Prize to boost your campaign? Running now would be a dick thing to do, though, especially since Hillary's husband chose him to be veep for eight years.

(I like Hillary more, anyway.)

Posted by jamier | October 12, 2007 10:05 AM
29

Trust Cressona to turn a President Gore day into a pro-RTID/ST day ...

Posted by Will in Seattle | October 12, 2007 12:04 PM
30

Gore is still not running for president.

If Gore actually ran for president he would lose, and aside from a few issues he wouldn't make a particularly good president even if he could get elected.

Hillary Clinton said recently on Olbermann's show (and maybe elsewhere) that once elected she won't wait for inauguration, but that she will send out people to begin negotiations on various issues to restore the diplomatic credibility of the United States and undo the damage of the Bush administration.

I've figured for a long time that she'd send Bill to the Middle East to help get things on track there, but on hearing this it became clear to me that she's counting on using Gore as her special envoy on environmental issues. That's a perfect role for him that allows him to make a political difference without subjecting himself to the humiliation of campaigning.

If it's Edwards, Obama, or some other Democrat instead, the same logic applies. Gore should be working with the new Secretary of State on coordinating an effective response to global warming. Start by negotiating the replacement for Kyoto that has stricter limits and US participation. Then have Gore work to coordinate the domestic response across departments. There's no need to give him a title or anything--just make sure he's the public face of the next presidency on this issue.

Posted by Cascadian | October 12, 2007 3:45 PM

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