In Need of a Hat Trick

First things first.

Congratulations to Al Gore and the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change!

Yesterday, Al Gore and the IPCC won the Nobel Peace Prize for their work surrounding climate change. Well deserved. It's interesting; after skittering hither and yon around the Internet, reading as much as I could about Gore, the Nobel, and the possibility of him entering the Presidential race--and there's a lot of information about this--several things occurred to me.

First, there are still a LOT of 'people' (and by that, I mean 'humans') who for some reason have this urge to cut that smart-alecky Al Gore down to size. Still. Seven years after the 2000 race. In the argot of my cyber-peers, WTF? I've read criticism that the Nobel prize was given to him for political reasons, I've read snotty little posts that sneer at Gore-Gone-Hollywood, and in an astounding display of a ham-handed attempt at lop-sided objectivity, waaaaaay too much credence has been given to a right-wing judge in England who ruled recently that An Inconvenient Truth may be shown in British schools, so long as a disclaimer is attached stating that there are several factual errors in the documentary.

Well, so what, and who really cares what some dinky judge in England thinks. But jeez, the way this ruling has been mentioned by the media concurrent with the announcement of Gore's win, attaching the two events together like Cheng and Eng's hipbone, you'd think this was the equivalent of Solomon adjudicating the law of ancient Israel.

It's not surprising. The media (the so-called liberal media, mind you) really had it in for Gore in 2000. They're probably nervous, right now. They (these glorified pundits and pretty-faced 'reporters' and hack journalists) should be nervous. If the guy actually does enter the race, and actually wins, and actually is sworn in, he would probably do a lot to return the American media back to some semblance of decency, starting with the return of the Fairness Doctrine (repealed by Reagan in the late 1980s). And once that happens--well, I think a lot of the shit these guys (Fox News, Limbaugh, O'Reilly, etc.) get away with now is going to get jettisoned into the gutter, where it belongs. Freedom of the press and freedom of speech are basic rights--but they are also responsibilities, and not too many people have truly been held responsible as of late.

The other thing that struck me tonight is almost (kinda/sorta) the opposite; there were lots of writers and bloggers and columnists praising Gore for his work, praising Gore for his real achievements since 2000, and honestly evaluating Gore's value as a presence in the American (and global) environmental stage. Yet--a lot of these writers dismiss the idea of Gore entering the race, saying that he's too valuable, too pure, and going back into politics would only serve to diminish the work Gore has done outside of politics. Somehow, to their minds, the Presidency is little more than a tawdry and sordid government post which would cheapen Al Gore's standing in the world.

I thought to myself, "WHAT!!"

This is exactly the reason we need someone like Al Gore--oh, hell, not someone like Al Gore, let's just get the real deal! If any one person stands a chance to bring back respect and integrity to the American Presidency, Al Gore is the guy. He's the best prepared, the best qualified, just plain the best period.

It's rather amazing--the Democrats running for President are all pretty decent folks and would all do a pretty good job, more or less...and the Republicans have got an amazingly pathetic confederacy of dunces running for the White House. But that's the trick--we have to get a Democrat elected. HAVE to. Any one of those jokers running on the GOP side would do nothing less than finish off the disaster that Bush-n-Cheney have been stoking since December 12, 2000.

Go here for more information. And be sure to read this very cool ad in the New York Times urging Gore to run.

Why can't this country have the best lead us? Why the frak not?

So, we are needing a hat trick; first, an Oscar. Second, the Nobel. Third--an announcement that Gore will run.

Gore 2008. Boola!