Political Candidates

[Kathleen Collins]

Actually, this would be my favorite: if Ann Coulter and Rosie O'Donell debated the Kennedy Assassination and/or 9/11. I'd like to see Coulter under that kind of unrelenting pressure.

Kathy

[John Simkin]

I see in the Michael Moore interview that he favours Al Gore. Do you think there is any chance of him being a candidate? He is very popular in the UK but I suspect that is not the case in the US.

[John Geraghty]

I see in the Michael Moore interview that he favours Al Gore. Do you think there is any chance of him being a candidate? He is very popular in the UK but I suspect that is not the case in the US.

I attended a forum in D.C. a few weeks ago called 'Taking back America' at which several progressive groups have stands. One of the groups was 'Draft Al Gore'. I don't know where they get their funding from, but I suspect that it is run by environmentalist groups. There seems to be a lot of support for Gore. I saw a poll recently, perhaps on his forum, that suggested that if Gore ran he would imediately jump into top spot, getting suport mainly from those that currently support Hillary Clinton. This would relegate Clinton to the same level of popularity as Barack Obama.

I feel that the main reason that Gore is not running is because he knows that, even if a democrat is elected they could not stop the war in Iraq. This would leave a bitter legacy for Gore. Had the war been stopped by this stage, Gore may have ran to achieve his personal goals (mostly environmental and energy concerns). He feels that he can achieve more as an outsider attempting to influence and reform.

I do not expect Gore to run, despite the fact that there is a large amount of support for him.

John

[Michael Hogan]

I see in the Michael Moore interview that he favours Al Gore. Do you think there is any chance of him being a candidate? He is very popular in the UK but I suspect that is not the case in the US.

I attended a forum in D.C. a few weeks ago called 'Taking back America' at which several progressive groups have stands. One of the groups was 'Draft Al Gore'. I don't know where they get their funding from, but I suspect that it is run by environmentalist groups. There seems to be a lot of support for Gore. I saw a poll recently, perhaps on his forum, that suggested that if Gore ran he would imediately jump into top spot, getting suport mainly from those that currently support Hillary Clinton. This would relegate Clinton to the same level of popularity as Barack Obama.

I feel that the main reason that Gore is not running is because he knows that, even if a democrat is elected they could not stop the war in Iraq. This would leave a bitter legacy for Gore. Had the war been stopped by this stage, Gore may have ran to achieve his personal goals (mostly environmental and energy concerns). He feels that he can achieve more as an outsider attempting to influence and reform.

I do not expect Gore to run, despite the fact that there is a large amount of support for him.

John

I happen to know that John G. understands American politics better than most Americans. I just want to add that the media has been very kind to Gore since his acceptance of defeat in 2000. In short, they have assisted him in reinventing his image as an environmentalist, rather than a politician. There are many Democrats that will never forgive Al Gore for his benign acquiescence to what happened in Florida and the subsequent Supreme Court ruling. In many people's eyes, Gore helped give a legitimacy to the Bush administration that was undeserved.

What the Supreme Court did was criminal. I know, because Vince Bugliosi wrote a book that said so. So did Alan Dershowitz. So did Jeffrey Toobin. Toobin wrote:

Al Gore had lived in Washington for most of his life, and he had absorbed, as if by osmosis, many of the attitudes of the establishment. He agonized about the views of the columnists, newspaper editorialists, and other elite opinion makers among whom he had lived for so long. Gore cared as much about their approval as he did about winning, and he ran his recount effort accordingly. Ironically, and poignantly, Gore’s solicitude toward the Washington establishment was never reciprocated. To a great extent, the vice president lacked passionate supporters among journalists and politicians, and even ordinary citizens. In the intense conditions of the Florida recount, this absence was notable. The recount required sacrifice, devotion, even a measure of fanaticism from those on the ground. At best, Gore inspired only a distant admiration from his supporters, and he paid the price in Florida.

I was just joking about Bugliosi, ma.