Al Gore Wins the Nobel!

I've always been sceptical of the idea that Scandinavian intellectuals have some kind of morally centered vision that the rest of us lack. (Jimmy Carter? Ack!) But, then, the rest of the world has no input into the election of American leaders who arguably shape their world more than their own leaders, so I guess they're entitled to their two cents.

What makes Gore such a powerful force in Democratic politics is that he is also emblematic of an entire set of arguments. For many, his rise is a natural rebuke of the current president, but it's also become a rebuke of the perverted political process in which style is rewarded over substance. This is an argument that Gore expands on and applies to policy in his recent book The Assault on Reason.
- John Dickerson in Slate

I choked up during An Inconvenient Truth. Not at the part where Greenland melts - oy!, I don't know anyone who lives in Greenland! - but during the recounting (indeed!) of the denouement of the 2000 election. It snuck up on me, it did, but before I knew it, there I was with a big bathos thermal wafting up into my head.

Normally, I'm pretty impatient with the old "I'm a bad campaigner, but I'd make a great president" line. Yeah, me too. And my friend Dexter here, he has the same problem. But Al Gore would make a great president. It's only to his credit that he loathes the idea of getting back into phony campaign world. I forget who it was, but some old Washington Lion was being interviewed recently and he was talking about how twisted virtually all of the presidents he'd known were. He cited Gerald Ford, the only one not elected, as the one truly normal, decent human being among the bunch.



I admire Hillary, but the dynastic issue is real, and troubling. I'm an Obama supporter, but, honestly, I think only a Gore inauguration would make me feel we were really getting a fresh start with someone experienced at the helm.