To Gore or Not To Gore

I mean the eco-politician who won the popular vote for presidency in 2000 not the bad-ass Dead Rising game where you beat zombies with anything you can pick up (get it gore, hahahe...) Sorry just played it for the first time last night. Back to Gore, Al Gore. I’m undecided if I think he should run for Pres in '08. There’s very good reason for both. First I need to say that I think he would be a great president, especially now that we know he does have a personality. The question is his if he can win, because your actually ability to govern comes in some where after height on the list of what americans look for in a President, luckily he’s reasonably tall too(6'1").

So lets take a look at why he shouldn't run. Well there's the obvious fact that he's run once before and wasn't selected. We talk about giving people second chances but we don't really mean it. Probably the biggest reason though not to run for prez is that as soon as he announces then all of his environmental work will be tainted. The opposition will then be able to say, see all this global warming mumbo jumbo is just a political move for the democrats. And in the eyes of all together to many people, they'll be right. So oddly, for the sake of the environmental movement, it might actually be better NOT to have their biggest promoter as the most powerful person in the world.... I might have just decided in my own head. The shear ridiculousness of the last sentence might have put me over into the Gore camp.

Well let’s look at the reason to run Gore. He’s intelligent which seemed to hurt him last time around, but after 8(maybe less) years of bush I think were ready for intelligence again. Unlike most politicians he’s actually willing to voice an opinion about issues. As I mentioned before he’s finally shown the world that he’s Not an uptight stiff with no personality. I’ve been concerned all along with the general election, in the primary I see gore easily beating Clinton, for several reasons, one I Don’t see her winning the general election and I think most Dems would rather run someone that’s not named bush or Clinton. That leaves Obama, another one im up in the air about, I need to see some substance from him, then I’ll decide. But I’m realizing that if the Dems come out swinging for the next two years and actually accomplish some things, or at least make valiant efforts which force the republicans to show their true colors then honestly I think the Dem primary will be the general election. If the Dems can show some backbone for two years then the repubs won’t have a chance. At which point we need to get the Best Dem to run not just the most winnable, yeah its really really sad that those aren’t mutually exclusive but they’re not, and you know they’re not. At this time unless Obama really comes forward as a leader, then I think Al will be our best person available in ’08.

But, there are still lingering issues. A big one for me is this little anti-first amendment crew known as the P.M.R.C. founded by Tipper Gore, lets just say I’m not a fan of the Tippster. Come on her name’s Tipper. If Al was elected then you know she would be closer to a Hillary first lady than a …what da hell’s her name?… Laura type. If nothing else I’m confident that she would try to tighten control over free expression in music. That doesn’t bode well in my world. Then again with the changing world of music ownership it might not matter. Sure she would deprive children of being able to buy music at their local mall, but big deal they usually only sell pop crap anyway, they’ll still be able to buy online, or download music (legally or not) and so maybe the power of a group like the PMRC is gone. And considering that I can’t find an actual site for them (it wasn’t on the first page of google) I’ll make an assumption that the original PMRC group has gone the way of the dodo. So maybe I shouldn’t use fear of Tipper against my buddy Al, need to do a little more investigation on the issue before I decide.

Here’s a reason I like Gore that I’ve never even thought of before. He has a strong scientific background. I’ll put this in mild terms, I would suspect that Gore would not allow creationism, ID, or any other religious dogma to be taught as science. To put that another way I wouldn’t be shocked if he is an atheist. Now I have absolutely no evidence to back this up and I would almost guarantee that he says he’s christian, wouldn’t be surprised if he even praised god in public from time to time. He is a politician and that’s what you have to do in this country if you want to climb the political ladder. So in my book this is a big advantage for him, we may only make up like 10% of the population but then again it only takes 20% of the country to pick a president. Before anyone argues that point look it up, in 04’ 62 million people voted for bush. Out of just under 300 million at the time that’s just slightly over 20% so bite me.

As I alluded to before, the only people I see coming to the fore are not inspiring me. Hillary is the big gun but she carries so much baggage that she alone could ruin my theory that the Dem primary is the only race that will matter. Again that’s making the big assumption that the Dems show a spine for the next two years other wise its still open. So with no one else impressing me I think I'm routing for Gore. Oh and one last thing, If Gore gets big support early on then Hillary, Obama and crew can continue to do their jobs as senators boosting up the party while Gore campaigns. It could be the best route for the party and the country, some of us do still think about more than just the party.

Oh I lied there is more. Dennis Kucinich I don’t know much about this cat but from what I’ve heard Id like him, but he’s another that I just can’t picture winning the general election, maybe as Al’s VP? Hmm... We might be on to something.