Gore's 'Assault on Reason' an Assault on Bush

[RiverStone]

Source: ABC News

When former Vice President Al Gore hosted "Saturday Night Live" in December 2002, he appeared in a skit comparing his vice presidential selection process from two years before to the reality TV dating show "The Bachelor."

In one scene, Gore appeared in a hot tub with a faux Joe Lieberman, both of them shirtless, drinking champagne, arms locked, romance in the air.

Anyone then looking for clues to see if Gore would run for president in 2004 probably had no trouble discerning that an exploratory committee was not in the cards.

Almost five years later, Gore still says he has no plans to run for president, but his latest book, "The Assault On Reason," is so nakedly political and sharply critical it's hard to discern what his plans may be.



Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=3192596&page=1

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Gore says later in the interview: "History will surely judge America's decision to invade and occupy (Iraq)...as a decision that was not only tragic but absurd."

Reading his words I cannot fathom a more appropriate statesperson to represent the eloquence of what might have been, and the collective rage we feel for what has happened since during the BushCo regime.

Run Al, and take back what the Supreme Court stole from you 7 years ago!

[ClintonTyree]

1. He'd get my total support.......

I think Gore is the only person who can hit the ground running and even come close to undoing the damage done to our country and the world by the current criminal regime in the White House.

Your country and the world need you, RUN AL, RUN!

[PurpleChez]

25. I'll admit-not too long ago I wasn't champing at the bit for Gore

to get in the race. I guess I figured that Rove and the Swift Boaters already had so much on Gore that there would be nothing but sleaze attacks from the start. But I've done a 180 on this. I would literally wet myself if Gore got into the race. I'm not a Hillary Hater, but I'm not a big fan either. And while Obama is exciting I don't think he's got enough experience to win over a nationwide majority of voters. (Even though Dim Son has demonstrated that the rethugs would vote for a Mr. Potato Head if it pledged to end gay marriage.) Gore, to me, stands for reasoned defiance to the status quo. He is funny, intelligent, articulate. I so hope he runs.

[BigRed1975]

2. I'll look forward to reading the book...

That said, Gore doesn't have the ca-hones to run against Hillary. He wants no part of that confrontation. He got punked by the Clinton's before. His signature issue represented by Kyoto was shelved by the Clinton administration. Bill didn't exactly go out of his way to help Dems get elected in 2000 and 2004. Of course he wouldn't. A Dem presidency in either of those years would have all but shut Hillary out of future consideration for the presidential nomination. In fact, Clinton left the party in a lurch due to his tarnished integrity and set the stage for the Dems to wander in the wilderness until 2006. We might still be out there had it not been for colossal blunder of Iraq.

Look at the Iraqi Liberation Act..a 1998 policy that was foisted upon Clinton by the PNAC people largely because he was so weakened as a President by the Lewinsky scandal that he had no political capital to expend. The same can be said with respect to the missile defense shield which should have been discontinued as a boondoggle, but was allowed to continue due to the fact that Clinton was in no position to fight with the Republican congress. Gore was right with Clinton in vigorous support of both of these actions and has statements to that effect all over the record. There's no doubt in my mind that Iraq would have never happened under a Gore Administration, but I can't be so sure about 911. Where was the warning about terrorism as a national priority during the 2000 campaign? Where was the forward thinking is US foreign policy that would have realized a vacuum was created in Afghanistan post withdrawal of the soviets? Bush 1 should have responded. Clinton watched the world trade center be attacked and became aware of Al Qaeda under his watch. But what changes in US foreign policy did he initiate to ward off confrontation with Islam? Bin Laden declared war in 1996.

Need I go back a drudge up the original history of the Gulf War..Gore was one of the few democrats that voted for the 1991 resolution. Gore is hardly without culpability in this whole thing.

[rosesaylavee]

7. Karl, is that you?

There is plenty of evidence that the Clinton admin tried, unsuccessfully, to pass on their concerns regarding Al Qaeda in 2000. Clinton tried to kill Bin Laden a few times but was reprimanded by the publican congress at the time for acting preemptively.

9/11 wouldn't have happened under a Gore admin because Gore would have been listening to Richard Clarke all along and been aware of the chatter that increased from that spring thru the summer into Sept. Gore wouldn't have felt the need to take a month long vacation in August despite the threats.

Have a nice visit.

[MGKrebs]

8. Have some problems with Bill, eh?

Is it OK to consider a married couple as exactly the same, or only THIS couple?

[trumad]

9. "drudge" up

Excellent Pun for your stupid post.

[Kolesar]

15. ROFL ROFL

LOL would be more appropriate, but....

[Honeycombe8]

34. Yes. That was a giveaway. n/t

[MrPrax]

21. Thought criminal!!

Just read the brochures as they are handed to you, comrade!

Don't embellish them with your opinion. It will be wrong.

Do you really want to be a traitor to the cause by enabling the reactionaries to destroy us?

[RetroLounge]

22. Profile Hidden?

Gee, you think?

Have a nice stay...

RL

[Samantha]

31. Al Gore would have absolutely no problem taking on Hillary

They have had repeated head-on collisions since 1992 and absolutely do not like each other.

On the other hand, Hillary would cave if Al entered the race because she absolutely knows he can take it from her. And so he should.

[Recursion]

3. Funny thing about the SNL appearance

A lot of people said when Nixon appeared on Laugh In that it meant he wouldn't run again -- no one could be President after that, right? Different times and standards; same premise.

[sellitman]

4. Yet another perfunctory run Al run post. n/t

[JoFerret]

5. Perfunctory?

What's perfunctory about it?

[Guaranteed]

32. What does the word mean? nt

[The Count]

6. Disappointed in the interview...ABC shill was scolding Gore for calling W a liar

Instead of saying it to his face "well he is" - Gore was equivocating. Again.
Still didn't learn to smack down the smug media shills.

[rosesaylavee]

10. Somehow the page isn't loading

right for me so I can't see that video. Did you see him interviewed by Diane Sawyer yesterday on GMA? I thought he handled her very well - firmly led her back to issues raised in his book as opposed to her frame that this was "only" about a run for the presidency.

[Jazzgirl]

11. Rose...

Here is a link to the video. Try that.

http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=3195423

[NastyDiaper]

13. Bush lied. Even unintentional, it's still a lie.

lie /laɪ/ -noun
1. a false statement made with deliberate intent to deceive; an intentional untruth; a falsehood.
2. something intended or serving to convey a false impression; imposture: His flashy car was a lie that deceived no one.
3. an inaccurate or false statement
...

Considering war was at stake, I consider any definition impeachable.

Kucinich has the right angle imo for a ctrong case. Cheney certainly had a deliberate intent to deceive.

[missTheBigDog]

12. I love this quote

"But he does leave some wiggle room for the possibility of running in 2008. "Look, we're a year and half away from this election," he said, "I see no need to say, 'OK. I'm not ever going to even think about that in the future.'"

Run Al, run! This country needs you real bad right now! I would put in whatever volunteer hours needed for your campaign!

[april]

14. this is a must read

[Locrian]

17. its a great book

Its smart about bush too. Although yes, he slams bush, its with the facts. Again and again in the book he says its the DECISION process that is broken (ie the press and the way we get information). That is HUGELY important. It means that its not about Gore vs Bush. Its about how if we had a working democracy ie and informed citizenry that bush would NOT HAVE BEEN ABLE to happen.

Awesome book - I got it Friday 5/18 from our library. They had them on the counter (advance?) and I guess they didnt know it wasnt released yet!!!

[Kolesar]

16. The film "An Inconvenient Truth" was nakedly political

Filmmaker Laurie David framed that semi-autobiographical film in the context of what would have happened if the 2000 election was not "given" to bush*. Gore's anti-bush and anti-war message was definitely in that film. A toast to Ms. David!

[Locrian]

18. all the players

He lays out all the players in this game too:

The economic royalits: the rich, they simply dont believe in the public good / public sphere. Privatize EVERYTHING. They fund the right wing ie bush.

The neocons/imperialists: Powell doctrine, PNAC, Rumsfield, Cheney etc. World domination for amerikka.

The propagandists: Limbaugh, Matthews, Rieley. Tools of the economic royalists. They get the message out, 24/7.

The fundamentalists: They get the vote out with hot button issues.


They have all formed into a coalition to achieve the SAME goal. POWER.

[bleedingheart]

19. just ordered it

[MasonJar]

20. It was the Congress that killed the Kyoto Treaty, not Clinton.

[gauguin57]

23. Don't tell Tipper, but I kissed Gore's picture on the Time mag. cover after reading ...

... his book excerpt in the mag.

I got so frustrated reading the excerpt, though ... it so clearly shows the VAST difference between the ignorant monkey now running our country and the man who BEAT him in 2000.

[RiverStone]

28. And for the ignorant monkey...

How about using his image to line your cat's litter box with?

Ironically, when I ponder reading Gore's new book; I'm afraid it will up my rage meter that such an eloquent man was cheated out of an election he won by 1/2 a million votes.

Maybe if you keep kissing his picture, he will feel the good vibes and run for Pres? I won't tell Tipper...

[Lisa]

30. don't put *'s picture in the litterbox!

I sure wouldn't -- we've only just got ours to use the thing, and seeing * in there might spoil all the training -- she might panic and start doing her business elsewhere in the house!

[LiberalFighter]

24. I would love him to make a visit to the SC Justices that voted against the recount.

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

26. They miss the point of the book completely in their headline

As Gore says in the intro, it's too easy to blame our country's current problems solely on the bush administration. these are much bigger issues that require fundamental change. bush is just the symptom of the real disease in a lot of ways.

[Uncle Joe]

29. The point hits too close to home for them,

I imagine they missed it on purpose.

[Guaranteed]

33. That's right. The worst thing they could do is make it about Bush.

Obviously, this "administration" is a great example of the kind of bullshit Gore is talking about. But he's really concerned about the lack of opportunity for our citizens to be really involved in the political process.

[damntexdem]

27. Hear, hear!

I'd love to see him run.