BREAKING: Gore's endorsement

and here ya have it...

fresh out of my email...

Dear xxxxx,

A few hours from now I will step on stage in Detroit, Michigan to announce my support for Senator Barack Obama. From now through Election Day, I intend to do whatever I can to make sure he is elected President of the United States.

Over the next four years, we are going to face many difficult challenges -- including bringing our troops home from Iraq, fixing our economy, and solving the climate crisis. Barack Obama is clearly the candidate best able to solve these problems and bring change to America.

This moment and this election are too important to let pass without taking action. That's why I am asking you to join me in showing your support by making a contribution to this campaign today:

https://donate.barackobama.com/gore

Over the past 18 months, Barack Obama has united a movement. He knows change does not come from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue or Capitol Hill. It begins when people stand up and take action.

With the help of millions of supporters like you, Barack Obama will bring the change we so desperately need in order to solve our country's most pressing problems.
If you've already contributed to this campaign, I ask that you consider making another contribution right now. If you haven't, please take the next step and own a piece of this campaign today:

https://donate.barackobama.com/gore

On the issues that matter most, Barack Obama is clearly the right choice to lead our nation.

We have a lot of work to do in the next few months to elect Barack Obama president, and it begins by making a contribution to this campaign today.

Thank you for joining me,

Al Gore

LIVE TONIGHT -- 8:30 p.m. EDT: Watch streaming video of Al Gore and Barack Obama at a rally in Detroit, Michigan

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Are they going to try to raise Gore from the dead?

hmmmmmmmmmmm...

Plans for Al Gore to take the Democratic presidential nomination as the saviour of a bitterly divided party are being actively discussed by senior figures and aides to the former vice-president.

The bloody civil war between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama has left many Democrats convinced that neither can deliver a knockout blow to the other and that both have been so damaged that they risk losing November's election to the Republican nominee, John McCain.

Former Vice President Al Gore speaks at a news conference: Senior Democrats mull Al Gore's nomination. Former aides to Al Gore now believe he could emerge as a compromise candidate

Former Gore aides now believe he could emerge as a compromise candidate acceptable to both camps at the party's convention in Denver during the last week of August.

it'll be interesting to see how this evolves... not sure how i feel about al tho'...

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Time for a re-post on Mark Penn, HRC's Karl Rove

as hrc seems to be taking a hard turn toward the nasty, now hurling both ridicule and accusation - mostly in obama's direction - i think it's time to repost the item i put up back at the end of this past april that provides a wee bit of detailed background on the man i increasingly think of as hrc's karl rove, mark penn...

from the wapo...

In the four months since Clinton officially became a candidate, [Mark J. Penn] has consolidated his power, according to advisers close to the campaign, taking increasing control of the operation. Armed with voluminous data that he collects through his private polling firm, Penn has become involved in virtually every move Clinton makes, with the result that the campaign reflects the chief strategist as much as the candidate.

If Clinton seems cautious, it may be because Penn has made caution a science, repeatedly testing issues to determine which ones are safe and widely agreed upon (he was part of the team that encouraged Clinton's husband to run on the issue of school uniforms in 1996).

If Clinton sounds middle-of-the-road, it may be because Penn is a longtime pollster for the centrist Democratic Leadership Council whose clients have included Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.).

If Clinton resembles a Washington insider with close ties to the party's biggest donors, it may be because her lead strategist is a wealthy chief executive who heads a giant public relations firm, where he personally hones Microsoft's image in Washington.

And if some opponents see Clinton as arrogant, her campaign a coronation rather than a grass-roots movement, it may be because of the numbers wizard guiding her campaign and the PowerPoint presentations he likes to give on the inevitability of his candidate.

markos, atrios, david sirota, and many other bloggers working feverishly for the grassroots/netroots/unwashed masses have cited case after case of the stupendously arrogant, elitist, inside-the-beltway, dlc-anointed, democratic campaign consultants that are so pathetically out of touch with the real democratic/progressive base... today's wapo offers up the quintessential profile of one of those very folks, and then tries to make it look like hillary is passively acquiescent while he calls all the shots... i say bullshit... he's there because she wants him there... the first part of the article talks about how gore fired him from his 2000 campaign for all of the same reasons hillary apparently wants him...

fine, hillary,,, you're the candidate... you're the one that wants to be president... you choose the campaign staff you want... just don't come calling on me to vote for you...

p.s. penn's firm, penn, schoen & burland, is owned by burson-marsteller, and guess who's burson's ceo...? and guess what's featured on burson's home page...?

Burson-Marsteller CEO Mark Penn discusses the Internet's affect on U.S. campaign politics on Council of PR Firms' podcast [mp3]

from penn's burson-marsteller bio...

Mark Penn is worldwide CEO of Burson-Marsteller and President of Penn, Schoen and Berland. As CEO of Burson-Marsteller, Mr. Penn oversees a global network of 94 offices and 1600 employees that brings world-class public relations to companies around the world. As President of PSB, a position he has held since 1975 when he was an undergraduate at Harvard, Mr. Penn focuses on providing research-based communications strategy to political figures, corporations and crisis situations.

Mr. Penn has been called "Master of the Message" by Time Magazine; "The king of polls" by the London Times; and an "incandescent intellect" by the New York Times. On his wall are notes saying "you were brilliant" from Tony Blair after his historic third win and "thanks" from Bill Clinton after his impeachment acquittal along with photos of Penn working with CEOs including Bill Gates and Bill Ford, Jr. The Washington Post, in "Politics and Policy by the Numbers" summed up his influence in the White House and the corporate boardroom as a "unique vantage point: adviser to the preeminent innovator of the past decade in the realm of politics, Bill Clinton, and the preeminent innovator in the realm of business and technology, Bill Gates."

just the kind of guy to be advising hillary about how to relate to the electorate in the 2008 campaign, the most critical presidential election in the history of the united states...

hrc sold her soul a very long time ago... whether mark penn holds the marker is immaterial... she has a person like mark penn working for her because she's that kind of person herself... period...

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“Why won’t you submit to the personal unpleasantness of another presidential campaign so you can lead the fight to save the planet?”

the post title is a question posed by robert parry yesterday on his news site, consortium news, a question rendered even more poignant by this...

Former vice president Al Gore and a United Nations panel that monitors climate change were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize today for their work educating the world about global warming and advocating for political action to control it.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee characterized Gore as "the single individual who has done most" to convince world governments and leaders that climate change is real, is caused by human activity and poses a grave threat. Gore has focused on the issue through books, promotional events and his Academy Award-winning documentary "An Inconvenient Truth."

parry continues...

Gore would seem to have both a practical incentive – and a moral imperative – to enter the Democratic presidential campaign. At minimum, he could force the global-warming issue to the forefront of the debate.

Plus, if he were to win the nomination, he could make Election 2008 a referendum on whether the United States will confront real dangers to the nation’s future – from global warming to the Bush-era assault on reason – or continue to fret about exaggerated threats from al-Qaeda and to accept the erosion of constitutional liberties.

On a moral level, a Gore candidacy would be putting his body where his mouth is. Metaphorically at least, he would be throwing himself in front of the bulldozers. He would be taking the personal risks that he wants the young people to take. He would be providing real leadership, not just words.

Al Gore may have plenty of excuses for not running for President again. But he must recognize that he has some very compelling reasons to do so.

i am not al gore's biggest fan... but, that said, on the overall scale of relativity, i am closer to being an al gore fan than i am to being a fan of any other potential presidential candidate... and, i do agree with parry, i believe gore should either put up or shut up... besides, he's got some redemption to do, both for himself and for his fellow citizens, for not more forcefully challenging the criminality that deprived us of a principled man instead of an outlaw for a president...

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Gore Vidal: "This is the worst phase in our history"

a superb interview of gore vidal from canadian broadcasting... it's a 10 min. video clip, and up to the 2:41 remaining time marker, vidal offers his views on the current situation in the u.s., including his support for al gore as president in 2008.. from that point to the end, he shares personal reflections as he moves through the last years of his life...



gore vidal is truly a national treasure...

(thanks to casey at openyourmindseye...)

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It can't be said often enough or strongly enough

stephen crockett writing at consortium news...

The United States has been in a prolonged Constitutional crisis since the Supreme Court showed it had been corrupted by partisan politics when the Bush vs. Gore ruling was issued in December 2000.

and furthermore...

Because Bush is willing to misuse his Presidential powers and the Supreme Court has been packed with radical, partisan Republican appointees, only impeachment hearings will reveal to the public the abuses of the Bush White House. Only impeachment will bring these powerful criminals to justice and preserve the Constitutional rule of law.

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We might possibly consider doing something in the future on a voluntary basis, perhaps, but, then again, maybe not

al gore comments on the so-called g8 "agreement" on climate change...

It was a disgrace disguised as an achievement... .

The eight most powerful nations gathered and were unable to do anything except to say "We had good conversations and we agreed that we will have more conversations, and we will even have conversations about the possibility of doing something in the future on a voluntary basis perhaps."

and we'll plan to come again next year, depending, of course, on where the conference is held, and assuming it doesn't rain or isn't too hot, and the protestors aren't kicking up too much of a fuss...

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Too bad impeachment is so inconvenient, Al, you coulda been a contender

You don't understand! I coulda had class. I coulda been a contender. I coulda been somebody, instead of a bum, which is what I am.

Marlon Brando as Terry Malloy in
On The Waterfront

i'm crossing off Al Gore... evidently, impeachment would be too "inconvenient..."

i'm not necessarily looking for somebody to step forward and lead an impeachment effort, but i am damn sure looking for somebody to step forward and be willing to label the current situation in the united states for what it is, the most serious constitutional crisis in the nation's history...

Former US vice president Al Gore, a staunch critic of George W Bush, has said he doesn't agree with calls for impeaching the president due to lack of "time" and "consensus."

Many democrats feel that Bush should be impeached for allegedly misleading the country deliberately in the lead up to the war in Iraq.

"With a year and a half to go in his term and with no consensus in the nation as a whole to support such a proposition, any realistic analysis of that as a policy option would lead one to question the allocation of time and resources," Gore said during an interview with PBS.

Pressed on whether he believed that impeachment is a good use of time, Gore replied, "I don't think it is. I don't think it would be successful."

i don't really care whether or not he supports actual impeachment... what i do care a great deal about is that someone who purports to be a serious leader on the national level, whether or not he ends up running for president, can stand before the citizens of this country and call a spade a spade... al obviously isn't going to do that... furthermore, in the same interview, when he was given a SECOND opportunity to label what has taken place since the 12 december 2000 scotus decision, he said this...

On being asked whether he threw the towel in too soon in the 2000 presidential elections, where he narrowly lost to Bush, Gore said he had taken the fight as far as he could, and the only other option left was a "violent revolution".

"I took it all the way to a final Supreme Court decision. And in our system, there is no intermediate step between a final Supreme Court decision and violent revolution. So, at that point, having taken it as far as one could, then the question becomes, are we going to be a nation of laws and not people?" Gore replied.

"Do I support the rule of law, even though I disagree with the Supreme Court's decision? I did disagree with it, and I think that those of us who disagreed with it will have the better of the argument in history," he added.

let me ask you, al... if you were standing in shit up to your eyeballs, would you call it shit or would you call it "inconvenient...?"

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Gore in the Guardian

the guardian offers an excerpt from gore's new book, the assault on reason...

The seductive appeal of exercising unconstrained unilateral power led this president to interpret his powers under the constitution in a way that brought to life the worst nightmare of the founders.

not having read the book, i can only comment on the excerpt, which i find disappointing in that the above is the only hint i can find of gore's admission that the u.s. is in a bona fide constitutional crisis... bush is not "interpreting" his powers, he has DEFINED them in ways that are blatantly unconstitutional and i am sorry to see al gore skirting that fundamental point...

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"From time to time, things have to change in order to stay the same"

i had seen david vest's article in counterpunch referenced in a couple of other blogs, but i hadn't clicked over there to read it myself... in a way, i'm sorry i did... democrats... republicans... what the hell difference does it make...?

For the corporate powers behind the candidates, the rule is as it ever was: from time to time, things have to change in order to stay the same.

[...]

Once upon a time, Bill Clinton filled the Interior Department with "environmentalists." Bush filled it with oil company hacks. Who was more honest?

Lo and behold, when they cut down the old growth forest, it didn't make much difference to the trees and the rivers and the critters, whether oil company insiders or professional environmentalists were sitting at the desks in Washington. Eight years of Clinton-Gore, two terms of Bush-Cheney: the toxic dumps remain, and only the rhetoric has changed, to protect the naïve.

Demonstrably now, it makes no difference to the war whether Republicans or Democrats control Congress. Do you suppose the shooting will end, on the day when a refined, well-spoken Democrat, who reads poetry perhaps and scorns the religious right, and who doesn't embarrass us when receiving foreign dignitaries, succeeds the bumbling oaf Bush?

Think so? Or do you suspect people will soon be wailing, "I don't understand these people! They control Congress, the White house, and the military! Why don't they stop the war?"

i think this may be one of the reasons why i'm finding it so hard to get any energy going today... i bounced out of bed on a beautiful morning and, not long afterward, felt the malaise slowly creeping in, accompanied by thoughts of "why bother" and "what the hell difference does it make..." i think most of us who spend time seriously keeping up with what's going on and putting ourselves out there through blogs and political action, would like to believe we can actually make a difference... while i don't deny that it's possible, sometimes the enormous power of our entrenched and incredibly powerful system seems just too overwhelming to tackle and our efforts too puny and too futile to continue to pursue... when does commitment and dedication turn to masochism...? today, it feels like masochism...

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Remember the good ol' days when Bush would actually withdraw his support?

ya gotta love it... a master big-mouth accusing others of big-mouthery...

During a CNN appearance today, Lott said that he was “concerned” that the Republicans “had this frank discussion with the president, which could have been very positive, and then they came out and started talking about it.”

“[T]hey broke one of the cardinal rules, in my opinion,” Lott said. “If they’d have kept their mouths shut, their value of speaking candidly would have been worth a lot more.”

ok, trent... i hear ya, baby... 'course, YOU never did anything stupid...

Tremendous political controversy ensued following remarks Lott made on December 5, 2002 at the 100th birthday party of Sen. Strom Thurmond of South Carolina. Thurmond ran for President of the United States in 1948 on the Dixiecrat (or States' Rights) ticket. Lott said:

"When Strom Thurmond ran for president, we voted for him. We’re proud of it. And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn’t have had all these problems over the years, either"

Once reported in newspapers and television, calls for his resignation as majority leader from both ends of the political spectrum grew. Some Democrats and Republicans considered the remark inappropriate. Al Gore called the statement "fundamentally racist". Many conservative groups and media were quick to distance themselves from Lott and criticize the incident.

[...]

Under pressure from Senate colleagues, and having lost the support of the White House, Lott resigned as Senate Republican Leader on December 20, 2002.

and, amazingly enough, the guy is still given a forum to jack his jaws...

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Mark Penn, the behind-the-scenes, DLC, Washington insider that runs Hillary 2008

read this and then guess yet ANOTHER reason why i wouldn't vote for her...

In the four months since Clinton officially became a candidate, [Mark J. Penn] has consolidated his power, according to advisers close to the campaign, taking increasing control of the operation. Armed with voluminous data that he collects through his private polling firm, Penn has become involved in virtually every move Clinton makes, with the result that the campaign reflects the chief strategist as much as the candidate.

If Clinton seems cautious, it may be because Penn has made caution a science, repeatedly testing issues to determine which ones are safe and widely agreed upon (he was part of the team that encouraged Clinton's husband to run on the issue of school uniforms in 1996).

If Clinton sounds middle-of-the-road, it may be because Penn is a longtime pollster for the centrist Democratic Leadership Council whose clients have included Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.).

If Clinton resembles a Washington insider with close ties to the party's biggest donors, it may be because her lead strategist is a wealthy chief executive who heads a giant public relations firm, where he personally hones Microsoft's image in Washington.

And if some opponents see Clinton as arrogant, her campaign a coronation rather than a grass-roots movement, it may be because of the numbers wizard guiding her campaign and the PowerPoint presentations he likes to give on the inevitability of his candidate.

markos, atrios, david sirota, and many other bloggers working feverishly for the grassroots/netroots/unwashed masses have cited case after case of the stupendously arrogant, elitist, inside-the-beltway, dlc-anointed, democratic campaign consultants that are so pathetically out of touch with the real democratic/progressive base... today's wapo offers up the quintessential profile of one of those very folks, and then tries to make it look like hillary is passively acquiescent while he calls all the shots... i say bullshit... he's there because she wants him there... the first part of the article talks about how gore fired him from his 2000 campaign for all of the same reasons hillary apparently wants him...

fine, hillary,,, you're the candidate... you're the one that wants to be president... you choose the campaign staff you want... just don't come calling on me to vote for you...

p.s. penn's firm, penn, schoen & burland, is owned by burson-marsteller, and guess who's burson's ceo...? and guess what's featured on burson's home page...?

Burson-Marsteller CEO Mark Penn discusses the Internet's affect on U.S. campaign politics on Council of PR Firms' podcast [mp3]

from penn's burson-marsteller bio...

Mark Penn is worldwide CEO of Burson-Marsteller and President of Penn, Schoen and Berland. As CEO of Burson-Marsteller, Mr. Penn oversees a global network of 94 offices and 1600 employees that brings world-class public relations to companies around the world. As President of PSB, a position he has held since 1975 when he was an undergraduate at Harvard, Mr. Penn focuses on providing research-based communications strategy to political figures, corporations and crisis situations.

Mr. Penn has been called "Master of the Message" by Time Magazine; "The king of polls" by the London Times; and an "incandescent intellect" by the New York Times. On his wall are notes saying "you were brilliant" from Tony Blair after his historic third win and "thanks" from Bill Clinton after his impeachment acquittal along with photos of Penn working with CEOs including Bill Gates and Bill Ford, Jr. The Washington Post, in "Politics and Policy by the Numbers" summed up his influence in the White House and the corporate boardroom as a "unique vantage point: adviser to the preeminent innovator of the past decade in the realm of politics, Bill Clinton, and the preeminent innovator in the realm of business and technology, Bill Gates."

just the kind of guy to be advising hillary about how to relate to the electorate in the 2008 campaign, the most critical presidential election in the history of the united states...

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Why is THIS still being moved as "NEWS?"

as of wednesday afternoon, yahoo news and the ap are still moving this as news...

Group: Gore a hypocrite over power bill

Al Gore, a leading voice in the fight against global warming, is being called a hypocrite by a conservative group that claims his Nashville mansion uses too much electricity. But a spokeswoman for Gore said the former vice president invests in enough renewable energy to make up for the home's power consumption.

The next day, the Tennessee Center for Policy Research put out a news release saying Gore was not doing enough to reduce his own consumption of electricity.

yes, the story now carries gore's response, but, considering it was never "NEWS" in the first goddam place, i'd like to know why, as of wednesday, 3:50 p.m. est, it still is being carried in the top 7 yahoo news stories, particularly with such a sensationalist and misleading headline...



and, oh yeah, it also doesn't bother to mention keith olbermann's excellent debunking...



if the democrats had organizations around the country working 24/7 on new, sensational, and largely vacuous ways to smear national republican figures, i would bet, along with atrios, they wouldn't have 1/100th the media exposure...

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Presidential election polls with over 20 months to go

yeah, well, whatever...

Among Democratic candidates, Clinton and Obama top the list with John Edwards third at 28 percent and former Vice President Al Gore--who has not yet announced his intention to run--at 26 percent.

i do like THIS paragraph, however...

The survey also indicates that 45 percent of respondents would first choose a Democratic for president, compared to 31 percent who would first choose a Republican.

anybody considering voting for a republican simply isn't firing on all cylinders...

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Gore - free radical in the body chemistry of the 2008 election

yes, yes, yes, i KNOW it's only february '07, and, yes, i am ALREADY sick of the 2008 presidential campaign... i'm especially sick as i look at the emerging list of democratic candidates who seem intent on proving that they don't have what it takes to provide leadership to the u.s. at perhaps the most critical point in its history... even more, i'm positively bilious as i look at the pathetic and potentially dangerous candidates on the r side of the fence... however, with all that said, i found myself reluctantly captivated by buddydharma's daily kos diary pushing a gore-obama ticket... then there's this...

[T]here are multiple reasons for Gore to hold off on entering the race.

First, he can bank on his name reputation getting stronger in the intervening months as he continues to promote his message on controlling global warming. Meanwhile, Kornacki writes, he can "steer clear of any early skirmishes between Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards, instead allowing the three front-runners to drive each other’s negatives up."

The moment Gore is looking for, he adds, is one in which the race becomes about Senator Hillary Clinton. The likely scenario for Gore to become a candidate is one in which he is "convinced that he could quickly and bloodlessly push [Obama and Edwards] aside, setting up a Hillary-versus-Al contest for the nomination."

But there are also reasons Gore might not choose to enter the race. If Obama or Edwards make gains against Clinton, Kornacki writes that he may not want to further crowd the fray. He also must fear "the risk of being branded, for all of history, as a two-time loser."

what's a body to do...? at some point, probably late this year, i want to go to work for somebody and i will have to make a choice... i can think of lots of things much worse than a gore-obama ticket...

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