And ** Poly, ** thanks, and SHAME on you! I’m shocked, shocked I tell you!
The true debate here:
What is more boring, Al Gore, dutifully reciting DNC talking points, or Stoid, reposting them all here, since a simple link and a few relevant snips would be too understated.
Dumbya can’t run the country?
YAWN
Some things were obvious to some of us even before elections 2000. Virtually everything that he has done are things that he SAID he was going to do in the debates and statements leading up to the election… I am not surprised. All with the exceptions of stripping America of the constitution via Ashcroft, that little unforseen bonus is directly the result of 9/11 which no one knew about. OOPS I mean not many people knew about, apparantly someone in the white house had an idea but didn’t act on it.
If only people would pay closer attention and wake up before going to vote, we wouldn’t have this problem. For gods sake people:
The economy: Bush told everyone his intentions with the economy before the election, he’s only done what he said.
Foriegn Policy: He told everyone his intention was to withdraw US from the worlds problems and distance us from our allies. He has only done what he said.
Iraq: There were indications early on before the elections that he was targeting Iraq for war. Didn’t anyone pay attention when he announced who his advisors were?
Environment: Gee, lets dig up Alaska. Let’s get rid of alternative energy sources. All of this has been said before the election.
The list goes on. I can blame GWB for being incompetent, but certainly not for going back on his word. He’s done what he said he was going to do. People just decided not to listen until now when it’s already all fucked up. Why blame Bush for that? He won BASED ON WHAT HE SAID HE WOULD DO, WHICH HE HAS DONE. The only people I blame are the rejects who actually voted for him.
As for Gore, well… He had his chance in 2000 didn’t he? Where was he the entire time when he had the chance to just stand up and say: “Look, this guy is clearly retarded. He can’t form complete sentences without mungling simple concepts, he’s an ex-cocain addict, and he has the same economic policies that his dad used to drive the nation into the ground only 10 years ago.”. I don’t recall a single attack from Gore aimed directly at Bush or Bush’s lunatic ideas for the economy, environment, energy, foriegn policy, or anything else. 2004 is a little late after the damage is done for Gore to grow some juevos and start going on the attack. I’m looking for a new candidate in 2004 who is going to come out straight away, gloves off, and show the American people exactly what has gone wrong for them in this country blow by blow.
** anewthought, ** good points all, and true enough. If I could collectively slap America upside the head, I’d like nothing better.
But here we are. His Awfulness is in power. Our singleminded focus must be to get him out of power and replace him with someone reasonable. They don’t have to be great, they just have to be decent and be able to win. That last is key, so I’ll repeat it: able to win.
So far, the only one I see who could do it if the race were run tomorrow is Al. Let’s hope that changes if he simply will not.
Richard Nixon, despite his tremendous dishonesty and abuses of power, at least made some positive changes in the country. Some of the more notable ones are the elmination of the draft, signing Title IX into law, and working to improve diplomatic relations with China (the irony of which spawned the famous quote “Only Nixon could go to China.”). And when his underhandedness finally caught up to him, he realized he was toast and stepped down.
Compare this to the Clinton administration, the consensus for which credits ONE positive action, the Family Leave Act (search around a bit on www.thismodernworld.com for the cite…don’t remember which one it is right now). A veritable mountain of positive changes that never happened (remember when there was actually the possibility of single-payer health care?), and enactment of one spambrained law after another, like the Defense of Marriage Act (which no prior Republican administration even considered). And of course, when the Lewinsky scandal hit, Clinton was too much of a man to step down even when it became obvious he was accomplishing nothing for the rest of his term…not that he did much before.
Now Bush has managed to make a complete mockery of the office while still enjoying 50%-plus-one ratings…and only now does a member of that good-for-nothing “liberal” administration feel the need to speak up.
Sigh…a fraudulent president, and a waffling Democrat who speaks up only when he has absolutely nothing to lose. When our politicians can’t even measure up to Richard freaking Nixon, you know times are hard.
What “consensus?”
I don’t want to break up the Democratic cirle jerk by introducing facts here but after all this is Great Debates not a Democratic bordello.
People that actually disagree with me? Gahhhh Noooooo! must not debate them must avoid them like plauge.
Conservatives can actually be unusually articulate intelligent and enlightened? Wahhhh? I thought only Rich old white men that get their rocks off by watching the common man suffer from his mansion could be conservatives.
Like OH MY GOD He wuz totally robbed dawg! Or was he? Truth is we probably will never know. I refer you to this thread particulary Bob Cos’s excellent point
Gasp an impartial objective analyisist? This certainly has no place in this thread, my apologies.
That’s the speech Tony Blair would have given to Congress if he had any balls.
When are you going to get around to this?
AH, the GWB action figure. They did make a prototype in Texas Air National Guard outfit, but it went missing somehow…
Well, hell, anyone in their right mind would avoid plauge!
Categorical and exacting, Gore finally comes out of his shell to make mince-meat out of the brazen ideologues in charge.
Too little, too late? For the lenghty laundry list of grave blunders and plunders already made, certainly, for the ones that surely lie ahead, hopefully not. For one can only hope that Americans finally come out of the deep political hibernation they’ve been under while their country goes down the tube. A rather mystifying topic in and of itself.
FWIW, here’s the video: Fire Bush!
Not sure if you’re being sarcastic. IIRC, Gore kind of got blasted during campaign time for being too honest. Didn’t his critics say he was condescending, too straight-forward, and not diplomatic enough in his speaking?
If you floss regularly, you shouldn’t have a problem.
(Good to see you, Stoid.)
Al should have been campaigning on speeches like this, but he’s taken himself out of the running and should not go back on that. As angry as I am at him for his 2000 campaign, and for not running now, I could never trust him if he entered the 2004 race after exiting last December (barring a widespread “draft Al” effort which isn’t going to happen).
I’m just absolutely floored that anyone would think Gore would be a good candidate in 2004. Granted, none of the other candidates stand out yet, but A) it’s early, and B) none of the other candidates have ever blown a Presidential election like Gore did. I mean, Gore’s brutally conducted campaign was just three years ago. Have people forgotten it already? You do remember that he lost this same competition to a draft-dodging dimwit, right? Blather about Florida all you want; a decent candidate should have won 400 electoral votes. Clinton might have swept the nation.
That Gore can give a speech reciting truths long after they’re self-evident impresses me about as much as if he had read from a phone book. Praise for Gore for saying this stuff strikes me as being uncannily similar to the praise Bush gets whenever he gives a speech in understandable English; everyone seems to fall off their chairs when Bush manages to deliver a speech at least as good as the third runner-up in a high school public speaking competition. Now Gore is being praised for reporting that the sky is blue? For being a possibly better President than a guy who well may be remembered as the worst President since top hats were in style? Whoop-dee-frickin-do.
elucidator has been saying similar things for months and he’s more entertaining. Gore is sheer, utter mediocrity; if that’s better than Bush, it’s better, but it doesn’t make Gore any less dull and mediocre. If the point of the OP is the content of the speech then let’s discuss some points, but if the point of the OP is to laud Al Gore, give me a break. It’s like congratulating a modern-day astronomer for figuring out that the Earth revolves around the sun. He’s too late.
OK then.
Draft elucidator!
Run, 'luce, RUN!
He is spewing the same crap that he has for years! All the stuff about Kyoto…this from a man who drives a big SUV and takes Airfore 1 to go to Kyoto…the hypocrisy is monumental!
Al…my advice, takeit easy! Howabout:
-returning your tobacco subsidy payements to the US treasury…and stop whining about your late sister’s death fromlung cancer-YOU caused it!
-how about cleaning up that river in Tennesee…ya know, the one polluted by that zinc-mining company you own?
Quite honestly, I believe NOTHING that this fraud says! He is a rich man, and hasn’t the foggiest idea of how an economy works.
Thank God he’s on the trash bin of history. instead of being in the White House. yes, I don’t agree with Bush on Iraq…but he’s MILES aheadof Al Gorei n understanding basic economics!
I doubt anything Gore brought up in that speech will come as news to SDMB regulars, but as mentioned upthread and to the relief of some of the lemmings on board, this place’s hardly representative of neoconservative thought. I don’t know what the breakdown is amongst American Dopers, but even that segment of the board appears to be skewed left of The War Party – which is not saying much when you have Attila the Hun at the helm. Amongst foreign members Bush ratings pretty much reflect what the rest of the world feels. I can’t recall any point in recent history when anti-American feelings have been as high. And the reasons why, as Gore stated, are clear. What’s not so clear is why Bush continues to have the kind of support he does. Not without getting into one of those protracted and hopelessly futile debates about how that came about. I say futile because the oft-used excuse of blaming the (mass) media is a tad too facile an explanation. Sure, they’ve been almost monolithic in their support of the pResident’s actions since the shocking events of 9/11, but beyond that, there seems to be a real disconnect between the way Americans view the world and the way the world views Americans. There’s a feeling of testosterone overload coming from American shores and it’s becoming increasingly frustrating trying to separate the sources of same. I mean, at what point do we start pointing at Americans in general and not just Dubya & Co.? Surely if you finally elect the guy you must bear some of the responsability? But what about now?
For that reason alone, I’d applaud any public figure anywhere in the political spectrum, from Pee Wee Herman to Mr Terminator – let alone Gore – that finally has the yarbles to call it like it is. Because it reminds the rest of us that the distinction is there, that it’s not really us against them. Would that we could do more; it’s frustrating to be reduced to being mere spectators when in all reality American actions have such a direct impact on the rest of us. Spreading animosity and fear wrapped in lies is not the way to go – no matter what Bush tells you, you won’t benefit from said approach. But they will. And have already.
So yeah, I wholeheartily agree with the OP…preach it Al…or Pee Wee…or elucidator…or Diogenes…
No, I wasn’t being sarcastic. I volunteered at campaign headquarteres here in Nashville and by and large the feeling was that if Al would just drop the “handlers” ideas of how he should present himself and just be himself, he would have come across much more sincerely.
The best speech he gave during the 2000 election period was his concession speech. It was one he mostly wrote himself and one that came from his heart. This current speech sounds more the Al Gore that his supporters know and love and less like the “handled” Al Gore we saw during the campaign. He was hampered by being over handled, refusing to acknowledge the contributions of Bill Clinton (due to a serious dislike of the man), and overly concerned with not appearing unlikable.
Unfortunately, worrying about image made him seem stiff and unlikable. He should have just been himself. It wasn’t honesty that got him blasted, it was an over-reaching attempt to be “likable”–which didn’t work.