In 2000, Al Gore came as close to being elected President of the United States as humanly possible when he won the popular vote. Florida, a state that has certainly not escaped the mind of Gore, had 25 electoral votes.
After the election, Gore disappeared, falling out of the political picture to grow a beard and become a visiting professor at Middle Tennessee State.
Now with a cleanly-shaven face and an Academy Award-winning documentary, Gore is not your father’s vice-president.
Gore should run for president for one simple reason: he could win.
While Democrats would love to have him back as their nominee, the Green Party would also welcome the chance of any environment-loving candidate. Some people have become so creative as to draw up the slogan “Go Green. Go Gore.”
Gore should just say “I told you so,” with most of the platforms that Gore ran under in the 2000 election proving correct.
Gore’s strongest point is that he opposed Iraq right from the start.
When everyone from George Bush to Hillary Clinton said that we must invade, Gore stood firm by his anti-war beliefs. In an election filled with what to do in Iraq, Gore can stand tall and say, “I told you this was a bad idea.”
How do you debate that?
With the first snow of the year not coming until Valentine’s Day this year, the realities of the global-warning argument can now by witnessed clearly. In his documentary, “An Inconvenient Truth,” Gore explains how serious the threat of a climate crisis is in an alarming presentation that would get any environmentally-concerned vote.
In a primary that would include a freshman senator, a former one-term senator, and a senator of eight years, Gore would be the experienced one; the only one with executive experience; the only one with military service experience.
When Clinton, Barak Obama and John Edwards bring up the Gulf War, Gore could say, “I remember voting on that.” When they call Iraq another Vietnam, he can say “I served in that war.”
But, Gore could be considered too well rounded to fit the Oval Office.
In an age when Hollywood is a more influential arena than Washington, Gore’s message could find more living rooms through the silver screen than from the White House; unless people start hanging posters of Condoleezza Rice and Nancy Pelosi instead of Jessica Alba and Paris Hilton on their dorm room walls.
Gore is having the time of his life.
He has been down the power grid of Washington before. After leaving a land of personal agendas, he has found his message; why would he go back?
If Al Gore were to run for president, he should have started by now.
In a room full of Hollywood money, an Oscar acceptance speech would have been the prefect time to declare a candidacy. To an extent, the Oscars made a mockery of his potential announcement during a parody depicting a conversation between Leonardo DiCaprio and Gore when music cut-off his so called “big announcement.”
Ironically, the reasons why Gore will not run will only serve as another strong point. He has become the American political figure that does not need the presidency.
Al Gore’s retirement from politics will produce angry democratic purists who would have welcomed him into an already star-powered primary. If students were upset that Fraioli didn’t challenge Hutch, the Democrats should be outright furious that Gore does not challenge an untested field.
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