Al Gore has won the Nobel Peace Prize for his leadership on global warming. He was so heavily favored that I actually thought he wouldn’t win, but sometimes predictions come true.
Naturally, the focus is on whether he’ll now run for president. Personally, I think he’s more impressive than anyone now in the field. But I also think he shouldn’t run, for two reasons: (1) Hillary Clinton and, to a lesser extent, Barack Obama are running strong, well-funded campaigns, giving Gore less than a compelling rationale for jumping in; and (2) the media seem to lose their collective minds in the presence of Gore, as Bob Somerby has so impressively documented.
The next two weeks will tell. But I don’t think a Gore 2008 campaign is going to happen.
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Anonymous
Is it a coincidence that “Gore” and “God” have the first two letters in common? No. There are no such things as coincidences. Only miracles. Al Gore is the Second Coming of Jesus. Every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Albert Gore is Lord!
Bill Baar
I’ve long predicted Gore-Obama in 2008 out of a brokered convention resulting from HRC, Obama and Edwards each winning at least one big state.HRC seems to be demolishing that scenario…. so it may well be HRC-Gen Clark instead… Dems going with a tough-guy ticket instead of the therapist ticket.
Anonymous
Interesting that the media throws up their collective hands, asking “who, me?” on this subject. They created Gore out of whole cloth and are now “shocked, shocked!” that his bona fides may not quite live up to the puffery.Won’t matter anyhow, it’s all about the agenda, right? Biggest loser in this whole debacle (other than media credibility), is the Nobel Peace Prize, which actually used to mean something. In a just world, Al’s $1.5 million would be awarded to him in carbon credits.
Bill Baar
They created Gore out of whole cloth and are now “shocked, shocked!Well give Gore some credit here for reinventing himself.He saw an opportunity with Global Warming and took it.The Nobel Committee wants to promote Gore and hopes Amercians will draft him to run.This isn’t the media’s show. Gore’s a skilled guy with skilled people working for him.He may be using the media, but the media is far from responsible for having created the Green incarnation of Al Gore… it’s been their a long time and Gore just seized the right time to let it out.
Sean Roche
Why is it natural that the focus will turn to horse-race considerations of will or won’t he run for president?He just won the Nobel Prize because he’s been tirelessly saying we have to pay more attention to the global warming crisis and the media’s response is to ignore his message and shift attention to politics.He didn’t reinvent himself. He did what he did before he ran for President. Think deeply about big issues. That tendency and his inability to connect to voters, caused him to lose the race. The qualities that make him an effective advocate are not correspondent to those that would make a good president (though he would have been better than W).The moment he entered the presidential race, all candidates would have to distinguish themselves from his global warming position. Think anybody’s going to go to the left of Gore?Better for all of us that he’s doing what he’s doing.
Anonymous
What in the world . . . the media “created Gore out of whole cloth”? . . . . I could have sworn the guy served in the House, then the Senate, where he was widely regarded as highly intelligent . . . . wrote some books . . . served as Vice President of the United Sates for 8 years . . .the media made him up?
Anonymous
I’m not necessarily opposed to Gore winning the Peace Prize, but it does underscore the fact that we really should have a Nobel Environmental Prize of some kind. Gore is doing good work, but it isn’t really peace-related; the same goes for that woman in Africa who won it a few years ago for planting trees. They both deserve a different Nobel prize, and then we could have given the Peace Prize to the Burmese monks, which would have been a brass-balls gutsy move to make.
Anonymous
I might have to eat my words, but the “brokered convention” is as likley as the next media phenomenon being a radio serial. They just don’t happen anymore.Gore’s too late to secure the necessary financial backing.Bob in Peabody
Peter Porcupine
Besides – he invented the Internet to advance his Green Candidacy! No more carbon-based paper mailings or signs!I envision a Gore-Nader ticket!
Rick
Today…..The chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Ole Danbolt Mjoes, addressed reporters after the awards were announced and tried to dismiss repeated questions asking whether the awards were a criticism — direct or indirect — of the Bush administration…He said the peace prize is only a message of encouragement, adding, “the Nobel committee has never given a kick in the leg to anyone.”2002…..The Norwegian Nobel Committee contrasted Carter’s success in finding peace between Egypt and Israel through diplomacy with President Bush’s vow to oust Saddam Hussein, by force if necessary.“It (the award) should be interpreted as a criticism of the line that the current administration has taken,” said Gunnar Berge, the Nobel committee chairman. “It’s a kick in the leg to all that follow the same line as the United States.”________________________The Nobel committee has no credibility.
O-FISH-L
Czech President Vaclav Klaus took the words right out of my mouth: “The relationship between (Al Gore’s) activities and world peace is unclear and indistinct.” Rush Limbaugh also summed up the Gore Nobel Prize quite nicely: “A pure, 100% joke.”Personally, my guess is that the hundreds of executed pro-democracy monks in Burma whose mutilated bodies were dumped in the jungle must have come in a close second to Gore.
Don (no longer) Fluffy
The Nobel Prize Committee has officially hit rock bottom. All credibility is gone. AlGore, geez. . . .
Anonymous
When Gore produces his first non-fiction documentary will he again be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize?Why not award one to Michael Moore as well?Glen BergendahlWeymouth
Anonymous
Bravo for Al Gore. It’s nice to see someone who cares about facts and science get some recognition.
Anonymous
The Nobel Prize Committee has officially hit rock bottom…The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded by a committee from Norway. Not the Swedish Royal Academy, which awards most of the other Nobel Prizes.FYI, the economics prize is not awarded by the SRA, either. It is awarded by a bank.–raj
Bill Baar
re: brokered conventions… I know it was slim but it seemed HRC, Edwards, and Obama about equally waited a few months ago and it really depended on Edwards not tanking quite the way he has.I know a lot of Illinois Dem activists dismayed by HRC as candidate.
Bill Baar
Ed Kilgore on Brokered Conventions.