March 21, 2007

"A heartbreak loser turned Oscar boasting Nobel hopeful globe trotting multimillionaire pop culture eminence."

Roll him on in!



That's a picture of Al Gore -- or a statue of Al Gore -- waiting for his car -- it better be a hybrid or we'll hear no end of mockery -- to go to Congress to tell them all about global warming. Ah, it's a Lincoln Town Car. So, get your comedy engines started.

Is the Al statue going to keep on rolling, into the presidential campaign?
Friends say Mr. Gore is content to be an evangelist for the world rather than a candidate for office. Hassan Nemazee, a Gore fund-raiser in 2000 and a friend of Mr. Gore and his wife, Tipper, was host of a dinner for them last fall, and recalled that Mr. Gore expressed his disdain for the “tomfoolery of politics” — the endless fund-raising, the repetitive glad-handing, the sniping among operatives.
But it's tomfoolery whether you're in or out, Al! I say, come on in! You're better than most of the other fools.

35 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ha Ha! He's a statue! I get it! You're reviving the old he's stiff and wooden smears!

Good job!

Oh! And he drove in a car. He's a hypocrite for not walking! He's a hypocrite for not driving a current hybrid that may or may not be better than a Hummer for the environment.

And he's fat! Don't forget that he could eat Michael Moore!

Fritz said...

Al Gore will try his best to scare children about polar bears, perhaps there is one in danger in Berlin. Marxist environmentalist Al Gore.

AllenS said...

Well, you know what they say: "One person's tomfoolery, is another person's skullduggery."

Fritz said...

Al Gore refuses to sit and listen to Republican opening remarks? Dingle should tell the witness he is no longer welcome.

Brian Doyle said...

C'mon Ann, even your assignment editor Matt Drudge is covering USA-gate.

Anonymous said...

"You're better than most of the other fools."

Damned with faint praise, Ann? And that would be "...other Democratic fools." wouldn't it? Just checking.

Brian Doyle said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Bruce Hayden said...

Actually, I think that Ann kinda does or did like the guy. Probably voted for him in 2000. And so, the faint praise she gives him is probably more than she would give almost anyone else right now.

Bruce Hayden said...

But I am not so kind. If he hadn't tried to litigate his way into the White House by disenfranchising active military personel in 2000, I would have a bit more sympathy for him. Regardless of what ultimately happened to him, Nixon's class act at conceding to Kennedy allowed him to run again.

Gore's problem right now is that the has set himself up for the charge of hypocracy. On the one hand, he screams at us that we need to become energy and carbon neutral. And on the other hand, he is one of the worst offenders, including when he is making his point.

Oh, and did I mention zink mines?

Fritz said...

Listening to him speak his environmental marxism reminds me of how we dodged a bullet in 2000.

Bruce Hayden said...

The other reason that I don't think that he would run is that from all appearances, losing in 2000 was invigorating for him. He had been raised to view the White House as his legacy. And it looks to me that he was running for it because he was expected to, and not because he had a deep seated internal need for it. And once he lost, he could go out and do what he really wanted to do - make some money and preach environmental wackoism. And so, the real Al Gore probably has probably come out. I just don't see him happy any more having aides pick his outfits based on polling numbers or focus groups. Or, really having to make speeches based on that either.

Anonymous said...

Listening to him speak his environmental marxism reminds me of how we dodged a bullet in 2000.

Ann, would you please award Fritz a prize for the stunningly bad metaphor of the day.

Palladian said...

So is all this environmentalism that the kids like so much these days about science or about religion? I mean, Gore's now an evangelist? Just put on the frock, light some incense and be done with it. But stop spewing your overheated religious emissions into scientific discourse.

Randy said...

Palladian swings and hits the ball out of the park! A home run!

Josef Novak said...

Good or bad, he lacks that critical amount of charisma that is required to turn everyman's head.

Fritz said...

The proposals he is advocating are equivalent to building the Titanic with the same probable outcome.

Fen said...

the man is either an idiot or one delusion short of total psychosis.

Or crafty. He founded a carbon credit offset company. Sits on the board. Gets a paycheck. Part of his compensation package is a gift of yearly offsets [what he claims he buys to offset his 20x footprint]. He cavorts around the globe scaring everyone into buying products from his company. Quite a racket.

I started one too. Its called fens_new_boat.com . Please donate generously. I promise promise promise all proceeds will to planting trees in some far off country you'll never check in on.

Bruce Hayden said...

I think the thing about charisma is important here. In 2000 and 2004, we had two charisma impaired candidates running against each other. Algore would not show well against either Obama for the nomination or Rudy in the general election. Yes, Hillary isn't any better herself, but she is married to Mr. Charisma.

eelpout said...

*dropping to the floor in the supermarket crying*

Whhaaaa! Everyone is paying attention to Al Gore. A DEMOCRAT. Not fair!

:(

Joaquin said...

Al will run.
He will be 'asked' to run in order to save the party. And he will. Plus............he hates Hillary.

George M. Spencer said...

Interesting the recent ferocity global warming opponents.

I think it began with Gore's appearance onstage at the Oscars with Leonard "I'm learning how to shave" DiCaprio. It must have been utter pomposity of it all that's compelled the furious revulsion we're now seeing.

Best of all was to learn that Pres. Bush, not Gore, actually has a private home in Texas that environmentally-oriented designers have praised. One man, humble, says nothing. The other, a blowhard, is revealed to be a hypocrite.

Synova said...

I've noticed the shift, too, george. I was willing to sort of coast along "skeptical but who knows, maybe they have something" and have recently decided that I'm a denier. And it may be the unseemly celebrity that pushed me over from being passive to some sort of declared opposition.

That and carbon credits and the "carbon neutral" talk that I hadn't really noticed before (that may have been the Oscars doing as well). I'd sort of heard of them but not really and in application every cell in my being objects to the entire concept of continuing to "sin" while paying someone else to be pious for you.

It's really that bad. And the pious ones would have been pious *anyway* and the ones with the extra cash to buy their virtue are still pumping out CO2.

Hey, I can sell some "faithful to my husband" credits and some "don't do drugs" credits or maybe I can trade them for "went to church" credits since I haven't lately.

How can anyone deny that it's just a scam? Heck, the human caused warming might be real (I don't think so, but nothing says I can't be wrong) but clearly the celebrities don't believe it.

Evangelism to be sure, and indulgences sold. An elite class that doesn't have to follow the rules they push on the peasants.

What part of this *doesn't* represent the worst elements of an institutionalized religion?

Joaquin said...

Dick - No seriously, it's a known fact that Gore REALLY dislikes her and welcomes the day when he can get some 'pay-back'
I'm told that it all stems from the fact that Hillary put the brakes on Bill campaigning for Gore in 2000.
If you remember, Bill was barely on the radar screen during the 2000 campaign.
Ah, the drama!

Anonymous said...

I feel compelled to point out that after indulgences came Martin Luther, after Martin Luther came the Protestant Reformation, and after the Protestant Reformation came the Thirty-Years War...

Stephen said...

Personally, I'm excited about an Al Gore vs. Fred Thompson campaign. Storyline: two ex-Senators from Tennessee go to Hollywood and find great success, but their lives are still empty, a void that can only be filled by the biggest job in the world. Dueling clips from Law and Order (fiction based on fact) and Inconvenient Truth (fact based on fiction)--I can't wait!

Joaquin said...

George - Here ya go.
http://thenorthlot.blogspot.com/2007/03/although-im-not-bush-fan.html

Bruce Hayden said...

Paul Snively

To cut your story short, the Roman Catholic Church selling indulgences from sin brought on all the deaths of the 30 Year War. We should probably throw in the massacre of the Huguenots in France, and even the more modern "Troubles" in Northern Ireland.

Eli Blake said...

Well, he now speaks with more authority than the President if their approval numbers are an indication (Gore: 48% approval rating, Bush: 35% approval rating.)

So he may not have become President in 2000 (we won't rehash all that) but his net performance for the past six plus years (and he's hardly kept quiet) has clearly been better than Bush's net performance for the same time period, if we assume (based on the election numbers) that they started out tied.

Revenant said...

You're reviving the old he's stiff and wooden smears!

They're not smears. Gore himself cracked jokes about his stiffness, back when he had a sense of humor.

You might as well say that jokes about Bush's mangling of the English language are "smears".

Revenant said...

Well, he now speaks with more authority than the President if their approval numbers are an indication

Equating popularity with authority doesn't make a great deal of sense.

his net performance for the past six plus years (and he's hardly kept quiet) has clearly been better than Bush's net performance for the same time period, if we assume (based on the election numbers) that they started out tied.

In the sense that "being consistently unpopular with a narrow majority of voters" is clearly better than "growing steadily more unpopular with a growing majority of voters". I wouldn't be tap-dancing with joy in either case.

Gore's numbers appear to be stuck at the same mediocre level they were at when he lost in '00. Given that a many of the people who voted for Bush have come to see him as a complete jackass you would *think* Gore would have gotten a bump in approval -- the "on second thought, Gore was right all along" vote. No such bump has been forthcoming. People hate Bush more and more, but they still think Gore is a schmuck. That says something about Gore's lack of appeal, don't you think?

I would note, in closing, that while Gore has "hardly kept quiet" for the past six years, he has also "hardly been paid attention to", save by people who already supported him in 2000. Bush and Bush's opinions, on the other hand, tend to be leading news items every day.

The Exalted said...

bruce hayden,

you amuse, as always. disenfranchising the military? they missed their deadlines. gore put up no fight to their acceptance, he did the opposite of what you are suggesting.

now, what would the rabid attack dog team of GW have done? they would have said "rules are rules" with no remorse, the same way they pushed to eliminate ballots where gore was both checked off AND written in.

Fen said...

you amuse, as always. disenfranchising the military? they missed their deadlines. gore put up no fight to their acceptance, he did the opposite of what you are suggesting.

Wrong again.

/begins

"But the absentee ballots of members of the military were challenged. Many were thrown out.

In the most shameful and painful act of the hand counts, the Democrats on the ground, and their operators from the Democratic National Committee and the state organization and the Gore campaign, deliberately and systematically scrutinized for challenge every military absentee ballot, and knocked out as many as they could on whatever technicality they could find or even invent.

Reports begin to filter out. The Democratic army of lawyers and operatives marches into the counting room armed with a five-page memo from a Democratic lawyer, instructing them on how to disfranchise military voters. The lawyers and operatives unspool reams of computer printouts bearing the names and party affiliation of military voters. Those who are Republicans are subject to particular and seemingly relentless scrutiny. Right down to signatures on ballots being compared with signatures on registration cards. A ballot bearing a domestic postmark because a soldier had voted, sent his ballot home to his parents and asked them to mail it in on time, is thrown out. A ballot that comes with a note from an officer explaining his ship was not able to postmark his ballot, but that he had voted on time--and indeed it had arrived in time--is thrown out, because it has no postmark.

The Democratic operatives are ruthless, focused. As one witness says, "They had a clear agenda."

Received late Wednesday, an e-mail forwarded from a Republican who witnessed the counting of the Brevard County overseas absentee ballots.


It is 11:30 PM (Tuesday) and I have just returned from the count of absentee ballots, that started at 4PM. Gore had five attorneys there, the sole objective was to disenfranchise the military absentee voter. .?.?. They challenged each and every vote. Their sole intent was to disqualify each and every absentee voter. They constantly challenged military votes that were clearly legitimate, but they were able to disqualify them on a technicality. I have never been so frustrated in all my life as I was to see these people fight to prevent our active duty Military from voting. They succeeded in a number of cases denying the vote to these fine Men and Women.
This was a deliberate all out assault on the Armed Forces solely to sustain the Draft Dodger and his flunky. These people must have a hard time looking at themselves in a mirror. .?.?. They denied a number of votes postmarked Queens NY, ballots that were clearly ordered from overseas, clearly returned from overseas, and verified by the Post Office that DOD uses the Queens post office to handle overseas mail, were denied because it didn't say APO, They denied military votes postmarked out of Jacksonville, Knowing full well it came from ships at sea and was flown into Jacksonville?.?.?.?.

This is what you can expect from a Gore administration a further trampling on the Military and more trampling on your rights.?.?.?.

The attorneys there treated it all as a joke, and when my wife protested their actions she was told she didn't understand."

http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/pnoonan/?id=65000671

Gore will forever be remembered as SoreLoserman. He's toast. He'll never sit in the oval office. Not after the stunt he pulled in Florida.

Wade Garrett said...

Ann - They don't make armored Toyota Priuses with bulletproof glass. If they did, I'm sure Al Gore would ride in one.

Stephen - if you think that An Inconvenient Truth is based on fiction, then I don't know what to say to you.

Was I thrilled about him as a candidate in 2000? No, but he had a better resume than the other guy, whose "aw shucks, just folks" attitude, cronyism, arrogance and politicization of justice have deeply hurt this country. Remember that post-9/11 Onion article, "America longs to care about stupid shit again?" We get the leaders we deserve - that's how we ended up with George W. Bush.

Fen said...

Stephen - if you think that An Inconvenient Truth is based on fiction, then I don't know what to say to you.

Yup. We're all heretics and apostates. Burn us!

We don't need another Religion.

Revenant said...

Ann - They don't make armored Toyota Priuses with bulletproof glass. If they did, I'm sure Al Gore would ride in one.

Oh, please, they make anything if you pay for it. The idea that a filthy rich hybrid advocate just can get his hands on a bulletproof one doesn't pass a laugh test. The reason he rides in limos is that he wants to look like a leader, not like he's commuting to his job at H&R Block.