October 2007: The Political Rehabilitation of Al Gore

“As for the battle, that ends tonight. I do believe as my father once said, that no matter how hard the loss, defeat might serve as well as victory to shake the soul and let the glory out” – Vice President Al Gore in his concession speech in 2000 after the U.S. Supreme Court handed the election to George W. Bush

The Roman Emperor, Marcus Aurelius, once wrote that “the best revenge is to be unlike him who performed the injury”. In the annals of American presidential politics this was never truer than for Albert A. Gore Jr.; for the man who used to self deprecatingly refer to himself as the former next President of the United States is today experiencing the sweetest revenge over his arch nemesis George W. Bush. During the 1992 presidential campaign against Bill Clinton, Bush’s father, sitting president George H.W. Bush, mocked Gore as the “…ozone man”, however it has been Gore’s dedication to raising awareness on the phenomenon of global warming that this month led the Nobel Peace Prize Committee to honor him for his enduring work over a period of twenty years.

At a time in his presidency when Bush’s popularity numbers are hovering at about 30%, the decision of the Nobel Committee is sweet, sweet revenge for the man who was actually elected President of the United States in 2000, before the highest court in the land snubbed its nose at 225 years of judicial precedent and decided to enter the presidential debate and hand the Presidency to the Governor of Texas. As president, Bush has proceeded to ignore the Kyoto Protocol, the United Nations framework on climate change, ratified by 172 sovereign nations and a deal part brokered by then Vice President Al Gore. At a time when the European Union and other leading industrial nations are making efforts to reduce carbon emissions and their dependence on fuels that harm the earth’s atmosphere, the United States under this president has shirked its responsibility.

In the aftermath of the award, it is perhaps natural that the thoughts of many have turned to whether Gore will now enter the race for the Democratic nomination for President in 2008. An independent draft Gore campaign has been working for months to build support across the country for a potential candidacy but Gore himself has refused to be drawn into the debate. It is completely understandable that the man who believes that he has been already elected President once, would not have the stomach for another run at the White House. There is no doubt that Al Gore would like to be President but there are many valid reasons why he shouldn’t and probably won’t run.

Firstly, as an undeclared candidate he is running at about a 12% preference rating among potential Democratic primary voters. That places him about 35 points behind Hillary Clinton and about 15 points behind Barack Obama. Even though an announced candidacy now would give him an immediate boost in the polls, the lack of a campaign organization, as well as the fact that most serious political donors have already committed vital election cash to the existing candidates, means that Gore would almost certainly come up short in the primaries.

Secondly, it is fair to say that Gore can have a bigger impact on the global warming debate by remaining outside the election cycle that will engulf the country in the next 13 months. If he were to enter the primaries now, his attention would be diverted to dealing with the many other significant issues facing the United States today, thereby sharply reducing his ability to drive on the environmental cause at a time when the topic is foremost in the minds of humanity.

Democrats believe that Gore rightly won the election in 2000 and that the result was illegally stolen from him. After two utterly disastrous Bush presidencies one can only look back and wonder what might have been, had the will of the American people been recognized and Al Gore been inaugurated in January 2001. It is inconceivable that the United States and the world would not have been in a much better state had Gore been America’s 43rd president.

As for the presidential election of 2008, David Remnick of “The New Yorker” magazine offers this opinion. “It may be that Gore really has lost his taste for electoral politics, and that, no matter what turn the polls and events take, an Al-versus-Hillary psychodrama in 2008 is not going to happen. There is no substitute for Presidential power, but Gore is now playing a unique role in public life. He is a symbol of what might have been”.

The rehabilitation of Al Gore is complete, and not before time.