Yesterday I got to see the "New and Improved" Al Gore close up. I watched the speech three times to make sure I wasn't fooling myself. But when he called The People to action, I knew. He's running for President in 2008. Everyone here knows that Howard Dean would be my first choice under any circumstances. But Dean has said, and rightly so, that there would be no sense in him running if the Democratic Party was as dysfunctional as when he assumed the Chairmanship.
Throughout the speech yesterday I found myself saying "Yes, Mr. President." at least half a dozen times. Not because he was saying anything new but, like Dean, Al Gore has become comfortable with the Truth his heart speaks. It saddens me deeply that it it's taken more than five years for a Democrat to say that "The President has repeatedly broken the law." and that such lawbreaking represents "a pattern of indifference." But it's finally been said, and Gore has picked up the standard dropped so badly by Kerry and Edwards.
Although most folks don't realize it, Global climate change is THE issue facing all of humanity. We should have begun what was necessary when Carter was President, and now we have genuine disasters looming on the horizon. I think that Al Gore has a keen grasp of the problem and how dramatic changes in the energy sector could go a long way toward reversing the damage already done. On nearly every other issue, I trust that he would take what went right with the Clinton years and take a new path that would move us toward the twenty first century that this world has long hoped for. But most of all we need a statesman who can articulate that direction, one who knows how to seize his moment in history. I think Al Gore did this yesterday.
When this Statesman finally puts words to his de facto announcement of candidacy yesterday, I believe his running mate will be none other than the man whose leadership takes back both houses of Congress this year.
Throughout the speech yesterday I found myself saying "Yes, Mr. President." at least half a dozen times. Not because he was saying anything new but, like Dean, Al Gore has become comfortable with the Truth his heart speaks. It saddens me deeply that it it's taken more than five years for a Democrat to say that "The President has repeatedly broken the law." and that such lawbreaking represents "a pattern of indifference." But it's finally been said, and Gore has picked up the standard dropped so badly by Kerry and Edwards.
Although most folks don't realize it, Global climate change is THE issue facing all of humanity. We should have begun what was necessary when Carter was President, and now we have genuine disasters looming on the horizon. I think that Al Gore has a keen grasp of the problem and how dramatic changes in the energy sector could go a long way toward reversing the damage already done. On nearly every other issue, I trust that he would take what went right with the Clinton years and take a new path that would move us toward the twenty first century that this world has long hoped for. But most of all we need a statesman who can articulate that direction, one who knows how to seize his moment in history. I think Al Gore did this yesterday.
When this Statesman finally puts words to his de facto announcement of candidacy yesterday, I believe his running mate will be none other than the man whose leadership takes back both houses of Congress this year.
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