Reply #216: Then post why AL Gore is great - is there a reason to attack other [View All]

[karynnj]

Democrats - on issues you give your own candidate a pass on. You've posted a number of posts on this thread attacking Kerry as not sufficiently supporting abortion - an issue he has a 100% rating on.

It is not necessary to attack Kerry (unfairly here) to praise Gore. I have no problem with Gore. I voted for him in 2000, though I preferred my Senator in the primary. Kerry himself actually treated Gore well, giving him a speech at Kerry's convention - even though Gore, like Carter was almost an outcast to the powers in the party at that time. Kerry also, unlike either Clinton, praised Gore when he (Kerry) gave a speech on energy alternatives this summer. It was largely based on his 2004 plan.

"In the last month Al Gore’s "Inconvenient Truth" has brought the science to millions of Americans in a dramatic and persuasive way. Al was an early leader and a visionary on climate change – and if he had not just been elected but been inaugurated as President, America today would be the world’s leading advocate, not the world’s leading opponent of climate change. "

The reason I mention this is that it would be great if all Democrats (including me and other Kerry supporters) praised the work of other Democrats when they thought it was warranted. Doing so, took nothing away from Kerry's own work, but praising Gore and Carter DID implicitly establish a Democratic claim to their own past.

In the Pepperdine speech, Kerry in addition to giving people a closer view of who he is was challanging the view that Republicans were the "Values" party.