Al Gore is playing his cards perfectly.

[trumad]

Become one of the most popular men in America and then run for President.

On edit: Heck---I'd say that he currently is the most popular Man in America.

[malaise]

1. Oh yes

last night was great.

[JNelson6563]

Amen!

He's brilliant. :toast:

[Why Syzygy]

2. Um.

Does he have any money to run? If his strategy is to hang back, I'm not sure I can agree that's a good play. If you have the best hand, you've got to build the pot.

I believe he can win the popular election again. But he needs $$$ to compete with the likes of Hillary. Wouldn't it be great, though, if he beat her!!!??? mmmm

[trumad]

3. The minute he announces he'll have more money then all of them

[NewJeffCT]

5. He has his own money

Since Bush was inserted into the presidency, Al Gore has done pretty well for himself financially...

No, he is not H. Ross Perot rich, but he should be able to use some of his own money to at least get off the ground while donations are coming in from everywhere.

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

14. I heard $50 million

That if necessary, Gore could pony up $50 million in his own funds for a race. Remember that Al's family is not exactly middle class to begin with. But he's done quite nicely with his ventures during the past six years.

[AlGore-08.com]

25. Just F.Y.I. Gore's family was lower middle class when he was a child

When the family was in Washington (his Dad was a Congressman and then a Senator), they lived in a "family hotel" (the equivalent of an okay to crumby apartment complex) run by cousins, because the cousins gave them a deal on the rent. Gore shared a room with his older sister Nancy until she left for college.

It was only after his father retired from the Senate that the family became well off. (By that time, Gore was a college graduate, and serving in the army.) The family was well off, but not super rich by any stretch of the imagination. Since he left the Vice Presidency, Gore has been very successful in his various business ventures (including his sustainable investment firm, Current TV, Apple and Google). Now Gore is reported to be extremely wealthy.

All of the press coverage about how Gore could run in 2008 mention that Gore is widely believed to be the only Dem who could jump in late and compete financially with HRC. He could write his own check for the primaries - - or he could tap into his huge rolodex of donors and raise a mountain of campaign cash that way, or he could raise a record breaking amount online.

[cali]

27. Sorry, but that's nonsense.

and borderline offensive. Trying to paint Gore as a child of the lower middle class when he was the son of a U.S. Senator, and as a child, attended the most elite private schools, is totally disengenuous, and I can't imagine to what purpose you are pushing such a fiction.

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

28. Al Gore Sr. was already in Congress when Al was born

While the Gore Family was not wealthy by some peoples' standards, Al Sr. was a practicing attorney, former Tennessee Labor Commissioner, and four-term congressman by the time his son was born. I think it would take an unusually large stretch of the imagination to think the family was somehow anywhere near the level of "working class," especially considering that Al Jr. attended St. Albans School and Harvard.

[lonestarnot]

4. Waiting and watching.

[Atman]

6. I think you're discounting the "Stupid Vote."

Here in NE is has been so cold it's hard to breathe outside. In New York, they're under 11' of snow. Snowboarding a couple times since Friday, I can't tell you how many times I've heard people in lift lines or sitting around the lodge saying "Al Gore is an idiot! Global warming, my ass!" The inability for people to understand the difference between weather and climate will be the stupid bait Fox News and the rest of the Cabal News Media uses to reel in the ignorant guppy vote against Gore.

.

[trumad]

7. Nope---I never discount the stupid vote.

on the same hand... stupid people vote based on popularity.

[frogcycle]

8. yeah, but

those same buttheads have to endure the coming summers and hurricane seasons. Granted, those too are not evidence of a global pattern by themselves, just saying that there will be a balance of anecdotal evidence. The buttheads who want to cherry-pick are lost causes anyway. They'd criticize him for the way he combs his hair if they didn't have snow to throw at him.

[trumad]

9. Yep---

2006 was a clear indication that we shouldn't concern ourselves to much with the MORAN vote.

[T Wolf]

17. Weather and climate - isn't that something we are taught in elementary

school? I guess that shows the limit of learning for the stupid vote bloc.

[bdamomma]

10. Gore was a presenter last nite at the Grammies, it was great to see

him and he got a wonderful response.

[oldtime dfl_er]

13. I missed the Grammys

Had no idea he would be on, or I would have made a point of watching. He would be my candidate the second he declared. In a way I wish he wouldn't, as he does such enormously wonderful things now. But the possibility of our next president being an Oscar winner, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, and the man who's doing something about the weather - while the rest of us just talk about it - is irresistible.

http://www.cafepress.com/scarebaby/2487792

[malaise]

21. You missed one of the best Grammys in

years. The Dixie Chicks won five Grammys - a great Fugg You Bush moment.


Al and family at the Grammys.

Edit - add photo

[malaise]

11. Can you put together a thread with Al's

accomplishments since 2000. Do you have photos of that lovely mercy trip he made to New Orleans even when Bushco tried to stop him.

[trumad]

16. That would be very time consuming

since there are many. From the early days of going after Bush with his brilliant speeches to now with his focus on the environment.... the guy has played it right every step of the way.

[malaise]

18. I agree with you 100%

but I think a timeline with photos and video links would be great for DUers.
Yes his speech last year started the mainstream discussion of the constitutional crisis. Go Al Gore!

[AlGore-08.com]

26. Photos of Gore in New Orleans are rare - - but here are some

They're rare because he refused to have any press cover him at all while he was down there.


9/3/05: Inside the New Orleans airport, Gore organizes the rescue of Hurricane Katrina victims with urgent medical problems.


9/4/05: In Knoxville TN, Gore helps unload one of the two planes he chartered to rescue Hurricane Katrina victims with urgent medical problems.

Faux News has some footage of him in the airport that they use occasionally - - the last time I know that they did was when they falsely claimed Gore said the Smirk admin was bribing scientists to deny global warming:

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/02/07/gore-climate-change/

For folks who don't know the story of Al Gore and Katrina, here it is:

http://www.tpmcafe.com/story/2005/9/7/164747/4155

[Marnieworld]

31. It should include links to his speeches as well

It's the speeches that kept me going. Al said things that few had the courage to say.

[Meshuga]

12. I hope that he really has the intention to run in 2008!

I will be sad if he doesn't run.

[durrrty libby]

19. Yes indeed. We have some terrific candidates but I will

be disappointed if Al does not run

[SammyWinstonJack]

15. I so hope he decides to run.

[Edweird]

20. I hope he runs, too.

Our country has a lot of work to do to fix this horrible mess we're in with the rest of the world, and he's the man to do it.
Gore/anybody (except lieberman)!

[Marnieworld]

22. What idiot would declare they are running if they were in Al Gore's position now?

He is going to get a year's worth of publicity without taking one trip to NH or Iowa or any of the other traditional ways of stirring up support. First the Oscars, then Nobel, then the concerts in the summer. He will be everywhere and getting publicity for actually doing something to make things better, not just talking about it.

He, if he really will run, is much smarter to wait. There is no reason to hurry at all and all of the benefit to waiting. He will not have a problem with fundraising once he does.

[Graybeard]

23. Gore/Obama? Sounds good to me...

...Gore won in 2000 by half a million votes. There are a lot of people who didn't vote for him in that election but think he got screwed by the Supreme Court. They may want to show their support this time around. Add in the Nader crowd and it starts to look REALLY good.

[Why Syzygy]

24. Dream Ticket

Hillary will be the Nader next time around. How is she raising all that money? Corporate?
I don't know ANYONE who supports her nomination. Not even on DU. Just call her 'Ralph'.

[samsingh]

29. absolutely

he's becoming more powerful than the president of a single country anyway.

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

30. Oops. My Bad. I Thought This Post Was Gonna Be Some Insightful Article.

Silly me. :)