Tuesday, June 27, 2006

The Summer of Al

Going tonight to see the Al Gore film "An Inconvenient Truth." Truth be told, this is one I probably wouldn't be going to of my own accord; friends invited my wife and me to come along with them. In fact, she was shocked when I told her I accepted the invitation, owing, I think, to my pained reaction (Yawn, another Al Gore lecture) when we saw the trailer before "A Prairie Home Companion." (OK, raise your hands if you saw PHC and are planning on seeing the Gore film. Theatres might as well make this a double feature for all the liberal NPR synergy here)

Extra points will be given if Gore says the word "lockbox" or does the Macarena.

Interesting C-SPAN moment over the weekend. I was flipping around and found video of Gore's book signing at a D.C.-area bookstore a couple weeks ago. So there's Al signing his heart out with people coming up and telling him they voted for him in 2000, etc. Then, who walks up but Ralph Nader!! If I had seen this anywhere but C-SPAN, I'd think it was rigged. This was something you definitely wouldn't trust if you saw it on a reality TV program. So Ralph apparently bought a book and brings it up to have it signed. Gore stands up and shakes the man's hand and asks how he's been. Then there was some unintelligible dialogue, then Gore sits down and signs the book. They shake hands again and then Nader shuffles away.


So I'm thinking, "What the fuck was that about?!" I would've given about a million dollars to be inside that wooden head of Gore's just then. If his eyes were darting around to see if the cameras were still on, I didn't catch it. At very least, I'll bet under his breath he cursed Nader's mom.

So after that I was thinking about Gore's charm offensive with the book and the movie, book signings, talk shows, etc. Could it be he's positioning himself among a presently weak 2008 Democratic candidate crop? Granted, the interviews I've seen with Gore have been pretty sharp. He rips Bush for being incurious across the board: global warming, long-term effects in Iraq, etc. Of course, maybe that's just piling on at this point. He's also demurred when it comes to his candidacy -- probably a smart move for anyone at this time. At any rate, he came across as classy, understated and intelligent.

Flashback: Remember the days when people chose the "unintelligence" and steadfastness of Bush over the slick smugness of Clinton/Gore? Seven years after the 2000 election, who among the voting public still feels like Bush is trustworthy?

But when I see Gore, I can't get past that patrician air of his. I think it's his nose. The guy looks like Roman sculpture from the neck up (below, not so much). And the problem is, I think people who are undecided, or would be, won't vote for this guy just because -- because they remember his petulance from 2000, because he still looks like a snob, because they still associate him with Bill Clinton. (Remember Gore's disappearing act during the Clinton impeachment trial? In those innocent days, a "secure undisclosed location" was anywhere Clinton wasn't).

I hope the party can do better.

Posted by Unclejbird @ 11:21 AM