Back in 2000, Spike Jonze directed this Al Gore campaign video of Gore relaxing and regrouping with his charming family during "the period of time formally known as vacation", before heading out on the campaign trail "full sprint" until election day.
They go to dinner at his mom's ("Grandma, do you have any advice on interviewing Dad?" "Yes. Don't do it."); Tipper reminisces about how she and Al met (they were 16 and 17, at a prom afterparty... he was handsome, a little serious-looking, and asked her questions about herself. "Was I a little stiff?", he asks. "You weren't stiff at all, not at all", she responds with a smooch, "and you know what, you're not stiff now"... he responds by singing with a twang "I don't have to speak, 'cause she defends me"); daughter Karenna talks about how she believed in Santa Claus "way too late" ("Finally, mom was like, "Karenna, actually, your friends are right." Al: "This was at 17"); Al talks about his discomfort with certain aspects of campaigning (Al: "Oh yeah, I know him. That's the guy who's been standing around motionless behind the President for the last 8 years". Daughter Kristen, chortling: "Were all vice-presidents that motionless?" Al: "No, no... I did it really well"); gets "interviewed" by Kristen ("Which of us kids do you like best?"); sings one of his father's campaign jingles ("Vote for Gore, vote for Gore, he's wise and able and he's just 44"); talks about his early years ("I was about the most disillusioned person you've ever encountered, and I thought that the last thing I would do was politics") and how covering the government during his 7-year career as a journalist helped him see politics as a viable, if flawed, route to making things better; speaks with clarity and commonsense about education, energy efficiency and the environment; and listens goodhumoredly as the family ribs him about being a group movie fanatic, who pauses and rewinds everytime anyone goes to the bathroom (Al: "That's courtesy!")
It's incredibly bittersweet, when you consider the tragic consequences of this incompetent bully's occupying Gore's rightful place as president.
Along the same lines: Gore's recent wonderful SNL performance as Prez and this funny song written by one of Gore's neighbors.
Thanks to MadCasey and brian77 at Kos for the links. MadCasey also links to this encouraging discussion of Gore's chances:
WASHINGTON -- He served two terms as vice president under a popular president. He then lost the presidency in a razor-thin election. After eight years, he repackaged himself and won the race for the White House and was re-elected in a major landslide.
That person was Richard Nixon. What Nixon did in 1968, Al Gore could repeat in 2008. Like Nixon, Gore faces a nation divided by an unpopular war. And like Nixon, Gore could transform anti-war anger and general public malaise into votes.
Moreover, Democrats, moderate Republicans and independents are eager for a change, and Gore could emerge as a central agent for change in 2008.
A number of Americans strongly believe that Gore was unfairly robbed of the presidency in 2000. Two terms of George W. Bush have demonstrated that almost every point Gore raised in the 2000 election - the dangers posed by global warming, the criticality of alternative fuel sources, the foolishness of tax breaks for the ultra-rich, the need for international diplomacy and consensus building, prudence in Supreme Court nominations, and a commitment to civil liberties - were right on target.
Gore has learned the hard way about the extreme right-wing that now dominates the Republican Party. From being singled out for a special baggage search and frisking at Reagan National Airport in May 2002 to being one of the first to respond, on his own dime, to the plight of Hurricane Katrina victims on the Gulf Coast, Gore understands how the Bush administration and the Republican Party have destroyed the America in which the vast majority of citizens once believed.
And that gives Gore a unique perspective on matters of war and peace, civil liberties opposed to totalitarian rule, and a caring and service-oriented government as opposed to a detached bureaucracy only interested in lining the pockets of big business and political cronies.
Statesmanship is an earned attribute, and a Gore presidency would not require any on-the-job training on domestic or global policy making. The former vice president would be welcomed by a world eager to see America once again become a force for diplomacy and human rights and not a promoter of pre-emptive war and torture flights and secret gulags.
Forget Hillary. Gore in 2008!!
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