In a way, I feel sorry for Al Gore. I can’t imagine how emasculating losing a close election might be. His op-ed in yesterday’s New York Times doesn’t help matters.
In his article (reg. req.), “How to Debate George Bush”, Gore offers no debating techniques. It’s just more of the same, boring, quagmire-in-Iraq stuff you hear John “Orange Glow” Kerry mumbling about everyday.
Gore’s party has relegated him to the sidelines. Not having any real role in the Kerry campaign, he’s reduced to writing (or dictating) op-eds like this one. He begins by commenting on the “dominance of attack advertisements” and media spin. He says Bush is a “skilled debater” but that his campaign has made “lowering expectations” an art form, whatever that means.
According to Gore, Bush’s presidency has been a “catastrophic failure.” And here is where my pity for him comes in. This one-time vice-president, reduced to playing attack dog for the Kerry campaign, is not a very good attack dog. Like all politicians, he watches polls and understands Americans are very concerned about Iraq, but as a good poll watcher, he knows that people don’t like John Kerry. How do you work with this kind of material?
Well, as any good Democrat does, he tows the “false premises” line about the war and advises Kerry to remind taxpayers that taxes are high. OK. So instead of telling us how Kerry plans to protect us from terrorists, he’s playing the broken class envy record. Prescription drugs, higher taxes for the “rich” and the environment. That’s all they’ve got. How does this help Kerry in a debate?
Poor Al even quotes a comedian, Jon Stewart of the “Daily Show”, in an op-ed purportedly written to bolster John Kerry. As I said: pitiful.
Gore closes with this:
The biggest single difference between the debates this year and four years ago is that President Bush cannot simply make promises. He has a record. And I hope that voters will recall the last time Mr. Bush stood on stage for a presidential debate. If elected, he said, he would support allowing Americans to buy prescription drugs from Canada. He promised that his tax cuts would create millions of new jobs. He vowed to end partisan bickering in Washington. Above all, he pledged that if he put American troops into combat: “The force must be strong enough so that the mission can be accomplished. And the exit strategy needs to be well defined.”
So without telling us what Kerry stands for or what he’ll do for us or even how to debate George Bush, he attacks the president’s record, which is fair game. In his piece of published advice, all we’ve learned is that Al Gore needs a real job.
Gore could’ve mentioned Kerry’s Senate record. By the way, what did Kerry do in the Senate all those years? Beats me. And Gore.
A liberal acquaintance of mine once remarked about the “Republican attack ads” and how distracting they were to Kerry’s campaign.
I said, “All Kerry talks about are his four months in Vietnam. What about his 20+ years in the Senate?”
He said something like, “Well, he wants to talk about other issues, but he’s too busy defending himself from the attacks!”
“What exactly are his other issues? What did he do in the Senate?” My acquaintance mumbled something about the environment.
The point is that Democrats know John Kerry is not well-liked by his own “supporters”, and Al Gore’s fluff piece is just another attack on Bush while doing absolutely nothing to bolster Kerry. That’s how they have to play it.
Liberals have little choice but to paint George Bush as a cunningly skilled but “lowered expectations” debater (?). Gore writes: “The debate tomorrow should not seek to discover which candidate would be more fun to have a beer with.”
As I said: pitiful.
******
Pre-debate rumblings in the blogosphere: Read Michelle Malkin’s post, which links to her latest column.
More about Dems’ apathy for Kerry from Power Line.
Semi-related: More original reporting from INDC Journal. More flip-flop reminders from Blogs For Bush.
A pre-debate debate is going on at Blogcritics.
Debate advice for Kerry at Power Line.
I am going to read Al Gore’s editorial on how to debate George Bush as soon as I finish this book by N. Bonaparte called “Winter: The Best Time to Invade Russia.”
Comment by Pat Wilson — 09.30.04 @ 7:35 am
Gosh Pat, that must be the book Hitler read, heh.
La Shawn, I would like to thank you for using my favorite Gore photo in this post. It brings a smile to my face everytime I see it. Good start to my day
Catastrophic failure? This is what the Democrats wish to portray Bush’s Presidency as, and to support that contention, they have to wish for the economy to go into the tank, and for some major military setbacks in Iraq. Sad that an American political party would base their campaign on a hope for failure.
Comment by Montie — 09.30.04 @ 8:08 am
Montie, don’t forget fear, self-pity, class envy and racial strife.
Comment by LB — 09.30.04 @ 8:11 am
Dear Tennessee Voters,
Thank you and God bless you for President George Bush’s victory in your state in the 2000 election, effectively driving the nail in the coffin of your former Loser Boy Senator……Al Goreski.
First he didn’t want to count MYYYY absentee ballot, now they’ve been relegated to blaming my state for their butt-whuppin. I suspect John Kerry will see the same fate.
Furthermore, contrary his words, the ONLY “catastrophic failure” would have been if, in your infinite wisdom, you had failed to see that “phoney as a $7 Bill” presidential candidate for the fraud that he is. Him and his bigot father that would prefer I don’t vote or have equal treatment under the law. Punk……phoney as a Chinese redhead - and they don’t come like that, dawg.
Thanks again!! ‘Preciate the luvvvv.
Sincerely,
-
Comment by Beau — 09.30.04 @ 8:23 am
Beau! We were worried you’d blown away with the hurricane.
Comment by LB — 09.30.04 @ 8:25 am
Kerry does need some help, but not from this chronic sigher.
Sheesh. He needs to get back to doing whatever he was doing before he endorsed Howard Dean.
Comment by Sister Toldjah — 09.30.04 @ 8:31 am
That’s funny Pat:) I get it, how about following up that book with one by A. Hitler “On War: Third times a charm on invading Russia” before you get to the Gore piece. I agree with LeShawn, Gore gives us (and Kerry, his presumed audience) nothing on debating only more of the tired attacks on W that they have been trying for months.
Comment by Don — 09.30.04 @ 8:32 am
LaShawn
Thanks for the Orange Glow thing. As a Pink man that cannot tan but only sunburn, I’ve always wondered why some “White” people want thier skin darker. Maybe it’s because he’s married to an African-American?
Comment by Ivan Ivanovich — 09.30.04 @ 8:43 am
Gore, Peloshi and Ted Kennedy actually act emotionally unstable. The disappointment of losing the Executive, House and Senate, by people whose ideas and intelligence were so far below theirs for so long, is driving them borderline mad with anger, I do believe.
How said “In a mad world, only the mad are sane”?
Comment by Jim R — 09.30.04 @ 9:57 am
Glad to see that Beau is back!
I, too, pity Al Gore Junior. When he was a little boy, his father, Al Gore Senior, lost his re-election to the senate and then threatened everybody with Al Gore Junior. “He will be president one day,” he threatened. Junior has been trying to live up to that ever since. His mother pushed him into politics, probably using his father as the guilt measure. The reason Al Gore Junior seemed so fake and disingenuous was because he wasn’t doing what he really wanted to do.
Now, we see an Al Gore that is unhinged. THIS is the REAL Al Gore. He truly is his own man at this point, and him losing the election was probably not only emasculating, but liberating for him. Now, he can give screeds about the environment with no scientific facts and feel better about himself. His speeches might sound like something the tin foil hat brigade would believe, but its the most honest words Al Gore ever spoke. He truly believes what he is saying. The Al Gore you see now is the the Al Gore that was locked inside for 30 some odd years.
Comment by RepJ — 09.30.04 @ 10:30 am
Glad to have Beau back, glad we didn’t get 4 years of unhinged Al in charge. I shudder to think about how Gore would have responded to 9/11…
I don’t think Algore should write another book; Earth in the Balance was bad enough.
Now, I am going to send LaShawn a link via email, and if she likes it, I think it will make a nice follow up to this peice.
As always, keep fighting the good fight, LB.
Comment by SCSIwuzzy — 09.30.04 @ 10:42 am
LB-
You missed the pity-party Gore threw for himself with Bob Dole at SMU yesterday afternoon. He introduced himself as the “former next President of the United Sates.” I’m sure it’s somewhere on the Metro page of the Dallas Morning News. This is a man who resembles a B-list Hollywood actor who had one shining moment in a hit movie and still tries to eat free dinners based on that movie. How long will this last? Until Nov. 2 is a landslide for George Bush. Or maybe forever.
Comment by Chris Roberts — 09.30.04 @ 11:34 am
Chris, IMO, Gore will never get over the fact that he will always and forever be known as the bridesmaid who was never a bride. That’s got to be a tremendous thorn in his side.
He should stick to writing lame books.
Comment by Sister Toldjah — 09.30.04 @ 12:05 pm
Citizen Gore made his feelings known in 2000. He was like a petulant child. Even today, after independent reviewers show that GWB won Florida by more votes than the first two or three or however many counts. Wasn’t it around Christmas that he really came unhinged. I guess he was on the horns of a dilemma - Florida’s electoral votes or baby Jesus. And we all know which one he chose.
Comment by Phil Dillon — 09.30.04 @ 1:07 pm
“He vowed to end partisan bickering in Washington.”
I think Mr. Bush has be more than fair with the Democrats in Congress. But every time Mr. Bush has extended the hand of friendship to the opposition, they bit it off!
Comment by Stephen — 09.30.04 @ 1:17 pm
Geez!! Thank you all!! Makin a brotha feel all warm & fuzzy.
And if I wake up at 2:30 a.m. having a bad dream about “President Al Gore” (AHHHHHHHH!!)…….I blame all of you. No thanks; I take another plate of broken glass. Who got the hot sauce?
Comment by Beau — 09.30.04 @ 1:20 pm
Wasn’t that Al Gore who was going 205 miles per hour on a motorcycle in Michigan?
Comment by ratso ferrari — 09.30.04 @ 1:46 pm
La Shawn,
Oh, I didn’t forget. Those things are the basic bread and butter for Democrats, trotted out every election year. I was only referring to those items relevent to THIS particular election cycle. Oops, wait a minute, they trot out that economy stuff every election cycle too.
I really love their newest scare tactic about reinstatement of the draft though. They are saying that despite what the Administration says to the public, one only has to look at the fact that identical draft reinstatement bills have been introduced in the House and Senate. What they so cleverly leave out is that both were brought by Democrats (Rangel and Hollings), and that only Democrats have signed on as co-sponsors (darn those bloggers and 24 hour cable news channels, word gets out too quickly nowadays about what’s REALLY going on, instead of what we want people to THINK is going on).
Comment by Montie — 09.30.04 @ 2:06 pm
Al Gore is a prime example of why liberals are so scary. Just look at that photo. Is it me or does he look alittle Hitlerian ?
Comment by Eric — 09.30.04 @ 2:12 pm
Yo, Beau!
Poor Albert, he can’t help it. He was born with a silver foot in his mouth.
Comment by Andy — 09.30.04 @ 2:12 pm
Ah, the little wooden boy who would be President…. so sad, so very sad is Albert.
Who would have ever thought that Billy, the chubby boy from Arkansas would throw him away so callously- even after Albert stood on the White House lawn and said “one day history will look back on Bill Clinton and recognize him as one of our country’s finest presidents” on the day chubby Billy was impeached.
Now all the little wooden boy can do is yell and scream….. but his voice gets ever smaller, and fewer and fewer people even hear him.
So sad, so very sad.
Comment by Idler — 09.30.04 @ 2:14 pm
Niiice, Andy!! That was good….never heard that one before. However, my man, it may be debatable at best, inadequate & insufficient at worst.
I’d say he needs to get a foot up his……oops, sorry bout that. Almost slipped.(Guardian Angel to Beau: Calm down, Son, you are pushin it!! You want what’s on your Christmas list, Bud?? Clean up your act.)
Good Point, Angelo the Angel - lesson learned. And I thought all those hurricanes had mellowed me out.
Comment by Beau — 09.30.04 @ 3:27 pm
Comment by Andy — 09.30.04 @ 3:43 pm
The problem is LaShawn is that losing the election shouldn’t have emasculated Mr. Gore. It is the test of one’s character to lose. If Mr. Gore had been true to himself and every other American he would have stood up, brushed himself off and moved forward. He could have easily been a gracious loser and looked forward to continuing to be an example of the American spirit. Fall down, get up, keep contributing and trying. This isn’t just a country of winners. We’ve all lost at times. It’s those times that define us and make us better.
Comment by cooper — 09.30.04 @ 8:25 pm
That’s a good comment, cooper.
Comment by La Shawn — 09.30.04 @ 8:45 pm
I really did like the man La Shawn. In the beginning when he was running for President there was a tremendous presence and he seemed to want to change the way Clinton had brought morals down. He was working at getting a sense of family and obligations that he felt should be instilled in people.
I, well millions of people saw him start to crumble and he changed Sept. 11th. as we all did. He mentioned how he was out of the states when that happened and then how after his arrival back home he drove to meet with Clinton.
I do not really feel pity but I feel something inside the man just hurt so bad and he couldn’t handle things anymore.
The he was seen at the funeral of the Senator, I’m sorry, his name has slipped my mind. He was a good man from Minnesota that had passed away along with his wife.
I saw Gore and his wife and Clinton and Hillary and what took place at that memorial turned me against the democrats. I thought I saw Gore come alive with some familiar ways I had liked about him but as the memorial went on. Gore got as cruel and as disprectful as the Clintons and the other democrats. I believe the Senator’s name was Paul Wellstone?
I saw Gore get heavy and the beard and as said above, an attack dog.
It is a shame, it truly is La Shawn.
Thank you, for giving me a place to say my thoughts of a man I did once respect.
Comment by Janelle — 09.30.04 @ 8:55 pm
Janelle, I initially had the same respect for Gore, going back to Tipper and the music labeling business. I’d like to think he was a good man gone bad by the barrelful of bad apples that was the Slick Willy administration. There were pratfalls, such as the campaign contributions of the buddhist temple, and other stuff. Bad, but redeemable. Then there was his staunch declaration of support during Monicagate — loyalty can also be an admirable trait.
OTOH, that book, Earth In The Balance was pure rot and I started worrying — good man, noble perhaps, definitely misguided. Then came the 2000 campaign and the aftermath — thank God he isn’t debating some Republican challenger tonight.
Comment by Andy — 09.30.04 @ 9:10 pm
Beau! I didn’t know you were a Chinese redhead. Will wonders never cease.
On another note, Orange Glow sKerry needs to quit taking “beauty” suggestions from Terayza. Sheesh! Doesn’t he have a clue that she’s trying to make him look stupid? After all, he’s not her favorite husband. John Heinz was.
Comment by Kiki B. — 09.30.04 @ 10:43 pm
KiKi. Your bad.
Comment by Jim R — 10.01.04 @ 9:00 pm
Wow al gore looks like some weird space alein i mean that he is just laking the green tone to be a alein monster could he be the dreadful GORON AND HOT HEAD? this guy looks like a left-over from SPACE GHOST
Comment by firebird — 10.02.04 @ 3:12 pm