There are two great disappointments in life I have learned to live with. One, the Smiths are never getting back together. And two, Al Gore is not running for president in 2008. Not happening.
And yet…
Although saying he has no plans to run for president in 2008, former vice president Al Gore has nonetheless left the door ever so slightly ajar. It’s a good bet that door will swing open a good bit wider come next May.
That is when Gore is scheduled to publish his next book. With no fanfare, he signed a few weeks ago with Penguin Press to write “The Assault on Reason.”
As described by editor Scott Moyers, the book is a meditation on how “the public arena has grown more hostile to reason,” and how solving problems such as global warming is impeded by a political culture with a pervasive “unwillingness to let facts drive decisions.”
I like the tone of the book. All my life I’ve been surrounded by people who said, “If it feels good, then it’s true.” And now that I’ve learned enough about reason to see why that’s not good enough, they’re shocked. Bring on the facts! I’ll be interested in the book.
But the possibility of another Gore run? Tantalising. Too good to be true. Strangely hope-inspiring.
Having Gore tour Australia reminded me of what it was like to have grown-ups in charge. Can you imagine? People who have thought carefully about solutions to problems, and who are educated enough to use sound reasoning to tell good ideas from bad. It seems a million years away from this new-Dark-Age religiosity. Let’s have more scientist, less priest.
18 September 2006 at 4:42 am
After seeing ‘an inconvenient truth’ last week, I would not be at all surpised if he ran… I hope he does.
18 September 2006 at 3:11 pm
Two things I found surprising in your post (but I guess I really shouldn’t)
1. You would like Gore to run again. So would I but I fear we are still few in number really, except for Republicans who still seem to think it would be great.
2. Your phrasology on this point:
“Having Gore tour Australia reminded me of what it was like to have grown-ups in charge.”
That is the exact feeling I have been having for some time now. A yearning for what feels like “Adults” in politics. Could apply to both sides of the isle. Basicly people who want to come to the table and reason out solutions to problems based on facts and common good will rather than ideology.
18 September 2006 at 3:24 pm
I know people vote differently than they say they do, but this poll has Gore by 8 points in a rematch.
FWIW.
18 September 2006 at 5:04 pm
Just thought you’d find this interesting.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2003262370_iraqcpa17.html