posted by Cenk
So, I propose that he run that way.
The one thing that people say is stopping him is the idea that he might lose. What if he runs and loses? Wouldn't that be humiliating?
Losing the primary of your own party would be embarrassing after you've already run for president and won the popular vote. But here's my radical new question - so what?
If Al Gore threw caution to the wind and ran - even though he might lose - that would only make him more of a hero, not less. I don't give a damn what the mainstream press says (though, of course, I recognize that they are very relevant to the horse race aspect of the campaign). We, the people, would know. We would know that he did it for the right reasons and that we would support him, win or lose.
Current events aren't always kind to those who are right, but history is. Gore's already been proven right about global warming, that he's been warning us about for decades. He's been proven right about Iraq, even though he was dismissed at the time by the press who think they're so smart now.
And if he runs courageously for all the right reasons, history will prove him right again whether he wins or loses politically. So, in the worst case scenario, he has to deal with the gaggling, annoying and often idiotic press when he loses. But I propose that this is not such a tragedy. The much greater tragedy is if he doesn't have the courage to do the right thing when we need him.
Frank Luntz, the GOP strategist, is right for the first time in a long time. He says Gore should use the word imagine as the theme of his campaign. As in: Imagine if he'd won in 2000. How much would the country be better off if we had Al Gore as president the last eight years instead of the disastrous reign of George W. Bush?
But it goes further. Imagine for a second if he wins now. A man who understands the urgency of our time. A man who understand how great this country can be if we head down the right path. A man who can open up the great magnanimous nature of this nation and build bridges to the rest of the world.
Someone who can put an end to the egregious constitutional backsliding that endangers the very foundation of the country. Someone who can find a way to heal the wounds we have opened up in the Middle East. Someone who has courage, not because it is politically expedient, but because it is made necessary by the nature of our times.
Al Gore should run. And he should do so with abandon. Imagine for a second, a candidate who didn't care what the blowhard TV pundits said about him every night. A candidate who connected with the people and overpowered the media. A candidate who has always been right, no matter what they said about him. And who has the courage of his convictions based on the weight of history, not based on the advice of political consultants.
A candidate who didn't care what happened politically because he cares so much about what's right for the country.
Imagine.
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