One hundred thousand amassed under the Gateway Arch -- and beyond -- in St. Louis Saturday for an Obama rally. The crowd broke Obama's personal record (excluding the convention), set last May, of an estimated 72,000 in Portland, Or.
By contrast, McCain today drew a crowd of 7,000 in Concord, North Carolina, just outside Charlotte. Later the same day, he drew 10,000 at a second rally near Woodbridge, Virgina, where McCain vowed he "will never concede defeat."
Meanwhile, McCain's aides were busy trashing the northern Virginia rally site by contrasting it with the "real Virginia" in southern Virginia.
Long-time Washington observer and columnist David Corn, describes McCain's debate persona last night with adjectives like "irritated"... "petulant"... "retro" ... and 'sarcastic'. He observes:
[V]iewers watching McCain's reaction shots during the evening could have easily wondered if the Republican presidential nominee would make it to the finish without his head exploding, for he seemed to be in the midst of an exercise in anger control.
Ari Melber for the Washington Independent sums up last night's debate:
Ultimately, McCain’s alternating anger and umbrage never delivered the clichéd “game changer” that politicos said he needed. He punched until he was punched out.
The angry energy showed on McCain's face as clearly as in his answers. CNN, at least, had the split screen, and McCain was grimacing, twitching, blinking, sighing, smirking, eye-rolling. * * ** He looked like nothing so much as a man enduring acute gastrointestinal discomfort.
Mr. McCain was more animated Wednesday night than he had been at the two other debates, though not always to his benefit in the split-screen presentation of television. His voice turned edgy at times, as when talking about Obama campaign attack advertisements, and his frozen smile and wide eyes — which blinked frequently and distractingly at times — seemed a little strange.
There were landmines everywhere and McCain stepped in all of them. His smirking, snarky tone was decidedly un-presidential, and his bitter, whiny complaining performance probably satisfied no one. * * * McCain was a nasty, vicious glass of sour milk who can barely contain his temper and can't quite fathom what is happening to him.
He was an angry leprechaun screaming at the man who stole his pot of gold. And, at the end of the day, John McCain seemed less like a major party candidate and more like a pissed-off Dad telling his college-aged daughter who she can and can't date, and, for no rational reason he can explain, he certainly doesn't want her fucking around with the black guy. Unfortunately for him, she's all grown up now and can make her own decisions.
For us, the victor was John McCain's superego. Against all odds, it managed to keep John McCain's id from jumping out of the seat and slugging Obama for everything bad that has happened to the poor man over the last gazillion years.
Tee Vee snap polls taken immediately after a debate usually don't mean much, not when they're close. But these? They're not close. Not even in the same solar system.
John McCain's inability to get in front of the economic challenges facing the nation is beyond baffling. You know the history:
First, he says the economy is just great.
Hours later, he says we're facing an economic crisis.
Next, he says he's going to suspend his campaign (and offers to delay the second presidential debate) which in some way will help the economy crisis.
Then, he doesn't.
He says he's going to fly straight to Washington to lead Congress out of the wilderness and pass a rescue plan.
Then, he stays in New York and, later, phones it in from Virginia.
Next, he says he supports the congressional rescue plan - and even votes for it.
Once back on the stump, he urges Bush to veto the bill because it contains "excess" spending.
Late last week, campaign spokesmen claimed McCain would be announcing a new economic plan on Monday which would call for more cuts for the rich in their capital gains taxes.
Then, he won't.
Now, McCain says he'll be coming out with new economic plan today. As Rachel Maddow says, below, don't hold your breath. If you want to hold your breath anyway, count on this: McCain will revise his revision as soon as he comes to understand it, just as he did with his mercurial housing crisis plan.
Reminds us of an old Ella Fitzgerald song, "Undecided":
First you say you do And then you don't And then you say you will And then you won't You're undecided now So what are you gonna do?
Now you want to play And then it's no And when you say you'll stay That's when you go You're undecided now So what are you gonna do?
I've been sitting on a fence And it doesn't make much sense 'Cause you keep me in suspense And you know it Then you promise to return When you don't I really burn Well, I guess I'll never learn And I show it
If you've got a heart And if you're kind Then don't keep us apart Make up your mind You're undecided now So what are you gonna do?
Tennessee Guerilla Women have excerpts, as well as the full page ad (in pdf format) that appears in today's New York Times. It's a letter addressed to, not from, Al Gore:
"You say you have fallen out of love with politics, and you have every reason to feel that way. But we know you have not fallen out of love with your country. And your country needs you now--as do your party and the planet you are fighting to save."
"There are times for politicians and times for heroes. America and the Earth need a hero right now. Please rise to this challenge, or you and millions of us will live forever wondering what might have been."
This Fall promises to be a busy time for Al Gore. Among a long string of other prestigious awards, he's an official nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize. The winner will be officially announced on October 12.
So, and if I am right, the former vice president will then complete a year in which An Inconvenient Truth has been awarded an Oscar and he has authored a best seller. Roll it round your tongue again: an Oscar, a best seller, and a Nobel Prize in the space of 12 months or so. Not bad.
Hitchens also might have mentioned, had he been sober enough to notice, that earlier this year Gore was awarded Spain's "Prince of Asturias Award" for "international cooperation" -- that nation's equivalent of the Nobel Peace Prize. And, just this month the Sierra Club gave Gore its John Muir Award, the most prestigious honor bestowed by that venerable organization. And we haven't even mentioned the Emmy Award Gore collected for his Current TV venture.
All of this has inspired a number of commentators, Hitchens among them, to speculate that if Gore does win the Nobel he'll announce whether he will be a candidate for U.S. president within a few days after that. Writes Hitchens:
Several people, some of them well-informed, have been saying to me that Gore will wait until the Nobel committee's announcement before he makes up his mind. Should he make up his mind to run, he could alter the entire equation
Note: Hitchens' sources haven't said he'll run if he wins the Nobel; just that he'll make an announcement one way or another. Brent Budowsky, writing for the Huffington Post, says either way "it will be a powerful transforming event in American politics that will bring a surge of patriotism and pride to a nation that has been torn by war, divided by partisanship, trapped in a quagmire and alienated from what Jefferson called the decent opinion of mankind."
Let's set aside for now the question of whether Al Gore runs for President, which is unlikely though world events can change our politics in a heartbeat.
The more important matter is what happens to our national dialogue and our democracy if indeed the Nobel Prize is awarded to Gore.
From the moment his award is announced through his speech in December accepting the prize, Al Gore will be the most influential living American in defining the terms of our national debate.
Maybe so, but that isn't enough for the millions of Gore supporters. They want more than "influence" for Al Gore; they want him to have the power of the presidency.
With that fervent hope in mind, almost entirely unnoticed by the mainstream media, the effort to "draft" Al Gore suddenly has picked up the pace. As Daily Green reported earlier this week --
Several groups have coalesced around the idea of drafting Al Gore to run for president of the United States. The new group, America for Gore, now includes some smaller groups that had made waves in political circles — including DraftGore.com, AlGore.org, Netroots for Gore, GoreHub.com, Goreganic.com and RunGoreRun.com.
The evidence is now visible on the front page of the new America For Gore web site. It can also be seen in the effort now underway in Michigan, as the Detroit News reported Monday, "to deliver 12,396 valid signatures to the Michigan secretary of State by Oct. 23" along with a sworn affidavit from the candidate himself.
Daily Kos diary writer "fink" has the details of Al Gore's appointment schedule. What it shows is that a normally whirlwind calendar filled with international appearances, speeches, interviews, and other commitments goes suddenly near-dark the last two weeks in October.
Has Al Gore stopped booking new events? Are his booking agents on hold? Will he simply be working on his new book? We can not say of course.
But either way you look at it, he is underbooked after the Nobel Peace Prize announcement. And that is when most people agree has to shit or get off the pot. Looking at his calendar, Al Gore HAS THE OPTION of announcing his candidacy for the Democratic nomination and running for President. He would have a couple international events to cancel but he would ample time to give notice.
Not to force fuel onto this fire, but we noticed the other day that for the last eleven months no less a luminary than Howard Metzenbaum -- former U.S. senator from Ohio, current D.C. lobbyist, and father of Al Gore's partner in the Current TV channel venture -- has had reserved the internet domain name of "Gore-Obama.com". The registration expires on October 15, 2007 (though it can be renewed). You can see it right here after entering the random security code.
Or, take a look at this screen-shot:
Not that we are predicting Al Gore will announce his candidacy by then. We're not at all sure he would have much chance of winning the next presidential election, assuming Cheney lets us have one. He may know it, too.
The more international awards and intellectual prizes Al Gore wins, the slimmer grow his chances of winning an election. By now, American voters have been thoroughly conditioned bycable news and political beauty contest reporters to judge their candidates by which one they'd rather have a beer with, rather than which one is smarter, works harder, or has better ideas.
The last guy they want to rub elbows with at a bar is some smarty-pants who not only reads books but actually writes them, too. And when they find out he's won an Oscar, an Emmy, and the Nobel Peace Prize, they'll just want to take him into an alley and punch him out.
We've mentioned it before. In fact, we'veraved about David Guggenheim's documentary -- often mistakenly called the 'Al Gore documentary' -- titled "An Inconvenient Truth."
Saturday, nearly 50 local residents -- one of them could be you -- have the chance to see the film for free by accepting one of three invitations to a Moveon.org meet-up in a private home of volunteer hosts here in Northwest Florida: Deborah Moore (Gulf Breeze), Robert N. Suberi (Orange Beach), or Susan (Destin).
The local "meet ups" are part of nearly 1,700 simultaneous showings in private homes taking place this weekend across the nation. Not only does it give you the chance to see a riveting, informative, and entertaining presentation about global warming, but you'll have the opportunity to make new friends who share similar concerns and values.
If you live somewhere other than Northwest Florida, you can cadge an invitation to a Saturday showing nearest your zip code by clicking here.
"The temptation to reject the truth and try to manufacture your own reality is what got us into Iraq—it’s what got us into these deficits. At some point, reality has its day."
It isn't happening here in Pensacola. Not yet, anyway.
But the David Guggenheim documentary An Inconvenient Truth, opens today in major cities across the nation. Here are some comments among the multitude who have seen the film in previews and at Cannes this past week:
Andrew O'Hehir in Salon, Tuesday, May 23: "'An Inconvenient Truth,' the striking and surprisingly endearing film about Gore's global-warming crusade made by director Davis Guggenheim, in a day or two."
"[T]he movie is not about [Al Gore]. He is, rather, the surprisingly engaging vehicle for some very disturbing information. His explanations of complex environmental phenomena — the jet stream has always been a particularly tough one for me to grasp — are clear, and while some of the visual aids are a little corny, most of the images are stark, illuminating and powerful.
"I can't think of another movie in which the display of a graph elicited gasps of horror, but when the red lines showing the increasing rates of carbon-dioxide emissions and the corresponding rise in temperatures come on screen, the effect is jolting and chilling. Photographs of receding ice fields and glaciers — consequences of climate change that have already taken place — are as disturbing as speculative maps of submerged coastlines. The news of increased hurricane activity and warming oceans is all the more alarming for being delivered in Mr. Gore's matter-of-fact, scholarly tone."
"[M]uch of what Gore said in his 1993 book, 'Earth in the Balance,' has proven prophetic. His prescriptions -- increased mileage standards, wind power, appliances rated by the energy efficiency, hybrid cars -- are more practical than anything the government has done lately and are now widely accepted, even by the industries that fought them.
* * * "Translated to film, 'An Inconvenient Truth'' -- part slide show, part home movie, part freshmen lecture hall -- is never going to be confused with 'The DaVinci Code' with which it shared billing at the 59th Cannes Film Festival this weekend. But it is important, if not always entertaining. It doesn't have the polemics or histrionics of Michael Moore's 'Fahrenheit 911.'' It's NPR, not 'CSI Miami.'
* * * "It's short and pithy, what Gore's speeches often weren't. The visuals are simple. He drives home the point that there's no factual dispute over global warning. A Science magazine survey of all peer-reviewed studies on climate change showed that of the 928 independent studies done to date, (those not paid for by industry) all concluded that global warming is a real and growing threat.
"There are no independent studies saying otherwise. Yet stories sampled from newspapers, television and magazines, show that 53 percent suggest global warming is unproven.
"In that way, global warming is much like the evidence that tobacco caused lung cancer. For decades it was greeted by the industry, politicians, doctors paid to do ads and the media with unwarranted skepticism -- until everyone accepted that smoking makes you deathly ill.
* * * "The movie comes at a time when some pundits (including me) might wonder if we should give a rest to that old saw about likeability. Maybe Americans prefer to have a beer and burger with the charming frat boy to the student who always does his homework. But is that a wise basis for choosing a president?
"With all the needless death from a ill-conceived war, the wasteful corruption of sweetheart contracts in Iraq and New Orleans, debt and deficits as far as the eye can see, gas prices through the roof with no energy policy in sight, and with a president who delegates to incompetents and cronies, I'm ready to give the class nerd his due and raise a glass to a serious man. Here's to you, Al and a huge box-office gross."
News Hounds has links to the video and the full text of Al Gore's stunning speech at Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C.
Former vice-president Al Gore asserted Monday that President George W. Bush "repeatedly and persistently" broke the law by eavesdropping on Americans without a court warrant and called for a federal investigation of the practice.
Gore, the Democrat who lost the 2000 presidential election to Bush only after a ruling by the Supreme Court on a recount in Florida, called Bush's warrantless surveillance program "a threat to the very structure of our government."
And, as this ground-breaking speech was being made, Peter Daou asks, "What do all three cable news nets cover under the "Breaking News" banner? An overturned tanker truck on a New York highway."
"King's widow, Coretta Scott King, says that the day was always intended as a one of activism that mirrored her husband's life during the Civil Rights movement, rather than just an empty celebration."
There is no well settled national custom for how to celebrate Martin Luther King Day, other than not delivering the mail. Some devote the day to public service. Most probably don't. Some take the day off. Others go to work as usual. Some parade. Most don't.
This Monday, probably the best way to commemorate the life and courage of Rev. King is to exercise your brain by tuning in to C-Span at 11 am Central time (noon Eastern) to watch the live speech from Constitution Hall of former Vice-president Al Gore.
In a major address slated for delivery Monday in Washington, the former Vice President is expected to argue that the Bush administration has created a "Constitutional crisis" by acting without the authorization of the Congress and the courts to spy on Americans and otherwise abuse basic liberties.
Georgia conservative Bob Barr, a former congressman, will introduce him. The event is sponsored by the non-partisan Liberty Coalition. The issue is the most important constitutional crisis confronting the nation since the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
One hundred thousand amassed under the Gateway Arch -- and beyond -- in St. Louis Saturday for an Obama rally. The crowd broke Obama's personal record (excluding the convention), set last May, of an estimated 72,000 in Portland, Or.
