Gore will not win the Democratic nomination in 2004.
I believe John Kerry will. Edwards will be his running mate and they will win if Americans are smarter this time.
However, Gore is a voice to be reckoned with. Even as a "loser", remember he beat Bush in the popular vote and if not for Ralph Nader and/or the phony energy crisis, would have won without the Florida fiasco and Supreme Court "deciding" things.
Gore has respectfully waited a long time to speak out and now it's good he's doing so. Bush has had a long honeymoon, hiding behind the flag-waving and paranoia, with the ironic help of Bin Lauden. Thanks to the national emergency we all came together after and supported our Commander In Chief. But Bush's honeymoon needs to be over soon. He cannot use the 9/11 disaster to forward his dishonest political agenda beyond this point. He must be checked and checked again and he must not cover-up his connections with Enron and all that meant.
Soon Bush will have to come home to face the truth and the scrutiny of the American people. The truth is he got away with a HUGE scandal (so far) with the phony energy crisis, was joined at the hip with Enron, used shady tactics to eke out his victory, is not the best man for the job, is alienating much of the world, is hurting the economy, lies to us about tax cuts helping average Americans (they help only the rich), and that Republican economics works. Let's face it, his economic policies do not work. Except maybe in the very short term. This has been proven. it is being proven again now. This economy sucks and won't get any better so long as he's running things.
There is no black and white and I'm not 100% Democrat or anti-Bush, but Gore has gotten a raw deal and he would definitely have made a better president. So why not hear him now? He is a wise man with a lot to say. That said, he was not a great candidate and made some mistakes I shafed at on the campaign trail. He should have been stronger. deep down, though he was a little more insecure than Bush. Plus the Monica-gate Whitewater fiasco which was a political assassination and had nothing to do with any real crimes. Infidelity yes, but we all knew that going in.
Obviously, the #1 issue going forward should be to GET OFF OIL. It's the #1 national security issue. The big oil lobby Bush-Cheney lead is lying lying, lying to us. Stone-walling us and giving us the same old cynical BS about "jobs", scare tactics, etc.
The 12-year study just came out PROVING that drilling in ANWAR would decimate wildlife there, but they could give a rat's ass. It's so cynical and corrupt. All they care about is cronies money. Well most Americans care about more than Big Energy making billions more off America The Beautiful. And their old-fashioned dinosaur mentality will only prolong our dependency on OPEC.
Bush-Cheney and the oil business have to admit thaty despite the "evil doers" they are also the cause of our wars now, as well as much of our economic collapse. Yes we are all guilty because we drive cars and have not forced our government to get us off oil (which we could do in ten years if we really wanted to). We were complacent and lazy. But now is the time to make the gradual change in a concerted way.
What Big Energy has proven to us is that they lie, cheat, cover-up, manipulate and steal without seeming to care about human or environmental issues, nor about legalities. They are terrible for the environment which we all have to breathe, eat, drink and conserve for future generations.
We fight in the Middle East only for Big Oil. For no one else. The Jews? They can take care of themselves as we're seeing now.
I'm not championing old-fashioned liberalism, know we need a strong military and am certainly not naive, but a moderate progressive common-sense humane way of looking at the world focusing on the real problems is the way to go now.
After 9/11 the "either with or or against us" message worked for awhile, but the world is not going to put up with that Bush mentality much longer. And already Bush has caved in to Arafat. Why? Because of the Saudis, in other words, Big Oil contacts. Bush has just proven to us what we should have already known, that so long as we have to kowtow to the Saudis, tehre sons can come over here and bomb us and there's not much we can do about it. Some national security. get off oil and we have total security. But that will take time, committment and a new president.
The top issues now are oil-dependency, over-population/environmental degradation and the potential collapse of the middle-class around the world due to economic collapse, greater debts and deficits.
When the GOP stands up for the rich and corrupt it hurts the middle-class and just creates mammoth government deficits. This has been proven. They tell us it is our money and we should have it back, but it is also our debt. And is the rich who receive the lion's share of any tax cut beneifts. That is not fiscally conservative at all. That is an elitist credit card mentality on the backs of average working Americans.
The right loves to hate Clinton but they are just jealous because he succeeded in reversing this trend. We had full employment, lower deficits and a robust middle-class. Also more new millionaires than any time in history. Now we are in a deep funk again and it is no coincidence another Bush/Cheney team is in the White House. I don't know why Bush has high popularity ratings. Probably just Bin Lauden. Yes like his father he executed a war against a much smaller country which was successful because we could quickly get control of the skies, but otherwise Bush is a disaster in the making.
What does Bush really stand for? Big energy, loss of personal freedoms, pretending to be zealously religious, environmental degradation and an us against them haves-have nots world. This is just asking for trouble. There are good reasons why we NEED the rich to pay more taxes. There are also good reasons to be measured in our responses throughout the world. There are good reasons the very survival of future generations (and nature which we gives us everything) depends on reversing environmental degradation and over-population starting now.
We are the land of opportunity and the richest place on earth, but there must be a price we pay for all that liberty and opportunity. And not just by funding a bigger and bigger military or oil projects. This price is to be smarter, more forward-looking, more compassionate and yes sometimes very tough too. Bush can be tough, but he may not have the capacity to achieve anything in the other areas and deep-down is corrupt.
The fact that his priority is still Big Energy's lies disappoints me greatly and defeats any promise he holds as a great leader past the 9/11 disaster era. Also, I doubt whether any president would have reacted much differently after 9/11. Clearly the guilty parties were in Afghanistan so that is where we had to go to wipe them out. So why give Bush so much credit? All he did was the obvious. You or I would have probably done the same.
The reason I like Kerry so much is that he is a moderate, an environmentalist, a true military hero and also a forward looking visionary who really cares.
Clearly the only thing Bush cares about is blaring the trumpets and manipulating his hold on political power. He is a not a bad person, he is just a limited person, a short-sighted person, and not who we want leading the free world into the future. If you travel around the world, you will find out most people have a very low opinion of Bush. That is for good reason. Why? Because he doesn't really understand anyone outside his circle, nor does he particularly care. If this is truly to be a global village then we cannot afford a leader like Bush for more than four years. We need a broad-minded leader with a minimum of corruption around him and real smarts.
Oh, and Cheney MUST release those energy papers. Republicans should agree on that too. Fair is fair. If they think Cheney is innocent then prove it.
Republicans shouldn't want Big energy hijacking their party. They should fight to take it back. Texas is way too powerful with Bush-Cheney in the White House than they should be in a democracy. To give Big Energy and Big Military too much power within a party or this country is just asking for bigger trouble in the future on many fronts. We need a balance of power and a continued limitation of special interest soft money seeking to buy peoples opinions with manipulative disinformation ads that only sek to cover-up the truth.
God bless American. And let's preserve America the beautiful too. |
