Posted by D. Cupples | First, he wins an Academy Award for his film An Inconvenient Truth. Now, he wins the Nobel Peace Prize. Congratulations, Mr. Gore. The New York Times reported:
"The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded today to Al Gore, the former vice president, and to the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for its work to alert the world to the threat of global warming.
"The award is likely to renew calls from Mr. Gore’s supporters for him to run for president in 2008, joining an already crowded field of Democrats. Mr. Gore, who lost the 2000 presidential election to George W. Bush [though more Americans actually voted for Gore than Bush], has said he is not interested in running but has not flatly rejected the notion."
Likely to renew calls? The mere possiblity that Gore would win the prize compelled DraftGore.com to buy a full-page New York Times ad (costing $60,000 +) urging Gore to run.(AP)
Not everyone is happy for Mr. Gore. Some people actually seem intent on acid-raining on his parade....
According to the Des Moines Register,
"Republican Presidential Candidate John McCain said the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize, announced today, should have gone to someone else other than former Vice President Al Gore."
Hmm. That's a mighty strong response, given that McCain isn't competing for anything against Gore. Wouldn't a simple "congratulations" have sufficed?
Learning Straight Up ran a post with this title:
"No Surprise: Gore wins Nobel Prize for Lying about Global Warming"
My Left Wing reported:
"The GOP Smear Machine wasted no time going after Gore - the first volley shot by MSNBC's Joe Scarborough. "Morning Joe" started with the lies about Gore's use of private jets (fact, Gore uses airlines) and the rest of the show went downhill after that.
"The only weapon the GOP has anymore are lies. And it is getting very hard to stand behind those lies when the climate is going to hell all around us. Atlanta only has 12 weeks of water supply left...."
From Right Wing News:
"Believe it or not, the Norwegian Nobel Prize Committee has handed out a 2nd Nobel Peace Prize for annoying American conservatives in a mere five years time. Yes, I know that sounds very "high school" of them, but they really are that shallow."
From Perri Nelson's website:
"Al Gore is this year's co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. It seems that lying and otherwise distorting the truth is the way to win in Oslo. It worked for Arafat, and now it's worked for the author of at least nine inconvenient lies."
From Captain's Quarters:
"Former Vice President Al Gore how has a Nobel Peace Prize to go along with his Oscar for his efforts to advance the cause of global warming by misstating data and frankly lying about its effects."
And the same old debate continues....
Personally, Deb, I don't mind so much the carping on the Right about Gore's accolades. Those who do so seem to only run themselves into the ground by going after him with such damaged zeal.
The thing that's getting to me is hearing how tired someone like Gore is (and I know, I know, he's not alone) of the personal attacks and the trite, idiotic parry and thrust of our national political mainstream over the least important aspects of style or personality. It seems that most of the people who we need now to run for office are disgusted with what it takes to win an election in our poisoned era.
…and those who do run by actually discussing the issues are dismissed for being irrelevant.
I'm not sure what it's gonna take to change that, either.
Posted by: Bill | October 13, 2007 at 04:34 PM