Saturday, July 19, 2008
Al's a rock star, and why was Bob here?
It was a secret less well kept than Valerie Wilson’s occupation. Part way through Nancy Pelosi’s Ask The Speaker forum this morning, she was asked a question about an environmental issue. While starting to answer, she pulled out her cellphone, saying something about having just received an email from a good friend who could probably give a better answer. Whereupon the voice of one Albert A. Gore, Jr. blared from the exhibit hall’s speakers. In a few moments, the man himself strode onto the stage to join the Speaker.
There had been a few whispers that we might see Michelle Obama some time during the gathering, and we’d already had a semi-unexpected visit from Congressman Lloyd Doggett. But nearly all of the buzz for the last few days had been about a possible Gore appearance. And nearly all the buzz turned out to be correct.
The man who should have been President for the last seven and a half years was in fine fettle, speaking confidently and knowledgeably about numerous climate change topics—progress in photovoltaics, the backward-looking addictive behavior of the Bush malAdministration’s “energy” policy, the place of nuclear and coal and other sources in our energy future. But his principal drive, and his regular challenge to us all, was the newly formed We Can Solve The Climate Crisis project created by his Alliance for Climate Protection. Their goal is to make the energy sources of the American electrical power system 100% renewable within 10 years. That’s a challenging goal, but if we could redirect resources away from Bushian warmongering, it might be possible.
In any case, Al rocked the house, earning numerous standing ovations and wild cheers. While we, and the world, are far worse for the injustice of Bush v Gore, I fully understand and appreciate why he chose not to participate in this year’s Presidential derby, even if he might well have waltzed to the nomination (saving us months and months of campaign tzuris). Frankly, the Presidency of the United States would be a demotion when you’re the Oscar/Emmy/Grammy/Nobel Prize-winning international rock star of the world.
Oh, and speaking of POTUS, we had an actual presidential candidate with us for a while this afternoon. No, not Barack—he’s on the other side of the world at the moment. No, it was the Libertarian candidate, Bob Barr. Here’s proof. He was in town for the “RightOnLine” conference, which just happened to be scheduled in the same city and at the same time as Netroots Nation. Fancy that. Maybe Bob got tired of hanging with the likes of Michelle Malkin, the rotting corpse of Robert Novak, Michael Steele, and the nutcases populating the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal. Apparently, though, Bob’s on their speaking schedule over there. I hope he really, really, really inspires those guys. Every vote for Barr is half a vote for us.
