Significance of Al Gore's speech--HistoryNews

[Gingergal]

(A great review of Al Gore Jr.'s terrific NYU speech attacking the Bush administration.)

8-11-03: News at Home
Column: Why We Should Pay Attention to Al Gore
By P.M. Carpenter
Mr. Carpenter holds a Ph.D. in American History and is a syndicated columnist.

Even if you still resent the former vice president for losing the 2000 election to a greenhorned featherweight of Chauncey Gardner proportions, you must give Al Gore credit for making an extraordinary contribution to political debate last week. For forty sustained minutes in his New York speech he substituted high dudgeon with calm, surgical reasoning and concluded that the president of the United States is a liar.
snip
I use the word "extraordinary" to describe Gore's speech for two other reasons as well. First, its thoughtful yet intense condemnation came from a moderate. The Bush camp will spin his words as typical leftist hysteria, of course, but Al Gore is no more a New Lefter or McGovern Liberal than the chair I'm sitting in. He's as middle-of-the-road as they come, and a plurality of voters understood that in 2000. And after a hellish 3 years of W.'s unwavering radicalism, the "moderate" case can now be made more forcefully than ever
snip
Indeed, Mr. Gore essentially labeled the administration a criminal cabal and international rogue. With respect to the domestic and fiscal front, he cited a Nobel Prize-winning economist as saying "this is the worst government the U.S. has ever had in its more than 200 years of history?. What we have here is a form of looting." Any form of looting is criminal. And Gore's castigating reference to America's "first pre-emptive war" spoke for itself.

<http://hnn.us/articles/1627.html>

[Cha]

1. I heard the speech again on moveon's site!

http://www.moveon.org


I love it! :-)

[Gloria]

2. Last night on Larry King, King's last question was about Gore's speech and

Anne Richards said it was wonderful and that "Democrats would be cribbing of it" (sic)

As well they should@@@@

[Gingergal]

3. It was a masterpiece.

I would love to see him frame the debate by giving a speech every month or two in different places around the country attacking Bush's policies. There is SO MUCH to choose from. That would be great!! The more he chips away at Bush the more vulnerable Bush is.