Draft Gore
Draft Gore, a political organization, bought a $65,000, one page advertisement in the New York Times today (10/10/07) in an attempt to encourage the former Vice President, Al Gore, to run for the Democratic nomination.
Draftgore.com has so far received over 136,000 signatures backing Gore, who is up for nomination of a different kind this week, the Nobel Peace Prize. He is favoredwith 5/2 odds but faces stiff competition from Irena Sendler, a Holocaust child-saver; former Finnish president and international mediator Martti Ahtisaari; and AIDS crusader, Stephen Lewis.
Despite the NYT ad which read, “Your country needs you now — as do your party and the planet you are fighting so hard to save,” Gore stands by his previous statements and has repeatedly indicated that he has no intention of running for office.
Anton E. Helmke, C’08
We can only hope he heeds the call. Iraq, global warming, health care…he’s been so prescient on all the major issues our nation and world faces.
Amen. For me personally, although I like where they stand on most things, none of the current candidates does anything to get me particularly excited about them. Al Gore would do that. I say if he did it once, he can do it again. Nixon ‘68 = Gore ‘08.
-Thad Kirk, C’10
Nobel Peace Prize!!!!
He’s definitely going to use the publicity to push his environmental position, and so he should!
While I love that Al Gore has managed to accomplish something ridiculous in winning the Nobel Peace Prize, I feel that announcing his bid for a Presidential nomination is the last thing he should do. With his acquisition of the Peace Prize, his calling will finally start to gain heavy mainstream legitimacy.
While being the President of the United States is admittedly a big deal, Gore at this point is above politics, and the environmental cause in the long run seems to be more important to him than winning a Presidential election. The worst possible thing Gore can elect to do at this juncture in his career is to give up an honored global position in favor of local political ambition. While I obviously don’t know Vice-President Gore nor his personal ambitions, I feel the last thing he wants to accomplish after years of pushing his environmental agenda to the world is to politicize it.
Personally, I don’t see Gore running at this point. Although I think he would have a decent shot if he jumped in (there would be plenty of grassroots support), his popularity - along with ability to continue to push awareness about climate change - would have nowhere to go but down if he ran for president.
I would love to see him run - he would be my first choice in an instant - but I don’t think it’ll happen.
I would love to see him run but i don’t think it will happen. That being said, his endorsement could still be pretty key. Once the primary is over look for a heavy dose of Gore on the campaign trail.