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jducoeur

Yow.

Thanks to

msmemory, who pointed me at this transcript of Gore's speech yesterday. It's long, but a damned good read -- a truly incindiary call to action. It pulls absolutely no punches, calling everyone in government to task. Frankly, if the man had shown half this much passion in 2000, he might have won that election...

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From:

anastasiav.livejournal.com

If you want to actually listen to it, I believe this is a big .mp3 file of the speech. Or if that doesn't work try this link.

From:

doubleplus.livejournal.com

I was there. It was truly excellent.

From:

shava23.livejournal.com

Gore was just as interesting then, but the DLC was "handling" him. Same thing happened to Kerry. The handlers give them a thousand contradictory guidelines and then say, "...and act natural."

Both Gore and Kerry are intelligent, passionate, personable men in person, in front of a small group.

He hasn't gotten more interesting. He's gotten out from under the greyface droids.

From:

jducoeur

Yaas. Actually, that was why I phrased as "shown" more passion. It's been obvious since at least the later days of the election that he possessed it, but it was thoroughly leashed up. Both of them campaigned as such *sticks* that it was really hard to whip up enthusiasm for them.

One of the primary things the Democrats need to do is to stop being so damned *embarrassed* about being passionate about stuff. The Republicans spent years making fun of them for it, and they built these thick shells of blandness. They need to learn to stop doing that, and instead counter-punch properly -- to learn that "controlled" and "boring" are not the same thing. I *long* to see a leader on the center-left come out with a speech half as coherent and passionate as the one at the end of The American President (my benchmark for what a modern statesman is supposed to sound like). It's good to hear at least a step in the right direction...

From: (Anonymous)

Kerry can deliver contradictory comments perfectly well on his own – without any handlers or coaching required. He is perfectly capable (naturally) of contradicting himself on nearly a daily basis. Its a wonder he is allowed to near recording equipment or pencil & paper reporters at all. He goes on and on and on with his now famous drone... contradicting his own positions. Even from the recent Presidential debates.

As far as Albert Gore goes, the passion seems to be more a product of intended effect than that of believable feeling. He is a well-known droner just like Kerry... so perhaps saying a whole lot of nothing with strong emphasis on different syllables may convince his followers that he means business. Perhaps he has a calendar on his desk. When x number of months go by without mention of him in the mainstream press, its time for Super Al to take to a microphone somewhere and attack something. And then disappear again to hibernate, stockpiling energy for the next effort.

Just my opinions :)

From:

shava23.livejournal.com

As may be. I spent a good deal of time either with Gore or people who worked directly with him at Commerce, and I have to say that anyone in these offices would have to be Calvin Coolidge not to come up with contradictions every few minutes.

Bush gets away with it (with the general public) by being "just folks" -- but white intellectual dudes get smacked by their peers and the just-folks lovers.

Personally, I wish it had been Dean this last time. He got caught in contradictions and such. But I *really* knew him, and he is a man of amazing character (if a little hyperactive).

I always ask myself, "Who could do better? Could *I* do better?"

What I did find, with Kerry in small groups, was that he projected genuine passion and care for people and issues. That he had his own ideas on things. That he knew he was just the tip of an iceberg that was supposed to be thousands of democrats taking back DC from a PNAC cabal, and he knew he had to keep from *alienating* middle America far more than he had to impress his natural allies.

Until we fix grassroots political education/literacy, this will ruin every national election. It can't be helped. The good people, unless they are truly heroic, won't want to run because it's such a sacrifice if you're good. And the bad people will be willing to do whatever they have to, to win.

Sucks to be us, huh? :)

From: (Anonymous)

Howard Dean? You scare me. He has absolutely no business having the position he does today. All he does is damage the Democratic party with his rhetoric and off the wall, hate-filled comments.

From: (Anonymous)

Old "sawhorse" isn't showing any sort of passion - he's merely forgotten to take his Metamucil.

From: (Anonymous)

Otherwise, I'll assume you are a troll. Have a nice day! :)

From:

jducoeur

Yeah, I'm getting rather fed up with this. One or two comments is accidentally forgetting to log in. Three comments, spaced over time, is someone willfully hiding.

Mr. Anonymous, if you're going to spout off with vacuous negativity like this, at least have the decency to identify yourself. Otherwise I'm going to brand you a troll, and simply delete everything you post here. I have no problem with strong opinions, but I *do* have a problem with cowards who hide behind anonymity. People who don't have the courage of their convictions aren't worth giving journal space.

(And let's be clear: I'm replying to the original anonymous commenter, not the reply. I know who the reply is from, simply from writing style...)

From: (Anonymous)

I do not feel persoally obligated to create a LiveJournal or OpenID to leave a comment on a blog. Especially when the only other option to use is Anonymous. Perhaps we can agree that is a failure of this LiveJournal commenting system.

I suppose one's brand of vacuous negativity depends on the desired flavor of the spice, wot? Your vacuous negativity is your crowd's chocolate and my corriander, and vice-versa. Sometimes it is necessary to taste what you feel is bad cooking in order to help your own, I say.

- Eric

From:

jducoeur

So long as it's at least *signed* in some fashion, I don't mind it nearly as much -- that provides some continuity to the discussion, so that I can get some idea of who I'm talking to. But when it's wholly unattributed, it does comes across as *much* more trollish...